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Plans for the Islamorada Ecolodge

A Coral Springs urologist has revived his efforts to build an oceanfront eco-resort in Islamorada, The Real Deal has learned.

In May, Bert Vorstman submitted a downsized site plan for his 8.8-acre property, located at 83000 Old Highway. Islamorada Ecolodge, as the project is called, would have 49 units spread over a main lobby building and seven smaller villas. The lobby building would also house a restaurant, while a pool would sit next to one of the villas.

The plan is the first Vortsman has submitted since the Islamorada Village Council effectively rejected his proposal for a 70-unit hotel in July 2013. That plan garnered heavier than normal publicity for a project of its size, in part because of the many features put forward by Vorstman and his design team from the Fort Lauderdale-based EDSA planning firm.

Among other items, developers promised to rehabilitate a degraded wetland near the water’s edge, clean out exotic foliage from a hardwood hammock closer to the highway, and to re-vegetate the property’s sand berm. They also planned to build a water re-use system and to generate solar power onsite.

The proposal, however, proved to be too ambitious, largely because no zoning district in the village allowed for 70 units on a site of that size.

This time around, Vorstman’s less grand proposal would meet the density rules of Islamorada existing Tourist Commercial zoning category, he said. However, the property would still have to be rezoned from its current status of Native Residential, which allows for no commercial development and just two homes on the property.

Vorstman said that during a June 5 meeting, Islamorada planners told him they would oppose the proposed zoning change.

“I must say that I was absolutely floored, but they were not too understanding,” he told TRD.

Islamorada biologist Sandy Sprunt did not return calls to TRD. But a document obtained via a public records request appears to back Vorstman’s assertion that planners view the Ecolodge proposal with skepticism. Among the development policies that planners highlighted for emphasis were ones related to habitat fragmentation and the clearing of native vegetation.

Vortsman said the site is so heavily disturbed with exotic vegetation that it is not a working ecosystem. But in 2013 Sprunt disagreed, saying that the property’s ecosystem was not in decline.

CVS/pharmacy opened its first CVS/pharmacy y mas earlier this month. The store, at 12180 Southwest Eighth Street in Miami, is one of 12 South Florida stores catered toward the Hispanic community, the company announced recently.

The CVS/pharmacy y más locations include 11 remodeled CVS stores and one new store. The pharmacies will feature fully bilingual staffs, more than 1,500 Hispanic products, and new services, according to a press release.

Here are the store locations:

• 12180 Southwest Eighth Street (new store)
• 2500 Southwest 22nd Street, Miami
• 8720 West Flagler Street, Miami
• 9720 Southwest Eighth Street, Miami
• 650 Northwest 27th Avenue, Miami
• 690 Northwest 57th Avenue, Miami
• 2599 Southwest 147th Avenue, Miami
• 1200 West 68th Street, Hialeah
• 10700 Northwest 74th Street, Doral
• 7199 Southwest 117th Avenue, Kendall
• 101 Hialeah Drive, Hialeah
• 2780 Campbell Drive, Homestead

CVS acquired Navarro Discount Pharmacy in September, which included the Hispanic drugstore chain’s 33 retail locations and Navarro Health Services, a specialty pharmacy. — Katherine Kallergis and Sean Stewart-Muniz

5800 North Bay Road and Phil Collins

Singer-songwriter Phil Collins is the new owner of Jennifer Lopez’s former North Bay Road manse, paying a whopping $33 million for the property. 

Healthcare executive Mark Gainor and his wife were the sellers of the waterfront Miami Beach estate at 5800 North Bay Road, according to EWM/Christie’s International Real Estate. EWM’s Nelson Gonzalez represented the couple. Mathieu Rochette of Barclay’s Real Estate Group represented the buyer.

Lopez initially sold the 1.2-acre property in 2005 to Gainor for $13.9 million, according to Miami-Dade property records. Collins closed on the sale on Monday, the Wall Street Journal first reported.

The 12,153-square-foot mansion includes seven bedrooms, eight full baths, three half-baths, a pool and Jacuzzi. It was built in 1929 and features 200 feet of Biscayne Bay frontage.

