Insurance firm founder flips Estates at Acqualina condo for $12M
Bernie Dimont paid $10M for 4,800 sf unit in October
Insurance firm founder Bernie Dimont flipped his Estates at Acqualina condo for $11.6 million, after paying $10 million for the unit six months ago.
Records show Dimont and his wife, Jacqueline Dimont, sold unit 1605 at the south tower at 17901 Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach to Cambridge Capital of Miami LLC. The Florida entity is managed by local attorney Paul Levine. The true buyer is unknown.
Sandra Pariente of Charles Rutenberg Realty had the listing. William Kakon, also of Charles Rutenberg Realty, brought the buyer. Pariente declined to comment on the deal.
Kakon confirmed the buyer is local, but declined to identify them.
Bernie Dimont is the founder of Dimont, a Plano, Texas-based insurance firm that provides specialty insurance and loan services, according to Crunchbase.
Records show the Dimonts bought the 4,800-square-foot condo in October for $10 million. The unit has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and one half-bathroom. The condo is on one of the three floors in the Estates at Acqualina south tower that have 12.5-foot ceilings, according to the listing. Kakon confirmed the higher ceilings were a significant draw for the buyer.
Estates at Acqualina includes the 49-story, 154-unit south tower; the 52-story, 94-unit north tower; and a 45,000-square-foot amenities villa with a movie theater, ice rink and bowling alley. Developed by the Trump Group brothers Jules and Eddie Trump (no relation to the former president), the project faced years of delays and lawsuits between the developers and the builder, Suffolk Construction.
Construction was completed in the south tower in June, and in the north tower in February.
The development also includes the Greek restaurant Avra Estiatorio Miami and two lobbies designed by the late Karl Lagerfeld.
Estates at Acqualina has drawn celebrities and titans of industry, alike. NBA great LeBron James closed on a condo in the south tower for $9 million in October.
The heads of a Mexican REIT flipped their unit in the south tower for $13.1 million earlier this month, after buying it for $11 million in October. A top litigator with Kirkland & Ellis bought a condo in the north tower for $8 million in February. The owner of the luxury gunmaker Kimber bought a south tower condo for $21.3 million in December.
South Florida’s luxury market has softened in recent months, following nearly three years of a pandemic-fueled gold rush. Sales volume has dropped, but prices appear to be holding steady. Kakon said ultra luxury condos haven’t been affected by the dip as much.
“Five million dollars and below has weakened a lot,” he said. “The ultra luxury is still very strong.”