Miami Beach state of mind: Hotelier buys Billy Joel’s former waterfront North Bay Road home

Todd Glaser and his wife paid $5M for the home in April, listed it for sale in May

From left: Andrew Zobler, founder and CEO, The Sydell Group, and Todd Michael Glaser, renowned real estate developer, in front of 4640 North Bay Road (The Sydell Group, Nelson Gonzalez Luxury Real Estate)
From left: Andrew Zobler, founder and CEO, The Sydell Group, and Todd Michael Glaser, renowned real estate developer, in front of 4640 North Bay Road (The Sydell Group, Nelson Gonzalez Luxury Real Estate)

Developer Todd Michael Glaser flipped Billy Joel’s former Miami Beach home in eight months.

Glaser, who along with his wife, Kim, paid $5 million for the waterfront house at 4640 North Bay Road in March, just sold it for $6.8 million, marking a 36 percent difference in price. The Glasers flipped the home to hotelier Andrew Zobler, property records obtained by The Real Deal show.

Zobler is founder and CEO of the New York-based Sydell Group, which was a partner in the NoMad hotel in New York along with billionaire Ron Burkle. The property made headlines when it closed at the start of the pandemic, and it is now expected to reopen as the Ned, a Soho House property, with Sydell Group recently exiting its investment, Bloomberg reported.

The company’s other properties include the Freehand hotels in Miami Beach, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, according to Sydell’s website.

Nelson Gonzalez with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty represented the Glasers. Florian Jouin and Ray De Leon of One Sotheby’s International Realty represented the buyer.

Gonzalez and Glaser previously owned the property.

In 2005, the two sold the 2,015-square-foot house to Joel for $3.3 million. The singer-songwriter and composer sold it a year later for $3.6 million to Toronto financier Ron Schmeichel, and it changed hands over the years.

More recently, Glaser planned to invest up to $1.5 million to renovate the home, but only furnished it and completed cosmetic repairs including painting it, Glaser and Gonzalez said. Kim Glaser helped stage the furniture.

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The house, with three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, was built in 1935 and includes a pool, dock and 60 feet of water frontage.

(Courtesy of Nelson Gonzalez Luxury Real Estate)

(Courtesy of Nelson Gonzalez Luxury Real Estate)

(Courtesy of Nelson Gonzalez Luxury Real Estate)

Sales of high-end homes have soared in Miami Beach and other coastal markets in South Florida, with inventory reaching new lows for waterfront properties, in particular.

Gonzalez said the house received four offers when it was listed in May, but did not reach an acceptable price.

“The frenzy that was the first quarter of this year is not quite there, but frankly speaking, that was not sustainable. It was basically out of control. Now it’s still very active but more normalized,” Gonzalez said. “We are still getting multiple offers on homes.”

Recent deals on North Bay Road include Philip and Phyllis Mirmelli’s sale of their waterfront home at 6500 North Bay Road to Michelle Simkins and Jason Rubell for $10.8 million, and trial attorney Steve Zack’s $13.6 million sale of his waterfront property at 5310 North Bay Road. Chicken Kitchen founder Christian de Berdouare and former TV journalist Jennifer Valoppi sold a spec mansion, also on the water, at 5004 North Bay Road for $29.5 million in September.