Spec developer Todd Glaser sells longtime Miami Beach home

Spec developer Todd Glaser sold his longtime waterfront home in Miami Beach for $11.8 million, The Real Deal has learned.

Glaser and his wife, Kim Glaser, sold the house at 3681 Flamingo Drive to a buyer from Boston, according to Glaser and listing agent Nelson Gonzalez of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty. Terrence Brewer of Grove Real Estate, Title and Legal Services brought the buyer.

The deed has yet to be recorded, and the buyer’s exact identity is unknown.

Many out-of-state wealthy buyers have moved to Florida seeking a tax haven. Massachusetts passed a “millionaire’s tax” in November that kicks in this year, adding an additional 4 percent annual income tax for those making $1 million or more, CNBC reported.

Todd Glaser is a South Florida spec developer who focuses on the luxury market. In November, he and his partners listed a renovated Tarpon Island estate in Palm Beach for $218 million. That property is directly across the water from Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous former Palm Beach property, which Glaser flipped to a venture capitalist for $26 million in 2021.

The Glasers bought the Miami Beach property for $1.8 million in 2003, according to records. The deal involved a land swap with the late Mickey Saewitz, whose family owns the Miami Beach institution Joe’s Stone Crab, Glaser said.

The 0.7-acre estate, built in 1936, includes a 7,360-square-foot, seven-bedroom main house, a one-bedroom guest house, and a garage with staff quarters, Gonzalez said. The estate has a total of seven bathrooms and one half-bathroom, records show. The one-bedroom guest house includes a kitchen, dining room, living room, and bathroom, according to Gonzalez.

The property also features a pool, 100 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway and a dock with a boat lift, the listing shows.

During the past 20 years, the Glasers renovated the bathrooms and kitchen, and did restorative work to maintain the historic character of the house, which was designed by Carlos Schoeppl. Schoeppl was a Mediterranean-style architect, and designed prominent Miami Beach estates during the early half of the 20th century, according to published reports and Gonzalez.

A main draw for the property was its unusual size, compared to typical properties in Miami Beach, Gonzalez said. “Large lots are hard to come by, and this was a 32,000-square-foot lot,” he said. “Anything over 20,000 square feet is considered huge.”

The Glasers listed the property on-and-off starting in 2014, Realtor.com shows. The asking price peaked at $13.9 million in 2021, dropping to $11.8 million when it was relisted earlier this month.

Gonzalez attributes the back-and-forth to Kim Glaser’s apprehension to selling.

“This wasn’t really Todd Glaser’s house, this was Kim Glaser’s house,” he said, jokingly. Once the couple bought a Marion Sims Wyeth-designed Mediterranean-style home in Palm Beach in August for $23.3 million, she was ready to sell the Miami Beach home, according to Gonzalez.

Waiting has its costs, though. The South Florida market has cooled significantly in recent months, showing a steep drop in sales volume. Prices, which surged during the region’s pandemic real estate gold rush, have stayed strong so far.

“Prices are holding,” Gonzalez said. “Sellers are not coming down on their prices.”

Katherine Kallergis contributed reporting.