Spec developers Ricardo Halfen and Matthew Rosenblatt dropped $15.8 million on a waterfront lot on the Venetian Islands, where they plan to build a $62 million estate, The Real Deal has learned.
The pair bought the half-acre property at 1141 North Venetian Drive in Miami Beach from an LLC named for the address and managed by Oak Park, Illinois-based accountant Edward Schroeder, according to property records.
Maurice Boschetti with the Boschetti Realty Group represented both sides of the deal.
Halfen and Rosenblatt are active spec developers in Miami-Dade County. In March, they bought a waterfront Bay Point mansion in Miami for $21 million. In August, Rosenblatt sold a waterfront spec mansion in Bay Harbor Islands for $22 million. Halfen also heads Treo Construction, and sold a Golden Beach spec home for $15 million in 2023.
The North Venetian Drive property last sold for $11.5 million in 2021, according to property records. It was previously owned by the late actor Michael Hall, who starred in “The Best Years of Our Lives.”
The sale comes with plans and permits for a Dufner Heighes-designed 17,000-square-foot mansion, but the developers plan to draw up their own plans for the property, Boschetti confirmed. Halfen and Rosenblatt are planning a 12,500-square-foot mansion they plan to list for $62 million, Boschetti said. Construction is set to begin in May.
The property first listed for $21 million last year, according to Zillow. Boschetti said it was priced with an end user in mind, but buyers are still not willing to take on construction projects for themselves.
“Buyers are still willing to rent and see what’s going to happen with the market,” he said. “Construction in Miami, people are a little bit terrified to start from scratch.”
This disinterest in building has fueled a surge in demand for luxury spec homes in South Florida, but rising land and construction prices have hindered developers, creating a bottleneck in the market. That’s starting to loosen, with developers realizing they can charge even more for their end product, Boschetti said.
“Spec developers are looking at the sale price of, let’s say Beckham’s house, and saying, ‘Look we can sell at numbers we didn’t expect to sell at,’” he said.
The Venetian Islands are proving popular with Miami Beach’s ultra-luxury buyers. This month, tech moguls Tom and Patricia Kennedy sold their waterfront mansion for a record $46 million. Other Silicon Valley players with homes on the islands include Sequoia Capital partner Jim Goetz, and PayPal Mafia members Keith Rabois and Peter Thiel.
