How I Sold Star Island Off-Market for $49.5 Million and Started the Market Fire

Most agents would kill for a listing like 22 Star Island Drive. I helped build it.

Years before the $49.5 million closing — which made it the most expensive single-family sale in Miami-Dade County history at the time — I was on the ground floor. Literally. I was involved from construction through completion, watching a vision become one of the most extraordinary homes ever built in South Florida.

When it came time to sell, the property never touched the MLS. There was no open house, no listing on Zillow, no sign in the yard. This was a $65 million whisper-price estate owned by Stuart Miller, the executive chairman of Lennar Corporation — one of America's largest homebuilders. I worked alongside Stuart's son David Miller on the listing side. The sale had to be handled with absolute discretion.

So we went grass roots.

The Art of the Off-Market Sale

Here's what most people don't understand about ultra-luxury real estate: the best deals never hit the open market. The buyers who can write a $50 million check don't browse Realtor.com. They work through trusted networks. They rely on agents who know them, know the market, and know which doors to knock on.

That's exactly what I did.

I met with people. I picked up the phone and called every contact, every person both locally and nationally I could think of, every real estate agent I knew who worked with qualified buyers in this price range. Not a blast email. Not a social media post. Private meetings. Personal calls. One by one. Eventually, one of those agents had a buyer — one that was looking for exactly this kind of property.

But having a buyer and closing a buyer are two very different things.

Showings Are My Specialty

I scheduled the showing. And this is where the deal was really made.

When you're showing a $50 million home, you're not just opening doors and pointing at finishes. You're telling a story. You're helping someone see their life in these rooms, on this water, under these trees. You're reading their body language, answering questions they haven't asked yet, and building a vision that makes the price feel not just justified — but inevitable.

Way of Wade Cotton Candy on my feet. The buyer noticed. I did my thing.

“Showings are my specialty. When you're walking someone through a $50 million home, you're not selling square footage — you're selling a life. Every room has a story, every view has a feeling, and it's my job to connect the buyer to that emotion.”

— David Hunt Solomon

The buyer left that day knowing this was the one. We closed at $49.5 million in July 2020 — in the middle of a global pandemic, when most of the real estate world was frozen.

A Million People Watched

Before the sale, I envisioned and directed a drone flythrough video of the property — a single continuous shot weaving through both the 17,000-square-foot main residence and the 6,000-square-foot guest house. I handpicked the soundtrack myself: Nicolas Jaar's "Love Teacher" — a track that matched the mood of the property perfectly. Moody, hypnotic, luxurious without trying too hard.

The video went viral.

Over 1,043,000 views. A real estate video, for a single property, seen by more than a million people. That's not marketing — that's a cultural moment.

The video captured everything that makes 22 Star Island extraordinary: the scale, the light, the seamless indoor-outdoor living, the five-star resort-style pool that wraps around the property like a private coastline. It showed people something they'd never seen before — and they couldn't look away.

The Super Bowl Party That Put It on National Television

In January 2020, 22 Star Island hosted the Big Game Big Give — one of the most exclusive charity events of Super Bowl LIV weekend. Five hundred guests. Three thousand dollars a ticket. And a host list that read like a Hollywood premiere: Michael Bay, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Jamie Foxx, Jim Brown, Ray Lewis.

It was described as "a harder ticket to get than the Super Bowl itself."

CBS Miami's Lisa Petrillo came to cover the event — and I was the one who gave her the tour. Walking through every room on national television, showing the world what $65 million buys on Star Island. That kind of exposure doesn't come from a listing on the MLS. It comes from being embedded in the property from day one — from construction to celebrity events to the final closing.

The Property: 22 Star Island Drive

For those who want the details:

The main residence spans 17,000 square feet with 7 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. The 6,000-square-foot guest house adds 2 more bedrooms. Designed by Domo Architecture + Design with interiors by Charlotte Dunagan of Dunagan Diverio Design Group.

The property features: - Heated infinity-edge pool with sunken fire pit and swim-up bar - Outdoor kitchen and pizza bar - 30-foot Guiana chestnut tree as the courtyard centerpiece - Wine room with 600+ bottle capacity - Private pool off the master bath - Deep-water dock on Biscayne Bay

And here's a detail most people don't know: the original 1931 guest house on the property wasn't demolished. It was physically picked up, moved, and raised above base flood elevation — preserving a piece of Star Island's history while bringing it up to modern standards. That kind of care and vision is what separates a spec project from a legacy estate.

The Sale That Started the Fire

When we closed 22 Star Island at $49.5 million in July 2020, the luxury market was frozen. COVID had shut everything down. Deals were falling apart. Buyers were paralyzed.

And then this sale hit the wire.

Stuart Miller was the visionary — the one who saw the potential of Star Island before the rest of the market caught up. He built something extraordinary and had the conviction to price it accordingly. I was the procuring cause — the one who picked up the phone, found the buyer, and closed the deal that everyone said couldn't happen in a pandemic.

That closing was the knee-jerk reaction that sent the entire island into a frenzy and carried the rest of Miami Beach with it. It injected confidence into a market that desperately needed it. Within months, Star Island went from quiet to white-hot. Prices surged. Deals started moving. Billionaires began assembling land positions that would have been unthinkable a year earlier. And the market kept breaking record after record all sparked by this sale.

“The $49.5 million closing wasn't just a transaction. It was a signal. It told the market that Miami Beach luxury wasn't just alive — it was about to explode. And I was the one who lit the match.”

— David Hunt Solomon

The island that had been a well-kept secret became the most sought-after address in America. And it all traces back to one off-market phone call in the middle of a pandemic.

Why Star Island

Star Island isn't just a neighborhood. It's a symbol. Eighty-six acres sitting in the middle of Biscayne Bay, connected to the mainland by a single guarded bridge off the MacArthur Causeway. There are only 34 lots on the entire island. The resident list reads like a who's who of American power: Ken Griffin, Phillip Frost, George Lindemann, Robert Pera (owner of the Memphis Grizzlies), Russell Weiner (founder of Rockstar Energy, son of radio icon Michael Savage), Rick Ross, Leonard Hochstein (renowned plastic surgeon), Wayne Holman, Roy and Lea Black, Gloria Estefan, Shaquille O'Neal, Rosie O'Donnell, and Michael Ferro (who paid a record-breaking $120 million for 26 Star Island in 2025).

Security is 24/7. The views — of downtown Miami, South Beach, Key Biscayne, and the open bay — are among the most spectacular in the world.

The sale of 22 Star Island proved something I've always believed: the best deals aren't found on a website. They're made by agents who do the work — who pick up the phone, who know the market better than anyone, and who can walk a buyer through a home and make them feel something no photograph ever could.

I was under strict NDA, so I was not allowed to talk about it or publicize it. And out of respect for my client and for the deal, I never did. Try to find that discipline in today's market — where every broker is #1 and the privacy of the buyer means nothing. The sale of 22 Star Island somehow leaked onto The Real Deal, and just as quickly as the deal happened, it was forgotten. But for those who were involved, and for the rest of the market that spawned off of its quiet power — the deal was louder than any cheap publicity you see in today's market.

If you're looking to buy or sell on Star Island — or anywhere in Miami Beach's ultra-luxury market — I'd love to have that conversation.

— David Hunt Solomon