South Florida has extended been a magnet for New York real estate gamers. And when most New Yorkers make a move on the regional market place, they do it in design: With tons of ballyhoo in hopes that even the smallest discounts and assignments grow to be the chat of the town.
The Damaghis are not most New Yorkers.
The Good Neck family has amassed developable internet sites throughout South Florida. Though some of its investments have surpassed those people of New York’s true estate royalty, the family’s specials have remained clandestine.
“They have bought some genuinely phenomenal belongings,” a source reported. “But some individuals just want to continue to keep it quiet.”
The Damaghis — produced up of partner-and-spouse Nasser and Shahnaz Damaghi and their youngsters Nader, Kambiz and Babak Damaghi — aren’t comprehensive-time genuine estate players. Nasser and his sons started paper products and own care things manufacturer Initially Excellent Enterprises in 1988, which has developed to make use of extra than 4,000 staff members at minimum seven amenities across the U.S. and Canada.
Genuine estate is extra of a aspect gig. The Damaghis have compensated $182.2 million throughout 15 promotions for developable land in accordance to a records assessment by The Authentic Deal.
TRD discovered the family members in November as the buyers who dropped $50.8 million on 2.7 acres south of Brightline’s MiamiCentral downtown passenger prepare station via sources familiar with the offer. Condition records for the limited legal responsibility enterprise that created the order do not explicitly tie the Damaghis to the offer. Neither the family’s title nor addresses for 1st Quality’s offices or one of the family’s Great Neck houses are mentioned in the filings. But the documents do checklist a person person of fascination: Moshe Oppenheim.
Turns out, Oppenheim is the clue to the Damaghis’ other holdings.
Muzzled
Nine entities registered to Oppenheim — the family’s longtime attorney — bought the bulk of the homes from 2019 to 2022.
The Damaghis are at the rear of the specials, in accordance to several sources, though no one particular preferred to converse on the report or even at all, citing the family’s strict guidelines to hold them off the radar. ”Real tough” to chat about the family, one particular resource claimed they are “very private,” other people retained repeating.
Though hesitant, some did budge, presented they remain nameless. They explained the family’s serious estate participate in as a “long-expression generational investment decision.” A further resource disclosed that the purchases were all hard cash — indeed, no mortgages are recorded on the real estate. And some others mentioned the Damaghis have searched for a lot more South Florida investments as not long ago as final 12 months.
In Fort Lauderdale’s booming Flagler Village community, the spouse and children owns approximately 5 acres on 3 websites: land on the northeast corner of Northwest Flagler Generate and 2nd Road, on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Northwest 1st Avenue, and instantly west of the federal courthouse at 299 East Broward Boulevard.
South of there, they have amassed the block fronting the New River on the northeast corner of South Andrews Avenue and Southeast Fifth Street. They also own nearby parking plenty and smaller commercial buildings, which are most likely candidates for redevelopment.
But the family’s to start with financial commitment was in Miami in 2013 when they bought a complete metropolis block of land in Edgewater, concerning Northeast 32nd and 33rd streets, together the east aspect of Biscayne Boulevard. This is the only non-hid offer, as the obtaining entity lists Kambiz Damaghi in state data.
Their other Miami web page is the downtown land south of the Brightline station, which has approval for a pair of blended-use residential towers with 2,007 models and spanning 4 million square feet.
The family members has decided on several parcels for advancement and are “assessing the opportunities” but just cannot share more aspects till the initiatives are introduced, Oppenheim wrote in an emailed reaction to a record of inquiries.
For the Damaghis, stealth manner is nothing new, as they have been opaque about their personal life. Initial Quality’s internet site and LinkedIn say lots about the company’s history but make no point out of its entrepreneurs. Rather, tying the spouse and children to the company is additional easily completed by reading
article content posted in 2019 and very last calendar year by Pennsylvania’s The Convey Lock Haven about Kambiz Damaghi’s speeches to the local chamber of commerce.
Temple Israel of Terrific Neck’s annals also demonstrate the Damaghis have been embedded in the region’s Jewish neighborhood. In 2012, the temple’s The Voice publication declared a bar mitzvah for Nader and Mitra Damaghi’s son. Kambiz Damaghi has also been shown on the board of trustees for the Sephardic Heritage Alliance for 2017-18.
As a result of Oppenheim, the family members agreed to give a minor about its background for this tale, and explained they are doing it expressly for the sake of precision. In 1978, Nasser and Shahnaz still left Iran for the duration of the revolution with their sons to escape persecution. Even though documents show the Damaghi loved ones incorporates various cousins, uncles and other relations, it is Nader, 61, Kambiz, 59, and Babak, 53, who direct To start with Good quality as co-CEOs — and who are obtaining up South Florida true estate
One particular thing the family members has not concealed so very well is its penchant for palatial residences in Great Neck’s affluent Kings Place.
In 2004, Babak and his spouse, Farhnaz, paid $12.8 million for the late comic Alan King’s household at 40 Shore Generate, in accordance to information. Fronting Manhasset Bay, the residence was created in 1926 in a mixture of Tudor and gothic kinds, and by 2012, the pair had replaced it with a Colonial-design and style châteauan measuring far more than 15,000 square ft. They bought it in 2017 for $22 million, information exhibit.
Nader and Mitra were nearby neighbors. They paid out $7.1 million in 2002 for the 10 Shore Generate manse, which 4 decades later on they changed, also with a Colonial-design castle that spans more than 10,000 sq. ft on 2 bayfront acres. The pair bought it in 2017 for $20 million, document show.
As for Kambiz and Haleh’s abode at 26 Dock Lane, they marketed it in 2017 for $14 million,
but not ahead of litigation gave a glimpse of their way of living in the home totaling additional than 14,000 square toes.
The pair had a 14-individual workers of housekeepers, groundskeepers, cooks, personal assistants and security, according to a 2013 lawsuit submitted in opposition to them by previous estate manager Christopher Marconi.
Marconi claimed he was illegally fired four months in on the task partly about elevating issue with Haleh’s personal assistant’s allegedly racist remarks to family staff members. In a non-public conference, Kambiz advised Marconi to “back off” his thrust to get the assistant fired, insinuating that Kambiz and the assistant had been “sexually intimate” and she had texts that “‘could be perceived’ as inappropriate by Haleh,” according to the lawsuit. Marconi, who could not be attained for remark, shed, even though his implication of an extramarital affair struck a chord with Kambiz.
“That is quite, pretty completely wrong and inappropriate to even advise,” Kambiz explained through a deposition, calling the allegation “shameful,” “despicable” and expressing it puts his “honor in question”.
New M.O.?
When Miki Naftali and a companion dropped $40.5 million for a Miami Worldcenter enhancement web site very last March, information releases flooded journalists’ inboxes with bulletins for a pair of supertall household towers. Namdar Group, also dependent in New York, also did not shy away from announcements about its strategy for a 41-story and a 43-tale apartment towers, also in downtown, very last August.
But when TRD attained out to the Damaghis in November about their purchase of the development website south of Brightline’s station, a member of the household vehemently denied they were being the prospective buyers and did not want to deliver his initially name.
No matter if the Damaghis’ increasing presence in South Florida, where by producing buzz over true estate offers is just as significantly portion of the sport as the precise expense, will push them to abandon their mysterious methods stays to be noticed.
They have, nonetheless, shown signs that they could be rethinking their very long-held modus operandi.
In a observe up contact with Oppenheim, he described the Damaghis’ agreement to react to TRD’s inquiries in an e mail as “a to start with.”