Billionaires scoop up Miami compounds to build trophy empires

The gravitational pull of extreme wealth is warping the economics of real estate in Miami.Suddenly, 2 + 2 = 5, and then some.

Across the city, buyers are gobbling up neighboring lots to create large estates more valuable as a whole than their constituent parts.Meanwhile, the value of existing waterfront estates has entered the stratosphere.

Simply put: “People want land,” says Brett Harris of Bespoke Real Estate. He’s marketing the prime example: 5940 N.Bay Road on La Gorce Island.

A historic 22,000-square-foot, eight-bedroom, 16-bath mansion on 2.3 acres, it’s asking an incredible $169 million.Built in 1936, it’s the most expensive publicly listed home in all of Miami, thanks in part to a difficult-to-replicate 290 feet of water frontage.

But it’s also likely a teardown.If a buyer knocked it down to build a new 30,000-square-foot home “with every amenity imaginable,” Harris says the property could be worth nearly twice the current asking price.

For a sense of just how dramatically the post-pandemic influx of billionaire capital is distorting the market for outsize single-family estates here, get this: The property sold in 2001 for just $2.3 million.“This is what the überwealthy, the 1 percent of the 1 percent, are looking for,” he says.

“This won’t exist ever again.” Down on Palm Island, three mansions at Nos.190, 198 and 210 are on the market as a single parcel, with 300 feet of continuous waterfront and yacht dockage, for $148.5 million.

Knock down one, two or all three of the homes and you’ve got a 90,000-square-foot lot — that’s more than one-and-a-half football fields — with room for all the pools, courts and playthings your heart desires.Right now, the three homes weigh in with 21 bedrooms, 25 full baths, 35,385 square feet, three pools and room for about 20 cars.“Wealthy buyers coming to Miami are looking for privacy, security and trophy assets,” said Douglas Eliiman’s Fredrik Eklund, who has the listing.

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