Former CEO of J. Crew and Gap adds to North Bay Road waterfront assemblage

UPDATED, Sept. 3, 10:10 a.m.: Retail investor Mickey Drexler went shopping for more waterfront land on North Bay Road, and he got it.

Drexler, former CEO of J. Crew and Gap, paid $16.5 million for the 7,135-square-foot house at 4434 North Bay Road in Miami Beach, according to sources. The Wall Street Journal first reported the sale. The property is adjacent to Drexler’s home.

Abbey and Helene Berkowitz sold the six-bedroom house to Drexler. The home, built in 1935 and later expanded, sits on a 16,823-square-foot lot. It has seven bathrooms and one half-bathroom, a pool and dock.

Abbey Berkowitz is an investor whose family owned hotels on Collins Avenue, according to the website for Yehudi, an organization the Berkowitzes co-founded.

The couple paid $925,000 for the North Bay Road house in 1989, property records show.

In the latest sale, Pablo Alfaro of Douglas Elliman represented the buyer and seller of the home. He declined to comment.

With the purchase, Drexler now controls 1.3 contiguous waterfront acres. Drexler is also chairman and CEO of Alex Mill, an apparel company.

More than three years ago, he paid $13.7 million for the waterfront property at 4462 North Bay Road, which is on the opposite side of the home that he and his wife own at 4452 North Bay Road. The couple paid nearly $12.9 million in 2017 for that property, which previously belonged to Calvin Klein.

In November, Drexler sold his Idaho estate and a pair of neighboring lots for $11 million.