UPDATED, Nov. 12, 11 p.m.: In a twist on financing spec home development, Todd Michael Glaser and DJ and former Miami Heat player Rony Seikaly paid $7 million for a waterfront Miami Beach property they had leased while building a new mansion.
Glaser said the seller, real estate developer Ron Simkins, offered him a deal a year and a half ago. He and investment partner Seikaly could lease the property at 1635 West 22nd Street on Sunset Island IV, tear down the house, build a new spec home, and then buy it when it was completed.
“It’s a different way of controlling a property, and we didn’t have to go to a bank to get financing. We were just paying him a lease amount,” Glaser said. “We built the house on a lot we didn’t own.”
The 10,000-square-foot house is set to be completed next month and will be listed for about $19 million, Glaser said. It has seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms and 112 feet of bay frontage. It was designed by Domo Architecture + Design.
Records show the lot spans nearly 20,000 square feet. Glaser said it cost $5.5 million to build the house, and they leased it for $29,000 per month since May 2018 — or about another $522,000.
Simkins paid $3 million for the property in 2005 and added his wife, Homeira Amira Simkins, to the deed in 2014.
Ron Simkins is chief operating officer of Innovate Development Group, the developer of the planned Miami Innovation District in Park West. He founded the firm with his brother Michael Simkins.
In April 2018, Simkins paid $7.5 million for an 8,900-square-foot home at 820 Lakeview Drive.
Glaser has been an active spec home developer, building multimillion-dollar homes in Miami Beach. Among his projects, he partnered with Stuart Miller, Lennar Corp.’s executive chairman, to build a 27,000-square-foot mega-mansion at 22 Star Island, priced in a whisper listing at $65 million. Glaser is now focusing on Palm Beach developments with partners that include former Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine, Scott Robins and Jonathan Fryd.