Paper products heir David Simkins is revealed as the buyer of a record $16 million waterfront home in Miami’s Morningside neighborhood, The Real Deal has learned.
Simkins bought the waterfront house at 5725 North Bayshore Drive from Mango’s Tropical Café owner David Wallack, sources confirmed. Jill Eber with the Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker Realty represented both the buyer and the seller in the deal.
The sale marked a price record for the neighborhood, trumping Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy’s previous $14 million purchase as Morningside’s most expensive home.
Simkins is the son of the late Leon Simkins, the longtime president of their family’s paper products giant Simkins Industries. The firm was known for pioneering the production of paperboard products. David Simkins’ brother, Michael Simkins, heads Lion Development Group, is CEO of E11even Crypto and an owner of E11even Partners, which owns the nightclub, hotel and vodka brands of the same name. His projects in Miami include the 449-unit E11even Club Hotel & Residences and 550-unit E11even Club Residences Beyond.
Earlier this month, David Simkins sold his waterfront North Bay Village home for $13.5 million. He bought the 3,700-square-foot house for $3.1 million in 2016, according to property records.
His new Morningside pad, dubbed “Whispering Pines,” spans 0.9 acres, property records show. It was built in 1969, and the 3,900-square-foot home has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and two half-bathrooms, the listing shows. The estate also has a 140-year-old gazebo, a treehouse, a music studio, pool, dock and 125 feet of waterfront.
Wallack listed it for $20.9 million in May, according to Zillow.
Price growth has been near-universal in South Florida since the pandemic triggered a luxury market boom five years ago. The degree differs from neighborhood to neighborhood, though. Morningside’s neighbor Bay Point saw a record $85 million sale for a waterfront estate earlier this year.