Arte developer discusses crypto adoption – Business Watcher

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There is never a dull moment in the Miami condo market these days. Arte, a 13-story luxury apartment building in Surfside, Florida, perhaps captures wild times the best.

As Magic City competes to become a cryptocurrency capital hosting the Bitcoin 2021 conference earlier this year and its mayor, Francis Suarez, champion of Artes new technology developers Alex Sapir and Giovanni Fasciano, has jumped. In May, they sold an apartment for $ 22.5 million paid for entirely in cryptocurrency. At the time, the deal was considered the largest transaction using digital tokens.

The oceanfront condo, located at 8955 Collins Avenue, is just two blocks north of Champlain Towers South, now the site of the tragic building collapse that killed nearly 100 people. Even as first responders scoured the rubble for signs of life, one of Artes’ apartments sold for $ 12 million at the end of June.

The 12-story building, which was completed in 2020, contains just 16 apartments, two of which were sold to Sapirs’ mother and sister for a combined $ 22.1 million, according to records from the property.

It’s not just the Sapir family. The property also has a famous member of the Trump family and former White House adviser as a tenant.

Commercial Observer spoke with co-developer Fasciano, who is from Italy, to discuss their adoption of digital money. (The interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Business Watcher: Why did you decide to accept cryptocurrency?

Giovanni Fasciano: We were at the end of the project and we were just missing a few units to sell. We understood that cryptocurrency had created a huge network of new wealth. And we thought that opening up the world of real estate to all these new individuals in the network [would] be a great way for them to turn assets into real investments. The market capitalization of this cryptocurrency is huge. We are talking about over $ 2 trillion.

Can you tell me something about the buyer?

He’s young. We are covered by an NDA, so we cannot disclose.

But just to give you an idea, our clients so far have been mostly from the Northeast, private equity investors, high net worth individuals from New York. These are completely different networks than the one we are talking about now with cryptocurrency.

Can you explain the transaction to me? How exactly does selling real estate with crypto work?

As we could not take any risk on the transaction, we called on a third party company. The transaction was officially in cryptocurrency, but what we were credited with was the equal price in US dollars. So in the end we were paid in US dollars and the third party made the exchange for us.

[After getting] the offer, we closed in exactly two weeks. The buyer followed the traditional KYC (Know Your Customer) process and requested two days for inspections. Funds were faster to close, you removed a lot of procedures that [involve] the banking system.

You took very few risks. So are you surprised that there aren’t more developers who have embraced this?

I am actually not very surprised. It’s an old-fashioned business. Our procedures are still very old. But I believe that will only become more accepted over time. Developers must evolve and modernize.

Besides crypto, Arte stands out because of its proximity to Champlain Sud, the condo that collapsed this summer. How did the tragedy affect your building?

We have a west building above our parking lot and a wonderful clubhouse with a tennis court [across the street from the main residential building]. For over a month, we basically gave first responders food, drink [at] our west building and our clubhouse. They came to dress, to shower. We have done our best to help in this tragedy.

Can you tell me more about how this horrific incident affected the business? Has it changed the appetite of buyers?

Not at all. We still don’t know why [the building collapsed].

After leaving the White House, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kusher rented accommodation with Arte. How are they as tenants? Has there been a backlash from other unit owners, especially after the January 6 riot?

We are happy to have them like any other new buyer we have in the building, nothing different from the rest of the residents.

They are beautiful people.

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