Grosskopfs break ground on Chateau Beach condo project in Sunny Isles

The epicenter of Miami Beach’s luxury condominium market continued its move north Thursday, as Sergio and Manuel Grosskopf’s Chateau Beach tower broke ground in Sunny Isles Beach.

The 33-story, 84-unit Chateau Beach is rising at 17475 Collins Avenue, just a few blocks away from the planned Mansions at Acqualina and the Porsche Design Tower. Manuel Grosskopf told The Real Deal the project is slated for completion by the end of December 2014.

As has become the custom in Miami’s latest construction boom, Grosskopf said he was following the Latin American financing model, in which buyers pay significant deposits up front and throughout the course of construction.

Manuel Grosskopf (TRD Photo)

It’s that trend that has, in part, driven them to ramp up development, he said. “The underwriting is much more conservative, and people are paying between 50 percent deposits or more,” he said. “That gives us a lot of confidence that it’s a real buyer — that it’s a real market.”

The Grosskopfs, who have a background in Latin American real estate development primarily in Argentina and Uruguay, also own 700 Biscayne in Miami, which has been approved for condo development and a hotel, along with the Freedom Square site, adjacent to the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami.

The groundbreaking bash at Chateau Beach

“We have a couple of other projects in the near future,” he said, pointing to another condo in Sunny Isles Beach and anotherin the early stages in Surfside.