“This property has long been a standout in the marketplace … and a sale of this magnitude – surpassing the 30-million-dollar threshold – further demonstrates the draw of Miami Beach to interested buyers from across the United States and around the world,” Gonzalez said in a statement.

Earlier this month, famous fashion designer Calvin Klein listed his waterfront Miami Beach home down the road at 4452 North Bay Road for $16 million.

Rendering of the planned AC Hotel in Aventura (Credit: Zyscovich Architects)

A second AC Hotel is coming to South Florida, The Real Deal has learned.

Zyscovich Architects will design the 192,514-square-foot hotel in Aventura, according to a press release.

AC Hotels by Marriott is a new brand of boutique hotels with existing locations in Spain, Italy and Portugal. The first U.S. location opened first AC Hotel by Marriott opened in Miami Beach.

The nine-story, 233-key hotel with attached parking will be located on Northeast 207th Street and Northeast 30th Avenue, next to the planned Aventura ParkSquare, a mixed-use project developed by Integra Investments.

Norwich Partners is developing the Aventura AC property, which is set to open in January 2016, according to its website. Amenities will include a bar, gym, pool, amenities deck, a breakfast room with a catering kitchen, and two levels of integrated parking. — Katherine Kallergis

Donald Trump

From the New York website: Never a dull moment with the Donald.

Real estate mogul Donald Trump is expected to declare roughly $9 billion in assets and announce his candidacy for president Tuesday, according to the Washington Post. The billionaire is planning to release a two-page document that outlines his portfolio of hotels and other properties, hundreds of millions in cash-on-hand and his debts, the newspaper reported.

Trump, 69, would be the wealthiest Republican candidate if he runs for president in 2016. Forbes estimated his net holdings at $4.1 billion, according to the newspaper.

In a recent interview with the Des Moines Register, Trump pronounced himself the “most successful person ever to run for president.”

Four years ago, Trump also considered a run for president but ultimately decided against it. [Washington Post] — Claire Moses

Renderings of the proposed park

In a Miami-Dade College conference room stacked with attendees wearing white T-shirts with slogans supporting the Miami International Boat Show, elected officials from the city of Miami and the Village of Key Biscayne failed to reach a compromise regarding the future home of the annual event.

For months, the village and the city have been locked in a contentious battle over the relocation of the boat show to Virginia Key’s Marine Stadium from the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Key Biscayne is suing the city and the National Marine Manufacturer’s Association, the boat show operator, to stop next year’s event, which is scheduled to take place February 11-15.

Miami is also investing $16 million to convert a parking lot near the stadium into a park and event space.

Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and Key Biscayne Mayor Mayra Peña Lindsay

Key Biscayne Mayor Mayra Peña Lindsay said the village is not against the boat show finding a new site.

“We just do not believe the boat show is suitable for that venue,” Lindsay said. “We are concerned the flex park being a Trojan horse.”

John Shubin, Key Biscayne’s attorney, said consolidating all of boat show activities on Virginia Key is too intense.

He said the National Marine Manufacturer’s Association and the city have not made clear if Virginia Key will be the new permanent home of the boat show. “What will the boat show look like?” Shubin said. “How big is the boat show going to be? What is the actual footprint?”

Assistant City Manager Alice Bravo gave a presentation with renderings of the proposed park without the boat show, as well as a traffic plan during the show.

Bravo explained that the marine association will have a ferry service for boat show attendees from downtown Miami, as well as shuttles between parking sites at American Airlines Arena and Marlins Park. Exhibitors and their employees would be the only ones allowed to park onsite, he said.

In addition, the city of Miami will have police officers stationed at the entrance of Key Biscayne to turn people around who are going to the boat show.

Lindsay said Bravo’s presentation illustrates the village’s concerns with the boat show at Virginia Key.

“I applaud your Herculean efforts,” Lindsay said. “But I think this demonstrates and highlights some of the challenges with this site. This is unmanageable.”

Key Biscayne Village Councilman Luis de la Cruz scoffed at Bravo’s assurances that NMMA and the city could get event-goers to ride a shuttle into Virginia Key.

