Joseph Chetrit

You know how there really is a sustained real estate boom in Miami? Joseph Chetrit’s all in. 

The busy buyer and builder mostly associated with big deals and projects in his New York City home base has been buying up and building in the Magic City the past 18 months. 

A couple of illustrative examples: His Chetrit Group spent much of 2022 acquiring control of a 368-unit condo on a barrier island in Hollywood for upwards of nearly $18 million, part of a plan to ultimately redevelop what’s called the Hollywood Beach Resort. And, in December, a partnership emerged between Chetrit and hospitality mogul David Grutman to build out more than 6.2 acres in Miami’s coveted Brickell neighborhood into thousands of condos and tens of thousands of square feet of commercial space.

Dubbed River District and one of the largest projects in modern Miami, Chetrit and partners plan to start condo sales at part of it this year, according to Bloomberg.

“We really think Miami’s a market that’s here to stay,” Michael Chetrit, Joseph’s son who helps run the family business, told the news service. “Unlike the past surges Miami has had, this one is a permanent surge.” (Joseph Chetrit did not return requests for comment.)

The elder Chetrit almost undoubtedly shares this sentiment. He likely would not have followed the general migration southward from his home base were there not some there there. This suggests that River District and the Hollywood Beach Resort are just appetizers. 

The Chetrits — Joseph in the lead with his siblings and now other family members — made his real estate name in apartment buildings in the outer boroughs before becoming a prominent presence in Manhattan and Chicago during the 1990s through the early 2000s. Chetrit’s most notable New York investment was probably the purchase and attempted rehab of the Chelsea Hotel, which he abandoned in 2015. His biggest investment overall was as the lead in an investor group that bought Chicago’s Sears Tower in 2004 (they changed the name to Willis Tower after a new tenant). Blackstone bought the spire from them in 2015 for $1.3 billion. —T.A.