Ari Pearl, Jonathan Leifer sell Bay Harbor Islands condo-hotel units for $21M

Majority of buyers of 55 units are affiliates of Liquid Capital, Park Drive Equities

Ari Pearl, Founder & CEO of PPG Development; Jonathan Leifer, Principal, L3C Capital Partners; The Altair, 9540 West Bay Harbor Drive (The Altair Bay Harbor, L3C Capital Partners, PPG Development, iStock)
Ari Pearl, Founder & CEO of PPG Development; Jonathan Leifer, Principal, L3C Capital Partners; The Altair, 9540 West Bay Harbor Drive (The Altair Bay Harbor, L3C Capital Partners, PPG Development, iStock)

Developers Ari Pearl and Jonathan Leifer sold more than half of the units at their converted Bay Harbor Islands condo-hotel for about $21.4 million, or roughly $389,000 per key.

Pearl’s PPG Development and Leifer, chairman and founder of L3C Capital Partners, acquired the waterfront property out of foreclosure for $30 million in December. Last month, they converted the 96-key hotel into a condo-hotel. The former Tryp by Wyndham Miami Bay Harbor hotel, at 9540 West Bay Harbor Drive, is now The Altair.

The Shapiro Group is handling sales of units. The Bay Harbor Islands condo-hotel includes a rooftop pool, restaurant and gym. Highgate is managing the property.

In the largest recent deal, PPG Bay Harbor Owner LLC sold 45 units to LC Altair and affiliates for nearly $16 million, property records show. The buyer is led by Yitzi Karasick of New Jersey-based Liquid Capital. It financed the purchase with two loans totaling $10.4 million from American National Bank.

Those units sold for an average price of $1,053 per square foot, or about $354,000 per unit.

In the second largest deal, PPG sold nine units for about $5 million to PD Altair LLC, records show. Those units sold for an average price of $848 per square foot, or nearly $564,000 per unit. The buyer is linked to Ari Hoch, vice president of New York-based Park Drive Equities.

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Pearl’s PPG also sold one more unit to CGFL1 LLC for $350,000. That entity is led by Jacob Gofman, records show.

The hotel had been closed since the property traded just before the end of last year. The seven-story building was completed in 2018. Pearl previously said he and Leifer were searching for “prime distressed assets” in South Florida, and that they purchased the hotel for “well below replacement cost.”

The seller at the time was Bay Village Condos LLC.

“We repositioned it to a high-end boutique condo-hotel, and we just opened this month,” Pearl said.

Preconstruction sales have been brisk at new projects on Bay Harbor Islands, developers and brokers say. In March, Ambienta Developers launched sales of a 30-unit building planned for 9901 West Bay Harbor Drive, and the project is now at least 75 percent presold. Ugo Colombo and Valerio Morabito began selling Onda, a planned 41-unit, eight-story development at 1135 103rd Street in Bay Harbor Islands, at the same time, and it is about 50 percent presold.

Ian Bruce Eichner recently launched sales of La Baia, Bay Harbor Islands, the first of two buildings he’s planning in the town, with prices starting at $810,000.