Peter Fine sells vacant lot on Palm Avenue for $5.6M to spec home developer

The fourth price cut was the charm.

After dropping the price on his waterfront lot on Palm Island to $6.15 million, spec home developer Peter Fine just sold the site for $5.6 million, The Real Deal has learned. 

One Worldwide Investment, led by spec home developer William Campbell, is the buyer of the 30,000-square-foot lot at 158 Palm Avenue in Miami Beach. The sale price breaks down to $186 per square foot.

The lot was initially priced at $8.45 million when it was first listed in May 2016. The price was last reduced to $6.15 million in March, after cuts to $6.95 million in September and $7.5 million in July, according to Redfin. The final sale price equates to a 34 percent discount from the original asking price. It includes approved plans for a modern mansion.

Nelson Gonzalez of EWM Realty International had the listing for the property, which sits on the southern side of Palm Island and faces the downtown Miami skyline. The site has 100 feet of water frontage.

Ted Rover of Miami Beach International Realty brought the buyer. The sale closed on Monday, he said. It has not yet been recorded.

Ted Rover

“He may live in it, he may sell it. That remains to be seen,” Rover told TRD. “He wanted to build a big house, which is very difficult to do now that the city has limited what you can do to 50 percent [lot coverage].”

The vacant lot

Gonzalez also confirmed the sale. “We had other, higher offers, but they just didn’t work out,” Gonzalez said. “[Peter Fine]’s glad that we ended up selling, and it was a very quick deal, which is exactly what he wanted.”

At the time of the last price chop, Gonzalez had called the the vacant lot the least expensive in Miami Beach. Another lot of the same size at 135 Palm Avenue sold for $9 million in September.

County records show Fine’s company, 158 Palm LLC, paid $5 million for the site in 2014. That price breaks down to about $167 per square foot.

Fine, who is based in New York and lives part-time in Miami Beach, launched his South Florida spec home development firm To Better Days Development in 2015. His goal was to develop ultra-luxury waterfront mansions in Miami Beach on North Bay Road and Palm Island. He originally planned to build a spec home at 158 Palm Avenue, with about 10,000 square feet. It was to have an asking price of $18 million, with an estimated completion date of fall 2016.

He also has spec homes planned for 6010 North Bay Road, a site he bought for $6.25 million in 2013; and 6342 North Bay Road, which he purchased in May 2015 for $9.5 million. He is completing the home at 6010 North Bay Road and has not yet begun construction at 6342 North Bay Road, Gonzalez said.

Campbell is planning to move forward with existing plans to build a house on the Palm Island site, possibly modifying Fine’s architectural designs from Choeff Levy Fischman, Rover said.

Campbell also owns a house in Hermosa Beach, California, which he built after tearing down a 1928 home known as “the lighthouse,” amid a struggle with preservationists, according to a 2004 story in the Beach Reporter in California.