Former Russian politician sells Oceana Bal Harbour condo for nearly $12M

A former Russian politician and real estate investor, who once made Forbes’ list of wealthiest Russians, sold his Oceana Bal Harbour condo.

Property records show Vadim Gataullin and his wife, Gulnara Gataullina, using a Moscow address, sold condo 2601N at 10203 Collins Avenue for $11.5 million. The buyer is James Barton, who financed his purchase with a $9.2 million loan from Ladue, Missouri-based St. Louis Bank, records show.

Dina Goldentayer of Douglas Elliman had the listing. Monica Cohen with MC Miami Realty represented the buyer, according to Realtor.com. Goldentayer did not respond to requests for comment. Cohen declined to discuss the deal.

The 4,185-square-foot condo has three bedrooms, four full bathrooms, and one half-bathroom, and was listed for $11.9 million in December according to Realtor.com. It had been on and off the market since December 2020, when it was asking $12.5 million.

The sale price breaks down to $2,748 per square foot.

The couple bought the unit from the developer in 2017 for $9.1 million, property records show. Gataullin and his wife held a homestead exemption on it.

According to a Reuters article from 2017, Gataullin is from the semi-autonomous Russian region of Bashkortostan, which is close to the Ural mountains and is a major oil producer. Gataullin served in Bashkortostan’s regional parliament from 2013 to 2015, and is the son of Bashkortostan deputy regional prosecutor, according to published reports.

The Reuters article states that Gataullin spent at least $28 million on real estate in Broward County between 2012 and 2016, including a condo at Trump Hollywood that he owned while he was an elected official. He did not disclose the unit, as required by Russian federal law, the Reuters article stated.

According to a Russian investigative website, Gataullin took up permanent residence in Miami after resigning from his elected position following a business dispute and the lack of disclosure of his Trump Hollywood condo. Yet he still received money from numerous industries he had ties to, including clothing and construction companies, the site said.

He appeared on Forbes’ Russian website as one of the 50 wealthiest Russians in 2013, with a personal income of 226 million rubles — although published reports speculate that figure could be considerably higher.

The United States has imposed sanctions on Russia and Russian oligarchs amid the brutal invasion of Ukraine. Neither Gataullin nor his wife have had sanctions imposed against them, according to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control. Scrutiny of Russian wealth in the U.S., including real estate, has also escalated. The Real Deal recently analyzed property records, data, and published reports to create a snapshot of where wealthy Russians have bought and sold top-shelf real estate.

Gataullin has sold some of his South Florida real estate. In December, he sold a 1.4-acre development site at 3319 North Ocean Drive, 3300 North Surf Road, and 322 New Mexico Street in Hollywood for $10 million to an entity led by Mark Drachman. Drachman is managing principal of New York City-based Condra Property Group, a real estate investment firm, records show. Gataullin bought the property for $8 million in 2016.

He had originally proposed constructing a seven-story residential building there.

In 2019, Gataullin’s American real estate company, VVG Real Estate Investments, sold the 29-room Neptune Hollywood Beach at 2012 North Surf Road for $8.1 million — or $279,310 per room.

Completed in late 2016, Oceana Bal Harbour is a 28-story, 240-unit condo tower developed by Eduardo Costantini’s Buenos Aires-based Consultatio, and designed by Arquitectonica. Italian architect Piero Lissoni designed the interiors, the private restaurant and the penthouse bathrooms. Landscape architect Enzo Enea designed the pool deck landscape.

Among other recent Oceana Bal Harbour sales, real estate investor Sam Herzberg’s bought unit 2603 for $6.9 million in May.

In July 2020, convicted tax evader Jack Barouh and his wife Rita paid $6.7 million for unit 1401.

In January 2020, Mark Notkin, who has been called the best junk bond manager of the last recession, sold unit 1701 for $8.5 million, about $925,000 less that he and his wife, Kimberly, paid for it in 2016.