Venetian Islands record: New York builders sell a $48.5M house on a lot they bought for $5.95M

A 10,700-square-foot waterfront house at 1413 North Venetian Way, on San Marco Island in the city of Miami, sold for $48.5 million, The Real Deal reported Oct. 16, a price Mansion Global also reported and that the Miami MLS record shows closing Oct. 7 (The Real Deal; Haute Residence, relaying Mansion Global and MLS #A11932345). “The sale marks a record for the Venetian Islands, and for San Marco, which is in the city of Miami,” The Real Deal says, and Mansion Global described the price as a new Venetian Islands record, above the $46 million sale of a mansion on San Marino Island in 2025, which Haute Residence identifies as 55 East San Marino Drive (The Real Deal; Haute Residence).

The sellers built it. Property records show Jacek and Olga Skarzynski, of Brooklyn-based Maven Construction Corp., sold the home to a trust managed by Charu Madan, The Real Deal reports; Mansion Global describes them as a New York-based couple who bought the property in 2021, built the house and named it Forte (The Real Deal; Haute Residence). The appraiser’s record shows what they paid: $5,950,000 on Feb. 15, 2021, by warranty deed from Seagull Cove of Florida LLC, which had paid $5,900,000 in 2018 (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser). Sources told The Real Deal the buyer is Hemant Taneja, CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based General Catalyst Partners, worth an estimated $3.6 billion; the record buyer is the trust, Haute Residence says the buyer was not named, and Taneja’s name rests on The Real Deal’s unnamed sources (The Real Deal; Haute Residence).

Your stake: if you own on the Venetian Islands or another Miami bay-front island, this is the new top sale a buyer or appraiser can point to, and the seller’s broker, Matthew Crane of Compass, says San Marco is “prepped for a really large value increase,” largely because most of its houses have wide open bay views and city of Miami building codes allow more lot coverage (The Real Deal). The county’s 2026 roll still taxes this parcel as a vacant lot at $9,372,350, with no value for a house (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser). For most readers it changes no bill.

The money

The house, by the listing as The Real Deal reports it: seven bedrooms and seven and a half baths on a 0.3-acre lot, a 70-foot knife-edge pool, a 14-foot seawall, 103 feet of water frontage and a deep-water dock with a 30,000-pound boat lift; the buyer also bought the furniture (The Real Deal). Mansion Global gives 10,689 square feet and calls it the largest home on San Marco Island (Haute Residence).

The price came down before it went up. Listing records show a first ask of $59.9 million on Dec. 17, 2025; Mansion Global said it came to market in December at $60 million and was cut several times (Haute Residence). The Real Deal says it was on the market for $47.5 million and sold above asking, $1 million over that last ask by our arithmetic (The Real Deal; our arithmetic). Crane, who represented the sellers with Compass’ Mathieu Rochette, declined to comment on the buyer and said the sellers received a lot of interest in August and September; Samantha Curry of Douglas Elliman represented the buyer and did not immediately respond to The Real Deal (The Real Deal).

The spread is not a profit. The $48.5 million sale is $42.55 million more than the $5.95 million the Skarzynskis paid for the lot (our arithmetic), but construction, carrying, financing and sale costs are on no record we have. The 2021 deed carried $35,700 in documentary stamps, 60 cents per $100 of its price; at that rate a $48.5 million deed would carry about $291,000 (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser; our arithmetic).

How it works

This record is reported but not yet on the public parcel record. As of Oct. 18 the appraiser still lists the Skarzynskis as owners and shows no 2026 sale for the parcel, and its 2026 roll classes it as vacant residential land, year built 0, with $9,367,400 of land value and $4,950 for a 1976 wood dock (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser). When the deed posts, its documentary stamps will be a check on the reported price.

What could still stop it

The price is reported, not yet recorded. The Real Deal says property records show the sale to the trust, but the appraiser’s public record had not caught up by Oct. 18, and the MLS record and Mansion Global reach us only through Haute Residence, the listings site of a brokerage, which says it has not checked the price against a recorded deed (The Real Deal; Haute Residence; Miami-Dade Property Appraiser). Mansion Global cites The Real Deal for the $47.5 million last ask, so the outlets are not independent on that figure (Haute Residence). The square footage differs by source, about 10,700 against 10,689, and so does the first ask, $59.9 million in the listing records against Mansion Global’s $60 million (The Real Deal; Haute Residence). The buyer’s identity rests on unnamed sources, and the buyer’s agent did not respond (The Real Deal).

Why it matters across Florida

This sale moved the top of the Venetian Islands market $2.5 million past the 2025 record, and it was a spec house: a builder bought the lot, built the house and sold it furnished to a trust (The Real Deal; Haute Residence; our arithmetic). Owners on the islands will see it in their comps, and readers anywhere in Florida can see how a trust buyer stays off the public record until a deed posts or a reporter’s sources name the buyer (The Real Deal; Miami-Dade Property Appraiser).

What to watch

The deed and its documentary stamps, which will confirm or revise the $48.5 million (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser). The buyer of record once the trust files. The 2027 roll value with a house on it. Whether another San Marco or Venetian Islands sale tests Crane’s call (The Real Deal).