- Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, is keeping quiet about wealthy Russians who have bought homes there.
- For many real estate agents and companies, talking about it is “bad for business.”
- One local said she didn’t want to believe that Russia saw it all, but would rather not take the risk.
Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, keeps its lips tight on the Russian wealth that lives there.
Originally a place that attracted both tourists and immigrants fleeing communism in the Soviet Union, this corner of Florida’s Miami region saw a boom in luxury development at the turn of the century. Since then, various Russian elites have staked money on high-rise condominiums towering over the ocean. But amid rising tensions from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, many people don’t want to talk about the money that helped boost the city’s economy and its nickname “Little Moscow.”
“They love it here, and they like to spend their money and enjoy their life,” Lana Bell, a Russian real estate agent, told a NewsNation correspondent. Brian Entin of his wealthy Russian clientele just before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Bell did not respond to several emails I sent him requesting a meeting last week when he was in Sunny Isles. It is the same silence I received from other real estate agents. An agent I spoke with deflected my question about Russian buyers and said there were none.
In recent years, Florida saw the largest number of Russian property purchases in the US. While many preferred Sunny Isles Beach for its location, agents I spoke with told me the market was still dominated by buyers. from USA, Europe and South America.
Some of them acknowledged the influence of Russian buyers in Sunny Isles Beach and told me that they had yet to see big changes in the market as a result of the sanctions. Russian buyers appear to be stuck in a holding pattern, weighing their options while waiting to see how the sanctions affect their money.
Staying quiet makes sense as wealthy Russians grow anxious amid the mounting number of sanctions. Daniel Gielchinsky, an attorney with DGIM Law, PLLC in nearby Aventura, Florida, which handles real estate litigation and bankruptcy cases in the area, said that for Russian buyers, discretion is paramount. For agents, talking was “bad for business,” he said.
I heard the same refrain from a local business owner on Collins Avenue who was nervous about discussing his views on the conflict or how it affected his business. The large number of locals who did not want to talk to me officially offered me the same reason, although their matters were more personal, since many still had relatives and friends in Russia. In the days after Putin’s initial attack on Ukraine, thousands of anti-war protesters in Russia were arrested. And a Russian state television worker who interrupted a live broadcast with an anti-war protest was also arrested, questioned for 14 hours and fined, The New York Times reported.
A Russian-American who lives in South Florida and frequents Sunny Isles Beach to see friends said: “It’s devastating to see what’s happening right now.” He said that she grew up in Russia but is also Ukrainian, with family in both countries.
“It’s also very scary to see the amount of propaganda the Russians are subjected to,” he said. “It’s hard to find out what the truth is when you’re right in the middle and public opinion is being manipulated on a daily basis.”
When I asked if we could use his full name in an article, he declined, requesting anonymity for security reasons. “Although I don’t want to believe that they control everything, I prefer not to take the risk.”
