Spec home builder James Curnin buys Venetian Islands teardown

Spec home builder James Curnin bought a home on Miami Beach’s Venetian Islands, with plans to build a new house on the waterfront property.

Curnin paid $9.5 million for the three-bedroom, roughly 5,000-square-foot teardown at 416 West San Marino Drive, he and listing broker Julian Johnston said. Johnston of the Corcoran Group also represented the seller, the trust of the late Doris Pardo.

Curnin, who’s building two homes on Allison Island and one on the Sunset Islands, said he plans to build a six-bedroom house with a gym, theater and elevator on the Venetian Islands lot.

Records show the Pardo family bought the property in 1993 for $598,000. Pardo’s husband, Joe, an attorney, died in 2005 and Doris died last year.

The house hit the market in February for $8 million. Johnston and Curnin both pointed to the limited inventory of waterfront homes, especially as a growing number of New York buyers have been closing on those properties in recent months.

Earlier this month, Curnin’s Clara Homes company bought a waterfront La Gorce Island teardown for $7.5 million. Curnin is the great-grandson of developer Jack Parker.

Last month, the founder of Island Queen Cruises & Tours in Bayside sold his home for $5.9 million, and in a separate deal, a developer sold a waterfront spec mansion for $20.4 million, or a record $3,100 per square foot.