Sauce mogul sells renovated Portofino condo in South Beach for $9M

Sauce mogul Giovanni LiDestri sold his renovated Portofino Tower condo in South Beach to Brazilian executive Gilberto Novaes for $8.8 million.

Records show LiDestri sold unit 3501 at 300 South Pointe Drive to Genus Solutions LLC, a Florida entity managed by Gilberto Rodrigues de Novaes Filho and Rejane Novaes.

John Lennon of South Pointe Drive Realty had the listing, and Jacob Abdala of Legacy Plus Realty brought the buyer. 

Gilberto Novaes is chairman of TecToy, a high tech toy company based in Brazil, LinkedIn shows. Rejane Novaes is executive director of Grupo Transire, a Brazilian electronics company. They also bought a unit at Turnberry Ocean Club in Sunny Isles Beach for $6.5 million in 2021, records show.

LiDestri is CEO of LiDestri Foods, a Fairport, New York-based food production company that specializes in packing sauces, salsas and dips, according to Bloomberg. LiDestri Foods was established in 1975 by Ralph Castiano, whose family founded the Ragu Packaging Company. LiDestri was Castiano’s protégé, chosen from the Ragu production floor, according to LiDestri Foods’ website. 

LiDestri bought the Portofino Tower unit for $4.7 million in 2015, records show. The two-story unit spans 5,450 square feet, with three bedrooms, four bathrooms, and one half-bathroom, according to property records. LiDestri remodeled the condo in 2018, records show. The unit includes a gym and office, according to the listing.

The 44-story Portofino Tower was completed in 1996 by developer Thomas Kramer’s Portofino Group and Jorge Peréz’s Related Group. It was the first luxury condominium in Miami Beach’s South of Fifth neighborhood.

LiDestri first listed the unit for $9.8 million in January of last year, Redfin shows. He also owns a condo at Bella Vista North in Aventura that he bought for $5.5 million last year, property records show.

Earlier this month a Portofino sale snagged the top Miami-Dade County condo price of the week, closing at $7.4 million.