“How likely do you think people in Miami will not take their cars over the causeway?” de la Cruz said. “We have to make sure we don’t have gridlock. We are trying to keep the last vestage of pristine land from ruin.”

Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado said that if the village council is that concerned about potential gridlock, then they should also be working with the city to address the traffic congestion created by the Miami Open tennis tournament, an annual event the village supports.

“Either cancel the tennis tournament or help us alleviate the traffic,” he said.

Miami City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff said he shared the same concerns Key Biscayne has when the boat show first proposed moving to Virginia Key. “We are debating over one event,” Sarnoff said. “No one wants to see the boat show leave Miami. The boat show has an amazing and enormous impact on the local workforce and the region. I don’t think we should lose that.”

Sarnoff also challenged village leaders to partner with the city to pay for half the costs of creating a $16 million park at Marine Stadium.

“Why don’t you join in and have the village put in $8 million and we’ll call it a joint venture,” he said.

At the end of the meeting, both sides agreed to appoint a lone representative from each of the elected bodies to continue hammering out a possible resolution.

One of the suites at Fort Lauderdale’s Executive Airport Business Center

Two Chicago-based investment firms teamed up last week to purchase a commercial property adjacent to the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport for $4.6 million.

The property is located at 5101 Northwest 21st Avenue and consists of two single-story buildings on a six-acre site. The Executive Airport Business Center totals 73,216 square feet of commercial space.

Triton Capital and CP Highlands Fund, both investment firms based out of Chicago, joined under a company titled TCPH Broward to purchase the complex. The seller is an affiliate of New York-based lender Torchlight Loan Services.

Triton Capital President John Bucheleres

Torchlight purchased the property last year for only $400,000 during a foreclosure auction. The firm won a foreclosure judgement against the previous owner over a $4.4 million mortgage, and scooped the property up at auction soon after.

Now, the company has made a hefty $4.2 million profit.

Commercial brokerage CBRE, which brokered the sale, said that this is the second purchase Triton has made in South Florida over the past year.

“TCPH Broward has raised additional capital that it intends to use to fund more acquisitions in this market,” said Triton Capital President John Bucheleres in a statement.

A rendering of the massive Miami Worldcenter development

Taubman Centers could end up pulling out of the massive Miami Worldcenter project, according a Goldman Sachs report.

Sachs analysts said competition from Brickell City Centre, which has its own major shopping component a few miles away, prevented Worldcenter from being a “slam-dunk development.” That, coupled with their late start on “significant pre-leasing,” leads the Sachs analysts to believe Taubman has “the potential to not go forward with (sic) World Center,” as first reported by the Miami Herald.

Taubman and its partner the Forbes Company are on the hook help build the 765,000-square-foot retail component that would make up the base of Worldcenter.

With groundbreaking of Worldcenter’s first phase coming up quickly, and a handful of lawsuits against the project now dismissed, the Sachs report hints that there could still be bumps in the road to completion.

Representatives of Taubman have continued to say that the developer is fully committed to helping build Worldcenter, even in light of the Sachs report, the Miami Herald reported.

The $1.7 billion development, headed by real estate heavyweights Art Falcone and Nitin Motwani, will span 27 acres in the Park West district. Plans include the 470-unit Paramount Miami Worldcenter condo tower, a 429-unit rental tower by developer ZOM, and an 1,800-room Marriott Marquis hotel and convention center. — Sean Stewart-Muniz

Downtown Miami

An office building on Flagler Street in downtown Miami sold for nearly three and a half times its previous sale in 2009, The Real Deal has learned.

On Thursday, the property at 219 East Flagler Street, sold for $9 million or $213 per square foot, Marcus & Millichap commercial broker Alex Zylberglait told TRD. Zylberglait represented the seller.

Flagler Building at 219 East Flagler Street

“Not only does the sale reflect the state of the market, but it reflects the opportunities in downtown Miami,” he said. “The buyer sees the long term potential.”

