Have a Bal

Calling Miami’s Bal Harbour community “exclusive” or “expensive” is an understatement along the lines of calling Rihanna “unpredictable.”

This is an enclave — less than a square mile with only about 4,500 permanent residents, according to Police Chief Thomas E. Hunker — where the new St. Regis Bal Harbour hotel-condo complex has seen multiple foreign buyers pay more than $20 million for a 14,000-square-foot full floor. It’s where multiple lots for single-family homes on Bal Bay Drive have sold for more than $5 million. And it’s where Lamborghinis, Ferraris and even Bugattis dot the parking lot of the Bal Harbour Shops, a spot where visitors can pick out Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watches and eat Kurosawa bone-in ribeye plus lobster surf-and-turf at Stephen Starr’s Makoto before purifying themselves with an oxygen facial at Gee Beauty.

“The whole house fuses indoor and outdoor living,” architect Chad Oppenheim says of the house he’s designing at 252 Bal Bay Drive. “It’s really generated by a series of gardens. There are verandas and terraces — and facing the water, you have this incredible infinity-edge pool.” Plans also call for smart-home technology, a rooftop Jacuzzi and a spa.

Doug Castanedo

WHERE IT'S ALWAYS FASHION WEEK: New stores including Stella McCartney have helped the pricey Bal Harbour Shops hit high sales numbers despite the loss of stores like Louis Vuitton.

“When people go to Monte Carlo and they go to some specialty shops, it usually says Monte Carlo, New York, Beverly Hills and Bal Harbour,” says broker Oren Alexander of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s the Alexander Group. “Bal Harbour is in that elite market, whether it’s some of the best, most expensive shopping or some of the best beaches. Now we have one of the best hotels. And the hidden gem of Bal Harbour is the Village.”

Alexander is referring to Bal Harbour Village’s gated, ultra-safe, security-camera-laden community (free of homicides, sexual assaults or even robberies in 2011 and 2012, according to police department statistics), where he grew up and his family still has a home. And he’s so bullish on the area, where residents include Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, that he’s becoming a real estate developer there.

Alexander and his brothers are in contract to purchase “the last vacant lot on the wide-open bay in Bal Harbour Village” for close to $6 million.

They plan to close in June and start construction on an almost 11,000-square-foot, six-bedroom “tropical modern beach house” that they expect to complete within two years. The house at 252 Bal Bay Drive, which Alexander plans to list for $25 million, will be built by his father, Shlomi, and designed by architect Chad Oppenheim.

“We’re building off the success we’ve had with 3 Indian Creek,” Alexander says, referring to another Miami home, now with a $52 million asking price, built by his father. “We’ve learned what high net-worth individuals want. We’ve learned that $25 million is more in the budget for somebody looking for their fifth or sixth home.”

While Alexander says that confidentiality prevents him from revealing specific details about any deal, he did say he’s close to selling 3 Indian Creek.