Artefacto’s owner and CEO Paulo Bacchi sold a waterfront lot on Miami Beach’s Hibiscus Island for $10.7 million, about double what he paid for the property four years ago.
Property records show Bacchi’s Grove Penthouse LLC sold 375 North Hibiscus Drive to a trio of LLCs managed by Laurent Groll, Alfredo Xiques and broker Nelson Gonzalez. Gonzalez, a top agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty, also brokered the deal, representing the buyer and seller.
Bacchi’s LLC paid $5.4 million for the 0.4-acre lot in 2018, which means he sold it for a 98 percent increase over that price. Bacchi tapped Miami architect Kobi Karp of Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design to draw plans for a home. The property features 90 feet of water frontage.
Bacchi planned to develop the house using Karp’s plans, which were approved and permitted by the city, according to Gonzalez. The property hit the market asking $24 million in July of last year, a price that would have included the Karp-designed home being completed. It was relisted late last year for $12.9 million.
The buyers of the Hibiscus Island lot, who include Gonzalez, plan to develop the home using Karp’s plans and list it for sale. Miami real estate investor Laurent Groll, one of the buyers, owns Al Capone’s former mansion on Palm Island. Groll also recently sold a La Gorce Island teardown to A24 film studio co-founder Matthew Bires for $5.4 million.
In October, Bacchi paid $5.3 million for a waterfront home on Miami Beach’s Palm Island for him and his family. Bacchi’s firm stages and furnishes luxury homes throughout South Florida. The company, which Bacchi’s father started in Brazil in 1976, last year opened a 40,000-square-foot showroom and headquarters in Coral Gables. Bacchi took over as CEO of Artefacto in 2015.
Others have flipped waterfront lots for big profits recently, instead of developing them, because buyers are willing to pay such high prices due to heightened demand for new luxury homes, Gonzalez said.
Developer Steve Witkoff sold the 0.6-acre property at 6455 Pine Tree Drive Circle for $20 million, 188 percent markup compared with what he paid. That property also included plans designed by Karp.
Last month, billionaire Dan Loeb flipped the waterfront lot at 2220 North Bay Road for $28.3 million, more than double the $12 million he paid for the property in December.
In April, Anatomy Fitness owner Chris Paciello sold a waterfront teardown on the Sunset Islands for $14 million, 50 percent more than he paid a month earlier.
