Luxury hotelier Raffles is trading room keys for deeds, launching its first standalone residential building with 35 waterfront homes starting at $4.5 million in Coconut Grove, Miami. Sales officially launch Thursday through Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, placing the project squarely in a neighborhood Fortune has called a billionaire enclave.
A Hotel Brand Without the Hotel
According to Fortune, Raffles partnered with Mast Capital and BH Group on the development, which is located at 2545 South Bayshore Drive. Omer Acar, chief executive of Raffles and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, told the outlet that the brand wanted to be part of Coconut Grove's upcoming market and was emphatic that the project is not a hotel in disguise. “These are homes that are exceptionally well looked after, not hotel units,” Acar said, per Fortune. The building, he said, will have no hotel component and no overnight guests, and Raffles hopes owners can eventually pass their homes from generation to generation.
The Raffles brand itself dates back to 1887 in Singapore and is owned by Accor, a detail Fortune included as context for the brand's global pedigree. The Coconut Grove building was designed by architect Brandon Haw and will include 2- to 4.5-bedroom homes along with a limited number of penthouses. Fortune reports amenities will include a restaurant, spa, fitness center, rooftop pool deck, bar, and private pools for penthouse owners.
Clearing the Land Through a Condo Buyout
Getting to this point required Mast Capital and BH Group to assemble control of an older condominium that previously occupied the site. Per The Real Deal, the two firms paid a total of $28 million to take complete ownership of the 39-unit Bayshore Park, a 1960s-era condominium that sat across the street from the waterfront Monty's Coconut Grove restaurant and a marina. Mast Capital is led by Camilo Miguel Jr., while BH Group is led by Isaac and Liat Toledano, according to the outlet.
The outlet's reporting details how the deal came together in stages: between May and June of the prior year, BH teamed up with Mast to acquire 32 units for a combined $21.1 million, including 16 units Mast already owned. NBC 6 separately reported that the developers owned 30 of the building's 39 units along with a vacant lot directly behind the condo, as NBC 6 found in its investigation into the buyout's impact on remaining residents. The Real Deal's account of full ownership and NBC 6's count of 30 units reflect separate reports; Fortune's story describes the developers as having acquired an older condominium building and negotiated a condominium termination with its owners. The developers capped the new project at 35 homes despite being able to fit more units, and plan to start construction sometime in 2027 after collecting presales this season.
Why Developers Are Betting Big Here
Miguel described Coconut Grove to Fortune as a waterfront village within a big city, and said the neighborhood's transformation over the past 30 years has been nothing short of transformational. He added that wealth continues moving into Florida, especially South Florida, and that Mast Capital continues to see demand for luxury residences in the Grove, which he called one of Florida's highest-barrier-to-entry condo markets. Miguel told Fortune that potential buyers have already expressed interest in about 40 homes in a development of roughly 35 units, and he expects many buyers to be families living in the building full time rather than investors looking to flip units — a shift he says he's seen broadly among Miami condo buyers.
Isaac Toledano framed the project's appeal in terms of scale, telling Fortune that residents should have neighbors without living among 300 others. That pitch lines up with what outside market watchers are seeing. Coconut Grove's residential market is ending 2026 divided, with limited supply supporting the luxury and new-construction segments even as more inventory gives buyers greater leverage elsewhere, according to Miami Today. Miami-based developer Daniel Berman told the outlet that demand at the top end in new construction is strong while supply is very low, adding there's a need for more of it. Miami Today also reported that fewer than 400 new condo units are scheduled to enter the Grove market between 2026 and 2028.
Billionaire Neighbors Already Moved In
Raffles is arriving in a neighborhood that has already drawn some of the tech industry's richest names. Fortune's reporting notes that Ken Griffin moved his firm Citadel to Miami in 2022 and paid $106.9 million for a Coconut Grove estate the same year; Griffin committed $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University this past September, allocating $2 billion of that gift to launch a CMU campus in Miami. Larry Page bought two Coconut Grove estates for about $173.4 million combined between December 2025 and January, per the same Fortune account.
The pattern extends beyond Coconut Grove's borders, too: Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan bought a $170 million estate on Indian Creek this year, Jeff Bezos spent $237 million on three Indian Creek estates in 2023 and 2024, and Sergey Brin bought a $51 million waterfront home on Allison Island, Fortune reported. An analysis of IRS data by Miami Realtors cited in the article found Florida absorbed a net $137 billion in income from other states between 2019 and 2023. Coconut Grove itself sits on Biscayne Bay just south of downtown Miami and retains historic waterfront estates, a dense tree canopy, anchored sailboats, and walkable restaurants — the texture that turned a sleepy village into what Fortune now calls a billionaire enclave.
Part of a Broader Buyout Wave
The Bayshore Park assembly is not an isolated case. The Real Deal reported that condo buyouts are on the upswing across South Florida despite being challenging and time-consuming, pointing to Canero Group and 8K Capital's acquisition of a majority of units at the 66-unit Virginia Pointe Condominium in Coconut Grove for a combined $27.7 million. BH Group itself offered $160 million in January to buy out all owners of the 170-unit Mutiny condo-hotel, also in Coconut Grove, according to the same report. Separately, Coconut Grove Spotlight reported that Canero Group closed a more than $17 million purchase of the 25-unit Chateau Grove in May and was weighing redevelopment of that site as well.
Elsewhere in Miami, branded luxury development is accelerating along similar lines. The Miami Herald reported that the 60-story Bugatti Residences Miami, a 183-unit tower, is planned for the Miami River just north of Brickell City Centre, and that the Faena Residences Miami broke a Miami River record this year with a $30 million pre-construction condo sale. The Financial Times has described Miami as an important city while noting that its momentum has waned; Raffles is now putting its own name on the door in Coconut Grove.
