UAE Property Group Makes High Bid for Surfside Condo Site

A Miami judge has approved the contingent sale of the Surfside, Florida, property where a 12-story condominium building collapsed in June, killing 98 people.

A Dubai-based billionaire bid $120 million to buy the property, although an auction may be held later if others appear willing to bid a higher price, according to local news reports. Most of the proceeds of the sale are expected to go to families of victims of the collapse of Champlain Towers South, which has been called the deadliest structural failure in U.S. history. Another $50 million is expected to come from insurance coverage.

At a hearing last week, Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman counseled family members of the victims and surviving owners not to fight over how proceeds are distributed.

“We have 98 people who perished in this. If the choice I have is to give unit owners more, or take the excess and give it to relatives of family members who died, I’m going to go with the latter,” Hanzman said. “These decisions are difficult. It’s going to be sad, in my view, if we see unit owners going up against each other on this issue.”

The likely high bidder on the property was billionaire Hussain Sajwani, of the Dubai-based DAMAC Properties. The firm’s website calls the company a luxury real estate firm, founded in 2002, that has a number of high-end properties in South Florida. The bid came in well above the $95 million appraisal value, news reports said.

The proposed sale agreement does not mention a memorial that some victims’ family members have lobbied for at the site. The sale will have to be signed off on by attorney Michael Goldberg, the appointed receiver for the condominium association.

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