A newly constructed waterfront mansion at 2740 North Bay Road in Miami Beach has sold for $72 million, marking the most expensive home sale on the exclusive corridor so far this year. LLCs tied to former grain executive Ilya Karpov sold the nearly 10,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom house to a trust managed by Greg Henning, according to property records.
The sale was first reported by The Real Deal, whose reporter Katherine Kallergis noted that the property appraiser does not list the finished home's final specifications. The off-market deal was brokered by Mirce Curkoski and Albert Justo of the Waterfront Team at One Sotheby's International Realty, and the identity of the ultimate buyer behind the purchasing trust remains undisclosed, a common arrangement in Miami Beach's trophy home market.
From Historic Teardown to Spec Mansion
The 0.6-acre lot has a layered history. City records show the site once held a 1929 single-family home that Miami Beach individually designated as historic in May 2010, only for the city's Historic Preservation Board to approve its complete demolition in 2018. That demolition was carried out in March 2021, clearing the way for new construction on the roughly 26,152-square-foot parcel.
The property was purchased in 2004 for $4 million by late French billionaire hotel developer Claude Dray, who also owned Miami Beach's National Hotel. After Dray was fatally shot in Paris in 2011, the estate passed to his widow, Simone Dray, and was later sold by their daughter, Delphine Dray, for $6.4 million in December 2021. Karpov acquired the property from Delphine Dray shortly after, paying $20.8 million for the 0.6-acre lot in 2022, then building the new two-story mansion, designed under approved plans from Koda Architecture + Interior Design, that ultimately fetched more than triple that price.
A Grain Fortune Turned Real Estate Empire
Karpov built his wealth as a former general director at OGO Group, once one of Russia's largest grain producers, before selling his stake in 2009 and moving to Miami Beach the same year. Since then he has become one of the area's more active spec developers, buying adjacent lots at 310 and 320 South Hibiscus Drive for $11.6 million in 2018 and splitting the parcel to build spec mansions. He sold 320 South Hibiscus Drive for $29.1 million in May 2022 to mobile gaming CEO Kevin Segalla, and previously sold a waterfront spec house at 38 South Hibiscus Drive for $14.2 million in 2019.
Karpov also expanded his footprint directly on North Bay Road, buying a 6,401-square-foot, six-bedroom home at 3026 North Bay Road for $13.6 million in June 2022 from Dana Reiner Blumberg. Taken together, the deals show a developer who has repeatedly bought into Miami Beach's priciest enclaves, then built or resold at a significant markup.
North Bay Road's Celebrity-Studded Market
The $72 million sale lands North Bay Road squarely among Miami's most competitive luxury streets, where neighbors reportedly include David and Victoria Beckham, Joshua Kushner, and Karlie Kloss. The Beckhams themselves paid $72.3 million in late 2024 for a 14,279-square-foot, nine-bedroom waterfront estate at 4736 North Bay Road, a figure nearly identical to Karpov's sale price, as reported by Galerie Magazine.
Karpov's sale still trails the street's record. Developer Todd Michael Glaser and his partners at the Posner Group bought the 2.3-acre estate at 5940 North Bay Road for $105 million in 2025 from Crescent Heights co-founder Sonny Kahn, setting North Bay Road's sales record, with plans to flip or redevelop the property. That deal has continued to reverberate through the corridor's pricing, with Karpov's $72 million trade now standing as the second-highest recorded sale on the street.
A Pattern of Nine-Figure Trades
The sale fits a broader pattern of high-dollar turnover along North Bay Road in recent months. Rockstar Energy founder Russell Savage sold his waterfront home at 5300 North Bay Road for $27 million in June 2026, following a gut renovation by developer Keith Menin that converted the property into a Mediterranean-modern compound, a project Hoodline previously covered. Savage had made his fortune from Rockstar Energy's $3.9 billion sale to PepsiCo in 2020.
Other recent trades underscore the same trend of legacy estates giving way to new money. In May 2026, Daisy Prince Chaplin sold the 0.8-acre waterfront mansion at 6000 North Bay Road, purchased by her father, 21-time Tony Award-winning Broadway director Harold “Hal” Prince, in 1987, for $31.5 million to an undisclosed buyer. And in March 2026, a waterfront mansion at 4340 North Bay Road sold for $23 million after being listed by chiropractor Amir Kermani.
Tax Policy Looms Over the Market
Local real estate agents point to pending state tax policy as one factor sustaining South Florida's luxury demand. The Florida Legislature approved a constitutional amendment proposal for the November 2026 ballot that would expand the primary residence homestead exemption from $50,000 up to $250,000 by 2028, according to The Real Deal's reporting on the region's waterfront home boom. That proposed exemption would begin scaling up in 2027, giving buyers a longer-term incentive that agents say continues to factor into decisions at the very top of the market.
