Developer Masoud Shojaee’s Moroccan style estate in Coral Gables is on the market for $15.9 million amid his messy divorce.
Maria Lamas Shojaee file for divorce from her husband in April 2015, and the divorce is still ongoing, records show. In April Maria Shojaee filed a motion to sell the couple’s home, and Masoud Shojaee, CEO of Shoma Group, had initially objected to the sale. An agreed order was filed later last year. Amid other items to be sold: the wife’s 18.25 carat diamond, court records show.
Masoud Shojaee declined to comment to The Real Deal on the home or his pending divorce. “This is a personal and private matter and I kindly ask that you respect our family’s privacy at this time,” he said in a statement.
The estate, at 515 Casuarina Concourse in Coral Gables has eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms and two half-baths, according to the listing. Built in 2003, it spans 12,492 square feet, and sits on a 1.62-acre lot. The home’s asking price equates to $1,273 per square foot.
Audrey Ross of EWM Realty International has the listing, which describes the estate as offering “a magic carpet ride to a Marrakesh palace.” Outdoor pavilions are connected by walkways, with a tennis court pavilion hidden behind hedges.
Property records show that within the past year, the home’s ownership was transferred from a marital trust to a trust in the wife’s name, and now to the wife’s name. Maria and Masoud Shojaee paid $1.56 million for the property in 2000, records show.
The Shojaees were married in 1984 and founded Shoma Group in 1988. The company’s current projects include Eleven on Lenox, an 11-townhouse project planned near Lincoln Road in South Beach and two condominium towers at Oasis Park Square Doral.
Masoud Shojaee is also still embroiled in a legal battle with developer Ugo Colombo, in a dispute linked to a $413,108 Ferrari. Shojaee filed a new suit against Colombo’s exotic car dealership, the Collection in February 2016, alleging breach of contract for failing to deliver a 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale Aperta he had agreed to purchase. The car was allegedly being held hostage because of the fight between CMC Group’s Colombo and Shojaee over their canceled joint venture to develop the Collection Residences, a proposed condo project in Coral Gables located across the street from the dealership. The suit alleged that the Collection’s failure to sell Shojaee the Ferrari resulted in Shojaee’s loss of $250,000, because the Speciale’s market value rose to $250,000 above its original sticker price at the time of the filing.