At first glance, it looks like another substantial Sunny Isles Florida high-rise, but the Porsche Design Tower has architectural design plumage unlike any other high rise in the United States, or anywhere else. It is the first real estate product of the iconic Porsche Design Group in Austria, and will be the only one built in Florida. These factoids aside, the PDT bears a second look, as this high rise has garnered over $600M in sales, and is 84% sold. It is expected to be completed in 2016. It is the first of its kind, and a template for future Porsche Design Towers throughout the world.
A major reason for this concept to become a worldwide Porsche Design initiative is due to one of its design dimensions and differentiators: the sky garage – a robotic parking system which allows the owners to park their vehicles in sky garages directly next to their units, no matter how high they are. It works this way: the sky garage features three circular platforms at the building’s center that operate as automobile elevators equipped with sensors that take vehicles and their owners to their designated floor. The cars will then be parked at one of the robotic parking spaces adjacent to the owners’ residences. It will not be necessary for owners to leave their cars until they are in front of their units. Once the car is parked, residents will be able to see their car through their living room windows.
Michael and Gil Dezer, a father/son real estate developer team in New York, originally conceptualized this sky garage idea for a building in New York. And after they had moved their development company to Florida, they wanted to try this concept again, except on a larger scale. In the meantime, however, they became more involved in condo projects, partnering with Donald Trump as he constructed luxury beachfront high rises in Sunny Isles, Florida. But they never forgot the sky garage idea and how, as Gil said once, it would help high density urban problems in areas of the world where traffic, and car ownership was an everyday problem. And the solution was not difficult. Instead of garage or street parking, the car could be put on an elevator and taken up to the owner’s residence. As Gil explained, “What this is really doing is taking two technologies that have existed for years and putting them together. It’s taking the robotic arm and it’s putting it in an elevator.”
But this elevator’s use – keeping a car nearby – underscores Gil’s personal passion for cars, especially Porsches. He is the only developer we know who had a Porsche mounted on a wall in his condo at the Trump Palace, another of his seven previous, completed condo projects. In a recent interview, he admitted to having 12 Porsches, as well as 17 other cars. It was a kind of inevitable synchronicity that brought Gil Dezer and the Porsche Design Group together, as each knew the other’s brand quite well.
Further, as the plans evolved, the 60-story, ultra luxury, puristic (a Porsche Design Group word) Porsche interior design fit perfectly into the overall development concepts of the Dezers and their Miami-based architecture firm, Sieger Suarez.
Beyond the sky garages, there are two other design differentiators of major design interest. First, is the Tower’s four-level, 16,915 square foot penthouse that starts on the 56th floor and includes four suite bedrooms that can be converted into six bedrooms, two dens/flex rooms, and six and a half baths. Its amenities include two private pools, one rooftop, one terrace, two balconies and two Summer kitchens. These are in addition to four car sky garage spaces located adjacent to the residence. This one-of-a-kind penthouse is priced at $32.5 million.
The other design differentiator, associated with its sky garage system, is its Man Cave component. The Man Caves are the Tower’s private garages for automobile collectors. These are being planned for the third floor of the Tower, where about 12,000 square feet of space will be divided into six spaces that can each hold four, six, and nine cars.
The owners can park their prized automobiles in a gallery-like showcase and still have space for a living room, bar, and billiard table where they can invite friends to stop by for cigars and cognac. This is basically a living room amid luxury automobiles, and has become a popular concept for collectors. The six Porsche Design Tower Miami Man Caves are priced from $1.8 to $2.5 million and even feature ocean views.
The 60-story building will be home to 132 residents. The residences range between 4200 and over 17,000 square feet, sharing three car elevators, with two to four car spaces per residence.
In addition to the Man Caves, the sky garages, and elevators (now called the Dezervators), there are balcony plunge pools, private wine lockers in the Towers’ restaurant, remote controlled toilets, and Vichy showers in the residences. According to an article in the Miami Herald, Gil said the project has attracted “at least 22 billioniares. You don’t spend $5 million on a condo if you only have $15 million.” Good to know!