Downtown Miami Center, a company listing Israeli owners Dvir Dehry and Limor Dehry on its corporate records, sold the six-story, 42,123-square-foot building to East Flagler Building, an Aventura-based LLC. In May, Dvir Dehry was charged with bribing a city fire inspector to remove code violations, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, for another building at 223 East Flagler.

The 7,000-square-foot site last sold for $2.6 million in May 2009 as part of a distressed sale, according to Miami-Dade property records. Information on last week’s buyer was not available in public records, but Zylberglait said the new owner has invested in Miami before.

“The existing economics of this deal are not the most attractive to the [typical] investor,” he said. “The buyer sees the opportunity of appreciation over a number of years.”

Developments such as All Aboard Florida, Miami Worldcenter and recent sales of properties along Flagler Street are spearheading the eventual transformation of downtown Miami, according to Arnstein & Lehr Partner Luis Flores.

Investor Moishe Mana, for example, has acquired more than 530,000 square feet of retail properties, and nearly five acres of land on or near Flagler Street since last year. He has yet to release his plans.

Flores, who most recently represented J. Milton & Associates in closing a $136.5 million construction loan for the Parque Towers project in Sunny Isles, said that the Miami’s Central Business District is in need of more office and retail space, and that the Brickell market is fully developed and oversaturated.

“Everyone is looking at downtown Miami,” he said. “There will be a full renaissance downtown. Maybe not in two years or three years, but in 10 years. The smart players are putting their foot in the door now.”

Renderings of upgrades to Bal Harbour Shops

Whitman Family Development revealed new renderings of upgrades to Bal Harbour Shops and Village on Tuesday. 

The renovations and expansion, valued at $400 million, will include a proposed land swap between Bal Harbour Village and Whitman. Voter approval later this year is required for the land swap, according to a press release.

Whitman will fund the renovations, which will include a new entrance, wider sidewalks, a new canopy, landscaping and some new exterior walls. Bernard Zyscovich of Zyscovich Architects is the lead designer on the project.

Rendering of the north entrance

The upgrades will also include the addition of Barneys New York, expansions of existing Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue stores, and new luxury boutiques.

“The plan will do far more than enhance shopping and dining options for customers, it will also significantly reduce traffic on Collins Avenue and 96th Street, in addition to creating new green and open spaces for Village residents to enjoy,” Matthew Whitman Lazenby, Whitman president and CEO, said in a press release. “This will be the first time in more than 20 years that the Shops undergoes significant upgrades. We hope the community will allow us to make this investment for the future of the Shops and the Village.”

Whitman, which is partnering with Swire Properties and Simon on the retail component of Brickell City Centre, will also fund the construction of a new waterfront recreational park, according to the press release.

The finish line is in site for Brickell City Centre, which is on track to hit its completion date of 2016.

Developer Swire Properties, which put up all $1.05 billion needed to fund the 5.4 million-square-foot project, led the media on a tour of the construction site Tuesday.

Much of the site’s walkways are bare concrete, and most of the glass is still covered in blue protective film. Stephen Owens, president of Swire, said construction was moving around the clock up until recently.

Stops on the tour included a preview of the Sugar rooftop bar and lounge, which will occupy the top floor of the 40-story East Hotel. Its outdoor seating area will have views of both Brickell and the bay.

The skeleton of the development’s  500,000-square-foot shopping center is in place, and the thousand-foot-long “climate ribbon,” which will cool shoppers by focusing breezes through the complex, is beginning to resemble initial renderings.

Both of the project’s residential towers topped off earlier this year, promising 780 luxury condos, and Brickell City Centre as a whole is more than 80-percent complete.

Click here to watch an aerial video shot from a drone earlier this year.

From left: Jonathan Pollack and Blackstone real estate head Jonathan Gray

From the New York website: Blackstone Group, the world’s largest real estate private equity firm, is continuing to grow its executive ranks with the hiring of Jonathan Pollack from Deutsche Bank to serve as chief investment officer of its property debt unit.

Pollack was at Deutsche Bank for sixteen years and most recently served as head of its commercial real estate division, according to Bloomberg News. He will report to Michael Nash, Blackstone’s real estate debt strategies chief.

