Naples, the quieter and more relaxed counterpart to Palm Beach, just moved up on the luxury resi market leaderboard.
In the span of a few days, two record sales closed in Naples: First, billionaire David Hoffmann paid $85 million for a waterfront estate in Port Royal, setting a record for Collier County.
It held that record title for about a week, until the billionaire DeGroote family sold their beachfront estate for $225 million. A land trust concealing the buyer’s identity acquired that 15-acre property, also in Port Royal. (The smaller deal is still the priciest non-beachfront home to sell in Collier.)
Huge deals in Miami Beach, Palm Beach and Manalapan have become more common, but similar growth is happening in Naples — at a slower pace. The $225 million deal marks the second-priciest home sale in the U.S., behind billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin’s $238 million purchase of a penthouse in New York City in 2019.
Chris Resop, an agent with the Agency in Naples who brokered the $85 million sale with Gulf Coast International Properties’ Timothy Savage, tells me that I’m not alone in overlooking the area.
“Naples has been undervalued for years,” Resop says, citing the weather (hurricanes not included), restaurants and overall quality of life.
When I asked Resop if he and Savage had a lot of interest from prospective buyers in the Port Royal home, he said they had it in contract before they even received professional photos and videos back.
Resi brokerages, obviously, have taken notice of the increased demand and expanded to Collier County in recent years. They include Compass, Douglas Elliman and Baird & Warner. The latter firm’s Naples office marked its first outside of Chicago since opening in the Midwestern city in 1855. Chicago buyers have long had ties to Florida’s west coast.
Major developers have also launched projects in Naples. BH Group and Kolter Group completed a $100 million bulk condo buyout on the beach in Naples earlier this year. They plan a 12-unit condo development called Olana Naples Residences, where each unit will span more than 10,000 square feet and prices start at $30 million.
Buyers who have previously looked at Palm Beach or own homes therein Palm Beach may now be looking at Naples, as Palm Beach has become the center of attention, again, in President Donald Trump’s second term.
I joked to Resop that he shouldn’t tell too many people about Naples. While the area has a busy season, it’s still quiet. Maybe there’s still hope that the region can hold onto that.
What we’re thinking about: Who’s behind the alleged smear campaign against developer Michael Stern and his JDS Development Group? Send me a note at [email protected].
Special thanks to Kate Hinsche for contributing to this newsletter!
CLOSING TIME
Residential: Andrew Farkas, chairman and CEO of Island Capital Group, sold his oceanfront mansion at 516 South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach for $51.4 million. The 9,950-square-foot mansion has seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, two half-bathrooms, a club room, a library, a pool and 100 feet of beach frontage.
Commercial: Steve Ross, Wexford Real Estate Investors and the Ardid family’s Key International bought WPTV’s studio and office building at 1100 Banyan Boulevard in West Palm Beach for $40 million. The seller, E.W. Scripps Company leased back the two-story, 70,100-square-foot building for at least two and a half years.
NEW TO THE MARKET
A four4-acre assemblage at 820 Jamaica Lane in Naples hit the market for just shy of $90 million. The waterfront property, with 858 feet of continuous frontage along a deepwater canal and the Naples Bay, is made up of seven lots. It’s listed with Michael McCumber of Gulf Coast International Properties. McCumber represented the seller in the recent $225 million sale of the Port Royal estate.
A thing we’ve learned
New Yorkers who recently moved to Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties brought with them a combined $9.2 billion in income, according to a report from nonpartisan fiscal watchdog Citizens Budget Commission. The report found that more than 26,000 individuals making an average of $266,000 moved to Miami-Dade from New York, while nearly 20,000 people with an income of about $190,000 moved to Palm Beach County in the five years through 2022.
Elsewhere in Florida
- The Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix is Sunday, with McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris favored to win, according to CBS Sports. The race is expected to bring $505 million in economic impact and a record 284,000 attendees this year, which will be a boon for tax revenues, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
- After backlash from preservationists and others who support Miami Beach’s Art Deco District, the Florida Legislature partially restored some protections for historic buildings under the expanded Live Local Act. The controversial expansion was approved by the legislature on Thursday, but opponents are calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto it. Miami Beach commissioner Alex Fernandez, an advocate for historic districts, told the Miami Herald that “the fire hasn’t been put out, but the blaze has been contained.”
- The Legislature is wrapping its 60-day session, but a host of key policy decisions have yet to be made, including on the state budget and possible tax cuts. Still, House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton told lawmakers they won’t be extending the session, despite the looming July 1 deadline for the state budget, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. The Legislature has faced particularly tough gridlock this year: 1,951 bills have been filed for the 2025 legislative session. As of Thursday, 18 have been signed into law.
