Fortune plans 70-story Casa Tua condo tower in Brickell

Fortune International Group is planning a luxury Casa Tua condo tower in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood that will allow short-term rentals, The Real Deal has learned.

Ora by Casa Tua, a 70-story, roughly 460-unit development, is planned for the site at 1210 Brickell Avenue, Fortune CEO Edgardo Defortuna said. Fortune will begin accepting reservations early next year.

The tower will mark the first residential project that Casa Tua brands. The hospitality company, founded by Miky and Leti Grendene, has been in talks with developers for years, sources have said. Casa Tua has its flagship location in Miami Beach, as well as the food hall at Brickell City Centre’s Saks Fifth Avenue. It also will open a Casa Tua Cucina restaurant at the planned Nomad Wynwood Residences project in Miami’s Wynwood.

The mixed-use Brickell tower will include two new restaurant concepts, a 24-hour market, an entertainment lounge, a fitness and wellness center, a three-story sky garden, and a rooftop lounge with a pool, Jacuzzi, cabanas and bar. Casa Tua will brand and operate the hospitality concepts.

Defortuna said residential units will range from 600-square-foot studios to 2,400-square-foot four-bedroom condos, with prices from $800,000 to $2.5 million. Buyers will be able to rent the units out on a short-term basis, and Defortuna expects a significant portion of owners will take advantage of that. The top third of the tower will have fewer, larger units with about six units per floor, while the lower two-thirds of the building will have about eight to 10 units per floor.

The building, with a wine tasting bar, 24-hour market and bakery, poolside restaurant and activated lobby, is meant to appeal to a younger demographic.

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“We want a building that connects people, following the pandemic when we were all isolated,” Defortuna said. “That’s why we created this building with a lot of potential interaction, a lot of programming.”

He said buyers who enter into contract today can use the purchase as a hedge against inflation because they won’t need to secure mortgages until they close when the building is completed. “The perception is the interest rates will be lower,” Defortuna added.

Construction could begin at the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024, based on sales milestones, he said.

Property records show Patagonian Investment Internacional LLC, managed by Argentine investors Federico Carabetta and Vicente Luis Carabetta, owns the site. Fortune will close on the property next year and demolish the existing parking garage to build Ora by Casa Tua. The garage backs up to the office building at 1200 Brickell Avenue, home to Major Food Group’s Dirty French Steakhouse, which will remain.

Outside of Miami, Casa Tua has locations in Aspen and Paris and is opening a restaurant and club in New York next year at the Surrey, a Reuben Brothers development.

Development is booming in Brickell. Nearby at 1428 Brickell Avenue, developer Yamal Yidios of Ytech plans a 70-story luxury condo tower with 80,000 square feet of amenities partially powered by solar energy. Milan, Italy architecture firm ACPV Architects, led by Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel, is designing the 189-unit tower, called The Residences at 1428 Brickell.

Camilo Miguel Jr.’s Mast Capital is working on plans for Cipriani Residences Miami, an 80-story tower at 1420 South Miami Avenue, also in Brickell. That will mark the first Cipriani-branded residential building in the U.S.

Related Group and Integra Investments are developing the 46-story St. Regis Residences, Miami, farther south in Brickell, which was reduced in October to one tower from two.

Fortune is handling the sales and marketing for Cipriani Residences and Related Group’s Baccarat-branded 73-story luxury condo tower planned for 444 Brickell Avenue. The company also recently bought into a joint venture with Shahab Karmely that expects to develop a luxury condo tower along the Miami River.

“The good projects are continuing to move,” Defortuna said, referring to Miami’s new development market.

On the office front, Billionaire Ken Griffin is relocating his Chicago-based hedge fund, Citadel, and Citadel Securities to the Brickell financial district, with plans for a Sterling Bay-developed Class A office tower at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive. Billionaire developer Stephen Ross of Related Companies and Swire Properties are also moving forward with their 1,000-plus-foot-tall luxury office tower at Brickell City Centre.