Pollack “is in our opinion one of the bright, bright lights in our industry,” Nash said. “He has a lot of overlap with many of the businesses we’ve done on the private lending side.” Pollack was in charge of Deutsche Bank’s commercial mortgage-backed securities unit, the largest in the industry of its kind.

Blackstone’s debt unit includes CMBS investing, the publicly traded Blackstone Mortgage Trust, and mezzanine-debt funds.

Earlier this year, Blackstone and Wells Fargo paid $23 billion to acquire most of General Electric’s real estate assets. In March, it raised $14.5 billion for a new real estate fund. [Bloomberg News] — Tess Hofmann

Donald Trump and family

From the New York website: Lindsey Graham announced his presidential run in his tiny South Carolina hometown. Ted Cruz declared his candidacy at a religious college in Virginia. Just yesterday, Jeb Bush formally launched his campaign at a packed Miami auditorium with a carefully chosen, racially diverse cast of listeners behind him. These Republican candidates tried their best to come across as ordinary folks: approachable, down-to-earth and sympathetic to the everyday American’s plight.

Donald Trump didn’t even try.

On Wednesday morning, Trump descended the shiny escalator in his namesake tower on Fifth Avenue, where office rents are among the highest in the country, to announce that he, too, is running for president. He was wearing his trademark suit (no rolled-up shirtsleeves and cowboy boots – good luck in Iowa). When he referred to ordinary Americans in his speech, he talked of a factory owner and a doctor that he knows.

Trump wasn’t merely being open about his wealth. He was flaunting it, by design. Trump’s pitch is essentially that he is a businessman who has made himself extremely rich, and can do the same for the U.S.A. In this sense, his run for presidency has a lot do with his career in real estate.

“My father succeeds time and time again where government has failed beforehand,” said Ivanka Trump, introducing her father in the flag-clad lobby of the Trump Tower. She pointed to his role in building an ice rink in Central Park, restoring the façade of Grand Central Terminal and working on the renovation of the Penn Station post office. “He is battle-tested. He is a dreamer. But perhaps more importantly, he is a doer.”

Donald Trump, who ironically entered the room to the tune of the subtly anti-capitalist Neil Young song “Rocking in the free world”, picked up his daughter’s cue.

“America needs a leader – someone that knows business,” he said. How exactly would he lead? For starters, he said he knows “the smartest negotiators in the world” – presumably some of them in real estate – and plans to assign them to different countries to negotiate trade terms. (Will Fredrik Eklund finally close on that Trans-Pacific trade deal that Obama couldn’t even sell to his own party? More on that in the 2017 season of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing”.)

Trade and cross-border capital flows appear to be a main focus of his campaign. And, perhaps surprisingly for a businessman who has done much of his work overseas, he struck a decidedly protectionist tone. He vowed to confront (and somehow tax) China for devaluing its currency, while going to lengths explaining how he would pressure Ford to build its next factory in the U.S. “We don’t have victories anymore. We used to have them,” he said. “When was the last time anyone saw us beating, say, China in a trade deal? I beat China all the time.”

It wasn’t immediately clear when and in what capacity Trump beat the People’s Republic of China, but apparently he was again referring to his business track record.

Beyond all the talk of business and trade, Trump also dished out some Republican classics: rants against Mexican immigrants, talk of threats from ISIS and Russia, and professions of love for veterans.

Here are some more highlights from Trump’s speech, in no particular order:

“When Mexico sends its people, they don’t send their best.”

“[ISIS] just built a hotel in Syria, can you believe that?”

“I like China. I just sold an apartment for $15 million to someone from China.”

“China is killing us.”

“I have lobbyists that can produce anything for me. They’re great.”

“I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created.”

