California restaurateur buys waterfront Fort Lauderdale mansion for $13M

A doctor sold a fully-furnished waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale to a California restaurateur for $13 million.

Records show Dr. David Soria sold the house at 1601 East Lake Drive to Mark and Michelle Post, who financed the purchase with a $9.1 million mortgage from First Republic Bank.

According to his Tumblr, Soria is an emergency physician who has worked with both the National Basketball Association and Ultimate Fighting Championship, and made appearances as a health specialist for NBC and Fox News outlets.

Post is the owner and CEO of Javier’s Cantina, a high-end Mexican restaurant that started in Laguna Beach, Calif., in 1995. Now based in Newport Beach, Javier’s has locations in Las Vegas, Los Cabos, Mexico, as well as across Southern California.

Joy Triglia and Jonathan Knight of the Triglia Knight Team at Premier Estate Properties had the listing, and David Marder of Level Realty represented the buyer.

Soria bought the six-bedroom, seven-and-a-half-bathroom home partially renovated for $7.5 million in June of last year, records show. Soria continued renovations on the 8,308-square-foot mansion, Triglia said, adding a wine cellar and gym to the home, which was originally built in 1989. The property has 109 feet of water frontage on Lake Sylvia, according to Realtor.com.

Triglia said she approached Soria, asking ‘What’s your price’? “And we hit that number,” said Triglia, who is now helping Soria find a waterfront property in Miami.

She chalked the price jump to the lack of inventory in Harbor Beach, particularly on Lake Sylvia. “The buyer got a good deal when you consider there’s nothing left on the lake,” Triglia said.

For Post, buying on the lake became a priority after Marder told him about the area. “That street is highly coveted,” Marder said.

California transplants have become increasingly common in Fort Lauderdale since the start of the pandemic, according to Marder and Triglia. They don’t always stay, though, Triglia said. “Half of them are going back,” she said, “The other half are saying, ‘I’m never going back.’”

Marder said he’s seeing more sales of furnished homes due to the current supply chain restrictions. “No one wants to buy a new house and wait a year to put furniture in there,” he said.

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Waterfront properties in Fort Lauderdale have set record prices in recent months, thanks to high demand and almost non-existent supply. A waterfront estate broke a record for Broward County this month, selling for $28.5 million. In April, the CEO of a medical device company bought a waterfront spec home on Lake Sylvia for $14 million. In March, Robert M. White Jr., the founder of Real Capital Analytics, paid $13.5 million for a waterfront Fort Lauderdale lot that had previously sold for $4.5 million in 2020.