Under development by Fortune International Group and Chateau Group, the project will rise just 5.4 miles from the Surfside site where Champlain Towers collapsed.
With prices starting at $5.1 million, the St. Regis is situated on 4.7 acres, with 435 linear feet of ocean frontage — a prime location in a market where buildable land is scarce. It will be constructed on land previously occupied by La Playa de Varadero, a condominium built in 1954. The developers were able to acquire the site in 2014 by reaching agreements with the owners of all 347 units to buy them out at a total cost of $112.5 million. They then terminated the condominium and demolished the building. “When a buyer says they will pay you one and a half or two times what your unit is worth because they want to knock it down and build a newer building, it’s in many cases very appealing,” says Edgardo Defortuna, president and chief executive officer of Fortune International Group in Miami. Of course, not all owners want to move. Many residents…