A street mural in Wynwood

1. New zoning for Wynwood as neighborhood evolves from industrial roots [The Next Miami]
2. Morays Jewelers makes deal to relocate headquarters to Coral Gables [South Florida Business Journal]
3. 5 things to know about Gap’s move to close 175 stores [Palm Beach Post]
4. New York real estate firm buys rehabilitation centers from nonprofit for $11.5M [South Florida Business Journal]

— Sean Stewart-Muniz

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3. Barry Sternlicht picks up Miami Beach land for $17M
4. Art Falcone settles Worldcenter lawsuit with Edie Laquer
5. Oceanfront eco-resort planned for Islamorada

Artist rendering of redesigned Verzasca condominium proposed at 17550 Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach

A development group with Russian investors downsized the design of its proposed condominium building in Sunny Isles Beach to win city approval of the project, The Real Deal has learned. 

Verzasca Group made changes to an earlier design that would produce “less density and less intensity,” including a reduction in the number of condo units and the elimination of a ground-floor restaurant, Tim Lobanov, managing director of Verzasca, told TRD.

The Sunny Isles Beach city commission voted May 21 to defer action on the original proposal by Verzasca to build a 19-story condominium on the site of a Denny’s restaurant on the west side of Collins Avenue.

City commissioners voted unanimously to give Verzasca time to respond to complaints that its condo project at 17550 Collins Avenue with a ground-floor restaurant would create excessive traffic congestion. About two dozen people spoke for or against the project at the packed city commission meeting.

“From inception, it has been very important for us to be a good neighbor and to address any concern the commissioners and the community might have,” Lobanov said.

City staffers will assess the condo design changes June 23 when Verzasca is scheduled to present its redesigned project to the city’s Design Review Committee. The Sunny Isles City Commission is scheduled to review the redesigned project at a public meeting July 16.

Among other design changes, Verzasca reduced the number of residential levels in the building to 16 from 17, the number of units from 77 to 61, the average unit size from 1,750 square feet to 1,600 square feet and the number of garage parking spaces to 135 from 162.

Lobanov also said ground-floor space would be reserved for a commercial user, perhaps an office, instead of a restaurant as originally planned, and plans to embed a mechanical car lift in the parking garage were eliminated.

“The total volume of the building was reduced by 30 percent,” he said, and its distance from the nearby King David condominium more than doubled to 75 feet from 30 feet.

The Russian investors behind Verzasca Group would still include in the condominium development a mikvah, or a bath that Jewish people use for religious reasons.

Verzasca originally sought city permission to purchase transfers of development rights, or TDRs, that would add 38,000 square feet to the permitted size of the condominium. TDRs essentially amend the city’s zoning by transferring developmental density from one part of Sunny Isles Beach to another.

But the development group will not ask to buy TDRs from the city for its redesigned condo project, Lobanav said.

220 Central Park South (credit: Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

From the New York website: A Qatari buyer is looking to combine multiple apartments at the ultra-luxe 220 Central Park South into a single, $250 million penthouse in the sky, sources told The Real Deal. If a deal is finalized, the mystery buyer would own the priciest residence in New York City by far, and one of the world’s most expensive homes.

It wasn’t immediately clear which units are being combined. A representative for Corcoran Sunshine, which is marketing the project’s 118 condominiums on behalf of developer Vornado Realty Trust, declined to comment.

The Robert A.M. Stern-designed building’s latest condo offering plan includes seven penthouses. Two of them, Penthouses 75 and 76, don’t have a price tag, leaving open the possibility that they could be combined into a single unit of nearly 14,000 square feet. The other five penthouses, all ostensibly on lower floors, have price tags of more than $50 million. Penthouse 73, which spans over 9,500 square feet, is the most expensive unit currently listed, at $100 million, but sources said that pad is already in contract.

The buyer, developer and architect are still hammering out details of the combination, a source familiar with the project said.

The price would easily shatter the New York record set by a penthouse at Extell Development’s One57, which sold for $100.5 million in January. The city’s priciest apartment entering the market is the penthouse at the Chetrit Group’s Sony Building conversion at 550 Madison Avenue, which will ask $150 million, according to a condo offering plan first reported by TRD. The priciest current listings in the U.S. are the Ziff estate in Manalapan, Florida, and the Palazzo di Amore mansion in Beverly Hills, tied at $195 million.

