Miki Naftali, a real estate developer who rose to prominence building New York luxury condos, is hunting for deals in Miami Beach as he seeks to expand in South Florida.
“You can walk in the water in Miami Beach many days of the year and buyers want that,” Naftali, who is chief executive officer of Naftali Group, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters, adding that people are paying $5,000 per square foot in Miami Beach. “Do you know how hard that is to get in New York?”
Naftali made his name erecting luxury residential towers across New York. That includes the Bellemont, a condo tower on the Upper East side where a penthouse sold for nearly $68 million in 2023.
Now, he’s also seeking opportunities in South Florida, an area that he says is drawing more and more buyers looking to live there full-time. Naftali’s firm is working on a condo building called JEM Private Residences at Miami Worldcenter.
“The demand 10 years ago in Miami was different than the demand today,” said Naftali, who founded his firm in 2011. “The demographic is changing, the buyers are getting more sophisticated.”
Cheaper Land
In New York, Naftali is seeing land prices that are “substantially less” than pre-Covid. Lenders have pulled back from financing real estate deals, meaning there’s less competition for spots. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to turn those plots into lucrative buildings, he said.
“It’s still difficult to make it really profitable because the construction costs are very, very high compared to pre-Covid,” Naftali said.
High financing costs have exacerbated the city’s housing shortage, which has driven prices and rents up in recent years. The issue has drawn the attention of politicians including New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams.
Adams has pushed to make it easier for developers to convert old languishing office buildings into residential projects, adding to the housing stock. Naftali, who took a brick-covered West Village building constructed more than 100 years ago and converted it into condos, said it’s often hard to find properties that can be easily transformed.
“There is a lot of hype about it,” Naftali said. “But the reality is that most of those office buildings are not good candidates for conversion without any additional tax benefits.”