Ex-Miami Dolphins player sells non-waterfront Miami Beach home for $6M

A former NFL player known for his lavish taste in home decor sold his non-waterfront Miami Beach home for $6.3 million.

Orlandus Andre Branch III, who played outside linebacker for the Miami Dolphins from 2016 to 2019, sold the house at 4535 Nautilus Court for $2.8 million above his purchase price two years ago, records show.

The buyers are Bryant M. Yunker Jr., a retired Wall Street broker, and his wife, Nancy Yunker, according to Miami-Dade records.

The Naples, Florida, couple own Sway Lounge, a bar in East Naples that was sued in 2009 by the mother of a woman who died in a fiery car crash two years earlier, according to a lawsuit filed in Collier County Circuit Court. The complaint alleged Sway employees did not stop serving alcohol to the woman’s boyfriend, who was driving the car, even though he was visibly intoxicated. The case was settled in 2015, records show.

Branch’s listing agent, Julian Cohen, said the 4,493-square-foot, six-bedroom, six-and-a-half bathroom home sold fully furnished. The property was listed in June for $6.5 million.

“I sold this house to the seller for $3.5 million [in 2019],” said Cohen, an agent with the Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker. “He did an amazing job curating the home. That was one of the keys to obtaining such a high number.”

Built in 2019, the home’s features include European oak and marble floors, Wolf & SubZero appliances, a steam room and a media room, Cohen said. The property also has large terraces, a pool and Jacuzzi.

The property is in a non-waterfront single-family neighborhood in mid-Miami Beach. Cohen said the $6.3 million sale is the highest priced closed sale for a non-waterfront property in that particular neighborhood.

“The market is really hot right now,” Cohen said. “We listed the house for $6.5 million and we got it done for $6.3 million.”

In April, J.P. Morgan managing director David Reiser and his wife, Andrea, bought a non-waterfront home about a mile away, at 5061 North Bay Road in mid-Miami Beach, for $6.5 million.

In 2019, when Branch bought the Miami Beach house, he sold a 4,063-square-foot home in the Rio Vista neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale. He sold it for $1.9 million after investing $250,000 in upgrades, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Waterfront houses in Miami Beach are experiencing big ticket sales. This month, Chicken kitchen founder Christian de Berdouare and his wife, former TV reporter Jennifer Valoppi, sold their seven-bedroom mansion at 5004 North Bay Road for $29.5 million. In July, Apollo Global management co-founder and billionaire Josh Harris bought a mansion at 2060 North Bay Road for $32.3 million.