Mr. Jorge Perez is a known billionaire real estate developer and an art collector in Florida. He has a lot of condo-tower projects over the past few decades that have changed Miami. For decades, his taste in art and architecture were largely influenced by his history. He prefers Latin American paintings and sculptures. In fact, his house is a 10.000 square foot Venetian-style palazzo in Miami.
His tastes changed, however, and last year Mr. Perez announced that he will be donating most of his Latin American Art that is worth about $20 million. In addition to that, he wanted an additional cash gift of $20 million donated to the Miami Art Museum which will be renamed Jorge M. Perez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County. He then changed his collection with contemporary works.
He also announced that his family will be temporarily living in an ultramodern condominium penthouse in Miami Beach so they could go to the beach on weekends. The unit which he is building for himself is 3,200 square foot with 4 bedrooms and an informal, beach-house look. This is designed by Yabu Pushelberg. The penthouse would have overstuffed white couches, light-colored woods, and lots of artworks. It will have its own roof terrace and a pool.
The ultramodern penthouse is the latest project of Mr. Perez which is Once Ocean. The project is located in downtown Miami South of Fifth neighborhood. It is designed by Enrique Norten and will have 18 floors. 80% of the building’s units are under contract ranging from $2 million to $10 million. The development work changed his tastes lately.
The home’s exterior walls are covered in ivy that wraps from the front driveway to the stone pillars and keystone arches of the back patio. The land for the house was sold to Mr. Pérez for $1.2 million in 1994, according to public records, but Mr. Pérez says he doesn’t remember how much it cost to build. Comparable-size homes in the same community are listed for around $12 million each.
Mr. Perez and his wife also own 2 other homes. The first one is Park City, Utah and the other is in Punta Este, Uruguay. One Ocean on the other hand, will have mostly women artists namely Michele Oka Doner; Uruguayan installation artist Ana Tiscornia, and Lydia Azout, a Colombian.