Russian hockey star Ilya Kovalchuk buys luxury Fisher Island condo

Kovalchuks paid $2,200 psf for the condo

Ilya Kovalchuk and Palazzo Della Luna on Fisher Island (Wikipedia, Palazzo Della Luna)
Ilya Kovalchuk and Palazzo Della Luna on Fisher Island (Wikipedia, Palazzo Della Luna)

Hockey star Ilya Kovalchuk scored a new home in Miami Beach with his $8.5 million condo purchase on exclusive Fisher Island.

Kovalchuk and his wife Nicole, both of whom are from Russia, bought a unit at Palazzo Della Luna, the newest building on Fisher Island, which is one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the country.

Kovalchuk, who in his 13-year National Hockey League career played for the Atlanta Thrashers, Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens and other teams, is now general manager of the Russian Olympic Committee’s men’s ice hockey team, competing in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Records show the developer, Heinrich Von Hanau’s PDS Development, sold unit 6882 to the Kovalchuks. The three-bedroom, three-and-half-bathroom condo spans 3,807 square feet.

It sold for over $2,200 per square foot. Dora Puig of Luxe Living Realty represented the developer. The unit was on the market for $8.9 million.

The couple is no stranger to Fisher Island. Records show they first purchased a unit in 2009 at Oceanside at Fisher Island for $2.6 million, and also bought a unit at Palazzo del Mare.

In 2016, the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser filed a lien against them for unpaid taxes stemming from a homestead exemption violation. The nearly $20,000 lien for the years between 2013 and 2015 was paid off in 2020, records show.

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Other retired athletes who call Fisher Island home include former Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki and ex-New York Knick David Lee, who last year upgraded to a penthouse at Palazzo Della Luna’s sister property, Palazzo Del Sol, after selling a different unit in the luxury complex.

Two years ago, Kovalchuk paid $11.2 million for a mansion in Beverly Hills, after leaving the Los Angeles Kings.

Fisher Island has benefitted from the recent rise in condo sales. Closed deals on the man-made island, accessible only by boat, ferry or helicopter, topped the condo sales roundup for weeks in late 2021. 

In December, PDS Development sold a penthouse at Palazzo Della Luna to Daniel Stephen Hafner, co-founder and CEO of Kayak, for $40 million, marking a record. He bought that unit following the $36 million trade of his condo at L’Atelier Miami Beach.

After selling the last remaining condo development site on Fisher Island to a Related Group partnership, Von Hanau’s PDS Development plans to build a group of single-family homes on the remaining undeveloped parcel.

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