Real estate industry courts buyers during Miami Art Week

Scores of wealthy visitors are arriving for Miami Art Week, and the real estate industry is on high alert.

Some prospective residential buyers have already scheduled appointments at sales galleries and luxury homes. Others will get a look at properties while attending Art Basel, Art Miami and the dozens of offshoot art fairs planned for this week.

Developers and brokerage firms are sponsoring fairs, though some have pulled back this year. Top agents and firms are still hosting private dinners, networkers and even boat tours to take advantage of the wealthy clients in town. 

This year, Coconut Grove-based Sotheby’s International Realty is sponsoring Art Basel Miami Beach, held at the Miami Beach Convention Center, replacing Douglas Elliman. Sotheby’s International Realty, which is under Anywhere Real Estate’s umbrella, announced in September that it inked a multi-year deal with the art show. The brokerage will showcase new developments and luxury homes inside the Collectors’ Lounge. 

Lena Johnson, One Sotheby’s International Realty’s new chief marketing officer, said the firm is leaning into the partnership and its connection to the art world through the Sotheby’s auction house. 

“This is the first year we’ve been able to grab this sponsorship,” she said. “Once you get them, you want to hold onto them.” 

Firms like Cervera Real Estate and Elliman aren’t sponsoring fairs this year. Elliman was Art Basel’s show partner for nearly a decade. 

Prospective buyers are primarily in town to attend art-related events, and real estate brokers will typically feel the effects weeks later. Still, brokers take advantage of capturing their attention. 

Dora Puig, owner and broker of Luxe Living Realty, said clients were booking appointments months in advance to do in-person showings for waterfront homes on the Venetian Islands, North Bay Road in Miami Beach, and on Fisher Island, where she is listing the Links Estates. 

“We’re still seeing out-of-state families” scheduling showings for Miami Art Week, Puig said in October. 

One Sotheby’s agent Carla Christenson is hosting a networking event on an evening cruise. Others plan private brunches or open houses to showcase their listings. The brokerage will also host an event for more than 250 affiliates at the St. Regis Residences, Miami sales center in the Brickell neighborhood. 

Developers will also have fresh art installations to display, especially in neighborhoods like the Miami Design District. Some, like Craig Robins and Jorge Pérez, will showcase art from their personal collections. Robins’ collection, titled “A Train of Thoughts” is visible at his company Dacra’s headquarters in the Design District. Dacra has spearheaded the development of the area into a luxury retail destination and has a number of projects planned. 

Pérez, owner of Miami-based Related Group, the largest condo developer in South Florida, unveiled a new exhibit at his private gallery, El Espacio 23 in Allapattah, in early November. 

New listings are also hitting the market, to kick off the high season in South Florida real estate. As far north as Palm Beach, developer Todd Glaser and his partners brought the waterfront island estate called Tarpon Isle back on the market at a reduced price, asking $187.5 million with Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group. 

“Art Week has really become the ‘it’ cultural moment,” said Johnson of One Sotheby’s. 

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