Paraguayan tycoon pays $14.8M for Oceana Bal Harbour unit

A Paraguayan magnate just paid $14.786 million for a double beachfront unit at Oceana Bal Harbour, The Real Deal has learned.

Unit 2001/2002 spans half a floor at the recently completed 28-story, 240-unit luxury condo tower at 10201 Collins Avenue. With 7,640 square feet, it has five bedrooms plus staff quarters and six-and-a-half bathrooms, Gabriel Markovich, co-owner of Decorus Realty told TRD. He represented the buyer along with Decorus Realty co-owner David Koster. The price equates to $1,935 per square foot.

Markovich said the buyer owns a condo at the St. Regis in Bal Harbour, but wanted a larger waterfront unit. He has put his St. Regis unit on the market with Decorus for $8.75 million, and it is currently being rented out for $33,00o a month.

Markovich declined to disclose the Paraguayan buyer, and the sale has not yet been recorded, but St. Regis property records show he is Jorge A. Riquelme.

Published reports in Latin America say Riquelme owns several major businesses, including the supermarkets Cadena Real; a beer company, Compañía Cervecera Asunción; a pasta manufacturing company, Fideos Federal; a bottling business, Embotelladora Central (Nico); as well as Industria Mazzei, Cereales SA and Vidriera Asunción. The businesses employ a total of 3,500 workers, according to a published report.

Property records show Riquelme had paid $5 million for unit 1600 at the St. Regis in 2012. It has 2,721 square feet.

His new unit at Oceana will be nearly three times the size. “There are only a handful of units that boast that kind of square footage and Bal Harbour is one of the most prestigious addresses,” Markovich said.

Oceana Bal Harbour, developed by Eduardo Costantini‘s Consultatio, has an estimated $1.3 billion sellout, which would set a record in South Florida. The project would beat out Oceana Key Biscayne, also developed by Consultatio, which generated nearly $580 million in recorded closings.

Records show 137 units have closed so far at Oceana Bal Harbour since it opened in November. Owners include Chicago auto magnates and philanthropists Phillip H. and Nancy Resnick; Fidelity Investments portfolio manager Mark Notkin; Accenture managing director Paul Rakowski and Estee Lauder Companies vice president Amy DiGeso; and NetApp vice chairman Tom Mendoza, as well as a list of foreign buyers.

Designed by Arquitectonica, Oceana Bal Harbour also has four upper penthouses, two of which were under contract for $26 million each earlier this year. Piero Lissoni designed the interiors, the private restaurant and the penthouse bathrooms. Enzo Enea designed the pool deck landscape.

The 5.5-acre site was formerly known as the Bal Harbour Beach Club before Consultatio purchased it in 2012 for $220 million. A year later, the developer closed on a $332 million construction loan from a group of lenders led by HSBC.