Developer Ricardo Dunin has decades of experience building in the U.S., Caribbean and Brazil, including three branded Ritz-Carlton residences, and while at it, he says he's gotten a good sense of what his hometown of Miami is looking for when it comes to condo-hotels.
“I’ve been here 35 years, that means I’ve been here a third of the life of the city," Dunin, CEO of Oak Capital, told CoStar News. "We’re still maturing as a city. When I got here, we were like toddlers, and now we’re like teenagers."
As part of their evolution, condo hotels are growing in popularity in Miami, and Dunin said his latest project launches a new era for the product in the city's financial district.
Called Domus Brickell Park, the 12-story building at 1611 SW Second Ave. was built by North Development — a joint venture between Dunin’s Oak Capital and Peruvian real estate development company Edifica. It comes with 171 studio to two-bedroom units.
The condo hotel is one of the latest to open in Miami, where thousands of similar units are underway. But unlike some of the other towers rising nearby, Domus “is the Uber” of condo-hotels, said Dunin, due to the developers' own in-house management of the building, led by subsidiary North Management, which provides a “new model that we think is sustainable long-term."
Dunin, who founded Oak Capital in 2020 and started as executive chairman of North Development in 2021, said Miami no longer is a city seeking direction and culture and lacking good restaurants. Its real estate development has grown along with the city.
"Now we have everything ... Miami, it's not only the place to be now, but it's exponentially getting better," he said.
Moving forward, North Development has already started construction on Domus Brickell Center just three blocks north of Domus Brickell Park, and it recently launched sales of House of Wellness, the third condo hotel set to be managed by North Management.