The price could even break the record 140 million pounds ($237 million at the time, $220 million in today’s exchange rate) an unnamed buyer paid for a penthouse in the London luxury apartment building One Hyde Park in early 2014.

Sales at 220 Central Park South have been strong, defying industry talk over a slowing ultra-luxury market. In May, Vornado announced it had sold units in the building for a combined $1.1 billion in just six weeks.

“We’re delivering the best product that’s ever been delivered in the Manhattan residential market,” CEO Steve Roth said at the time. “We’re going to get a fair price for a fair product.” The building’s total sellout is projected at $2.84 billion.

Qataris have been active investors in New York luxury real estate in recent years. In 2012, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani paid Aby Rosen $47 million for his townhouse at 22 East 71st Street. A year later, he paid $35 million for a six-bedroom townhouse at Beekman Place. And in 2014 the Qatari government briefly entered contract to buy a townhouse at 19 East 64th Street, before walking away from the deal.

The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Singer Island

The president of Delta Air Lines just picked up a unit in Riviera Beach’s Ritz-Carlton for $7.3 million, The Real Deal has learned.

Edward H. Bastian, along with his wife Anna, filed a deed for a unit on the building’s 12th floor earlier this week. The 7,443-square-foot condo has five bedrooms, four bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms.

Edward H. Bastian, president and director of Delta Air Lines

The unit was sold by Susan P. Lovejoy, the wife of the late Walter Lovejoy, who was chairman of the power transmission company Lovejoy Industries until he passed away in 2011. Walter purchased the Ritz-Carlton condo under his company Caprice I for $5 million in 2008.

This isn’t the Bastians first purchase in Riviera Beach — the couple picked up another unit on the Ritz-Carlton’s 16th floor for $2 million in 2012.

Edward H. Bastian was hired as Delta Air Lines’ president and director in 2007. Before that, Bastian spent two years as the company’s chief financial officer and executive vice president, and he has been at working at Delta in various roles since 1998.

West Palm Beach skyline

The commercial real estate market is booming along the South Dixie Highway corridor of West Palm Beach, as businesses ranging from antique stores to restaurants are spreading quickly.

“The area [which begins just south of downtown West Palm and ends at Lake Worth] is on fire,” West Palm architect Rick Gonzalez, president of REG Architects, told The Real Deal.

With its heavy concentration of artsy businesses and eclectic eateries, its many well-educated residents and its connection to downtown West Palm Beach, the South Dixie corridor is just like Greenwich Village in New York City, he said.

The market’s strength stems largely from downtown West Palm real estate prices “going through the roof,” as Gonzalez put it.

South Dixie commercial space rents for about $25 per square foot on average, compared to about $50 for downtown West Palm, William R. Cummings, a commercial real estate broker at Century 21, told TRD. Downtown rents have soared about 40 percent over the last two years, compared to about 35 percent for South Dixie.

Among recent developments, JC White Architectural Interior Products bought 2403 South Dixie Highway, once the site of Hoffman’s Chocolates, and negotiations are underway for the sale of the historic Carefree Theater at 2000 South Dixie, which was closed by the hurricanes of 2004 to 2005.

“If entrepreneurs and small businesses get displaced from downtown, South Dixie is the perfect place to go,” Gonzalez said.

Planning has begun among public and private sector officials to beautify the area.

“I see that whole South Dixie corridor as a destination for eating, shopping — it has the potential for everything but big office buildings,” said Robert Kemp, an independent West Palm realtor who lives in the area.

The world class Norton Museum of Art, which sits at the northern end of the corridor and is planning a $60 million renovation, “will be the glue between downtown and South Dixie,” Gonzalez said. “It will bring art galleries and artists — culture.”

Flagler Drive, at the eastern end of the corridor, offering unobstructed views of the Intracoastal Waterway also makes the area attractive. The waterfront is not blocked by tall buildings like those on Biscayne Boulevard and Brickell Avenue in Miami, Gonzalez noted. “We all have access to the waterfront. That will make South Dixie more valuable.”

And the corridor’s proximity to the new All Aboard Florida train line that is slated to run from Miami to Orlando makes it even more appealing, Gonzalez said.