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September 2, 2010 |
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| September 21, 2007 |
By: Jessica Burke |
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high profile Miami litigator is expanding his real estate holdings on Key Biscayne.
Attorney Eugene E. Stearns and his wife, Diana, purchased a two-story home at 250 Cape Florida Drive for $8 million Aug. 31 from United Real Estate Ventures owned by trader D. John Devaney.
The 7,852-square-foot house has eight bathrooms, six bedrooms and a first-floor master suite. The house built in 1985 features cathedral ceilings.
The home is on about half an acre overlooking Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park across the water on the southernmost road before entering the park. The property was not advertised for sale in the Multiple Listing Service.
Calls to United Real Estate Ventures and Devaney’s affiliated United Capital Markets were unanswered, and the companies’ voice mailbox system was full. Sherrie Crabill, United Real Estate Ventures’ property manager, did not respond to e-mail.
Stearns financed the property with a $5 million loan from CitiMortgage, according to Miami-Dade County public records.
Stearns and his wife also own waterfront property a few lots down at 180 Cape Florida Drive. The 4,829-square-foot house with five bedrooms is on a 0.43-acre lot. The couple paid $450,000 for the home in 1981.
Stearns did not return calls for comment by deadline.
He is a shareholder, chairman and president of the Miami firm Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson and serves as the chairman of the litigation department.
One of his most notable roles was as lead trial counsel in a class action suit against Exxon on behalf of 11,000 station owners. They won a $1.1 billion verdict against the company, which had then become ExxonMobil. Stearns Weaver received $249 million of $325 million in legal fees authorized in the case.
Other clients Stearns has successfully represented include Ivax, BankAtlantic, the Ocean Club, First Union and golfing great Jack Nicklaus.
Before Stearns was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1972, he worked for former Gov. Reubin Askew and was on the state House staff.
Devaney bought the Key Biscayne home for $3.8 million in March 2004 and more than doubled the price when he sold it 3˝ years later.
Devaney founded Key Biscayne-based United Real Estate Ventures in 2000 to manage his personal real estate portfolio. His properties have a combined value of about $200 million including about half in Key Biscayne, according to the company Web site. The company owns about a dozen properties on the island.
On the same day he sold to the Stearnses, Devaney sold the neighboring vacant lot at 240 Cape Florida Drive for $6 million to Heron Investment Group and its manager, John Allen Daum. United Real Estate Ventures originally bought the 0.49-acre lot for $3.45 million in March 2004.
But South Florida real estate isn’t the only thing Devaney has up for sale. The hedge fund manager and chief executive officer of Key Biscayne-based United Capital Markets and United Capital Asset Management ran into trouble in the subprime meltdown and has put some personal items on the market.
In July, Devaney placed his 142-foot yacht Positive Carry up for sale. He was asking $23.5 million for the boat with four Jacuzzis. The following month, his company’s Sikorsky S76C helicopter was placed on the market for $10.955 million.
He also is looking for a buyer for his 16-bedroom Aspen, Colo,. property, the Sardy House, which he has owned for less than a year.
In July, Devaney blocked withdrawals from the Horizons ABS Fund he manages after investors tried to pull out. One accounted for a quarter of the assets. The $620 million fund had lost more than 30 percent of its value in June.
Devaney founded United Capital in 1999 after trading bonds at two investment firms.
His United Real Estate Ventures was among the investors planning to buy the oceanfront trailer town of Briny Breezes in Palm Beach County to develop an upscale resort. The $510 million purchase fell through in July. United Capital Markets was going to be the underwriter for the development.
In February, Devaney’s real estate company joined the Crimson Ibis Companies and Ascot Development to purchase 154 acres in Delray Beach, paying $44.4 million for a tract zoned for 380 single-family homes.
Jessica Burke can be reached at jburke@alm.com or at (305) 347-6685
250 Cape Florida Drive photo by A.M. Holt
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