Witkoff Lands $97M Permit as Shore Club's Miami Beach Tower Breaks Ground

• Miami Beach issued a $97 million phased new construction permit (job filing BC2322278) for Shore Club Private Collection at 1901 Collins Avenue.
• The permit covers 481,200 square feet for Witkoff and Monroe Capital's 45-condo, 79-key hotel project, which works out to roughly $200 per permitted square foot.
• It's the largest permit issued in the latest filing cycle, ahead of Related Group's $74.5 million Gallery at Lummus permit.
• The filing follows the $430 million construction loan J.P. Morgan closed for the project back in 2023.

The permit

Miami Beach's largest new-construction permit of the cycle just landed on Shore Club Private Collection, the Auberge-branded condo and hotel project Witkoff and Monroe Capital are building at 1901 Collins Avenue. The $97 million phased permit, filed under job number BC2322278, covers 481,200 square feet, a new 20-story oceanfront tower paired with the restored eight-story Cromwell House building that dates to 1939.

The project has ticked slightly since its 2023 launch: what was pitched as 49 condos and 75 hotel keys is now permitted as 45 units and 79 hotel rooms. Robert A.M. Stern Architects designed the buildings, with Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design serving as architect of record. The three-acre site also includes a roughly 6,000-square-foot single-family beach house.

The permit builds on financing Witkoff and Monroe already had in hand. J.P. Morgan closed a $430 million construction loan for Shore Club in 2023, arranged by Lotus Capital Partners' Faisal Ashraf and, at the time, the largest construction loan for a South Florida residential development on record.

Billionaires' beach gets its biggest bet

Shore Club anchors what developers now call "billionaires' beach," the stretch of Collins Avenue also drawing Michael Shvo's Rosewood-branded Raleigh redevelopment and Related Group's Residences at Six Fisher Island. It's the furthest along of the group. The permit lands with roughly 90 percent of units presold, and pricing has climbed since launch: units went into contract at $5,000 per square foot when sales opened, and a hidden buyer has since gone under contract for the penthouse at more than $11,000 per square foot, a $120 million-plus deal that would set a Miami-Dade condo price record.

Douglas Elliman's Fredrik Eklund, part of the sales team, was one of the first to sign.

"There were no renderings, marketing or floorplan yet. I bought it sight unseen."

The permit puts Shore Club ahead of nearby competition on paper, too. Related Group's Gallery at Lummus, a 415,500-square-foot apartment project at 395 Northwest First Street, pulled the cycle's second-largest permit at $74.5 million. And Property Markets Group's Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami, a 1,049-foot supertall with 387 condos and 205 hotel rooms, closed a $668 million construction loan last year, the largest condo construction loan in Florida, and is itself more than 90 percent sold.

Shore Club's site carries its own turnaround story. The historic hotel closed before the pandemic under prior owner HFZ Capital Group, which had planned a Fasano-branded condo before canceling it and returning buyer deposits. Monroe Capital took over HFZ's interest in the Shore Club entities in 2020 and brought in Witkoff as partner, setting up the project now breaking ground.

With the permit filed and financing already closed, the next marker to watch is the groundbreaking timeline on the tower itself, and whether the reported $120 million penthouse deal closes to make the price record official.