Fortune International Group's St. Regis Sunny Isles reached $532.1 million in construction financing by April 2026, against a projected sellout above $3 billion, according to The Real Deal. The signal I weigh is closed construction debt, because a funded tower behaves differently from an announced one. Ask which lender closed before you wire a deposit.
Something changed in the Miami pre-construction market over the last two quarters, and Fortune International Group sits at the center of it. Capital is no longer flowing evenly across every announced tower. It is concentrating in the projects that have already closed their construction debt, and Fortune's St. Regis Sunny Isles is the clearest example: $532.1 million funded, a general contractor under contract, and a south tower nearly sold out. Meanwhile the firm is opening a second front on the Miami River with Faena Residences and a third in Brickell with Ora by Casa Tua, both aimed squarely at the Latin American buyer. This guide reads Fortune's actual 2026 numbers, what they say about where the market is heading, and the specific questions I put to any developer before a client wires a deposit.
Who is Fortune International Group
Fortune International Group is the Brickell-based firm founded by Edgardo Defortuna, and it occupies an unusual position in this market: it is both a developer and a brokerage. That dual role is the first thing I explain to clients, because it shapes everything about how the company operates. Most Miami developers build and then hand the units to outside sales teams. Fortune builds and sells, and it sells hard into Latin America, where Defortuna himself is from Argentina. The result is a firm whose towers are engineered around the foreign buyer's habits rather than retrofitted for them.
The company's center of gravity is the Sunny Isles Beach oceanfront. Jade Signature, a 57-story tower with 192 residences at 16901 Collins Avenue, was completed in 2018 and remains the reference point for what Fortune delivers when it finishes a building. That matters more than any brochure, because a completed tower is a fact you can walk through, measure, and resell.
Fortune is a separate business from Compass, where I hold my license, and from LuxuryDade. I do not work for Fortune. I represent buyers, and part of that job is telling you plainly where a developer's record is strong and where you still need to do your own diligence.
Track Record and Delivered Projects
Fortune's case rests on patience more than volume. The clearest illustration is the St. Regis site itself: Fortune and Chateau Group spent almost $113 million buying out the 4.7-acre parcel at 18801 Collins Avenue with 435 feet of beachfront back in 2014, according to The Real Deal. Twelve years later the north tower has not started construction. That is a developer willing to hold expensive dirt through an entire cycle rather than force a launch into a bad market.
I read that history as a strength, but buyers should read it accurately. A firm that waits twelve years for the right moment is also a firm whose timelines move. The un-fakeable part of any track record is delivery, and Jade Signature is the proof point: it got built, and buyers closed on it.
Reputation is not a guarantee. Every project stands on its own site, its own lender, and its own contract. A deep delivery record narrows the range of things that can go wrong, which is why I treat it as the first filter, not the last.
The 2026 Miami Pipeline
Fortune's 2026 pipeline runs on three fronts, and they are at genuinely different stages. This is the part buyers most often get wrong: they treat "in the pipeline" as one status, when the gap between a funded tower and a pre-development one is the entire risk conversation. St. Regis has closed financing and a contractor. Faena Residences has presales but has not broken ground. Ora by Casa Tua is still assembling its capital stack.
| Project | Area | Scale | Financing status | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Regis Residences (south) | Sunny Isles Beach | 62 stories, 170 units | $532.1M closed (project total) | 2028 |
| St. Regis Residences (north) | Sunny Isles Beach | 62 stories, 150 units | $113.8M added Apr 2026 | Construction starts 2026 |
| Faena Residences | Miami River | Two 68-story towers, 440 units | Presales, not yet built | 2029 |
| Ora by Casa Tua | Brickell | 77 stories, 533 units | $36M pre-development loan, EB-5 filed | Sales launched 2023 |
The St. Regis is two 62-story towers designed by Arquitectonica with Coastal Construction as general contractor, holding 70,000 square feet of amenities. Remaining units start at $5 million. Faena Residences on the Miami River is the second front, a Rafael Vinoly design where units run $1.4 million to $4 million and penthouses ask as much as $35 million. Ora by Casa Tua is the outlier: a 77-story, 533-unit condo-hotel at 1210 Brickell Avenue where owners can rent units on a three-day minimum, with prices from $900,000. Availability and figures change, so confirm the current status of any specific unit before you rely on it.
How Deposits and Escrow Work
On a Fortune pre-construction purchase, your deposit is governed by Florida condominium law, not by a handshake. Deposits sit in an interest-bearing escrow account, and you get a 15-day rescission window after signing to walk away. From there, most branded towers stage payments across milestones: reservation, contract signing, groundbreaking, and structural top-off, reaching 30 to 50 percent of the price by the time the tower is out of the ground, with the balance due at closing.
Fortune adds a wrinkle worth understanding. The firm has used the EB-5 investor visa program to help fill its capital stack, filing for designation on Ora by Casa Tua, where a $1.05 million investment can make foreign nationals and their families eligible for a green card, according to The Real Deal. Fortune used the same program on Nexo Residences in North Miami Beach. If a visa outcome is part of why you are buying, that is a legal question for an immigration attorney, not a sales question for a developer.
- Reservation: typically 10 percent, refundable inside the rescission window.
- Contract to top-off: staged installments bring total deposits to 30 to 50 percent.
- Closing: remaining balance and financing, often two to four years out.
The thing I tell every pre-construction buyer is to read the escrow and default clauses before you fall in love with a floor plan. My advice on a developer like Fortune specifically: the delivery record lowers your risk that the tower never rises, but it does nothing for the timeline risk, and this is a firm that has held a site for twelve years. Ask what happens to your deposit if delivery slips two years past the target, and get the answer from the contract, not the sales gallery. My full walkthrough of the pre-construction buying process covers each milestone in order, and what actually happens to a deposit in default covers the downside case.
How to Evaluate Any Miami Developer
Fortune is a useful test case, because its three projects sit at three different stages. Run the same four checks on any developer you consider, in this order.
- Closed construction debt. Not "secured financing" in a press release, but a closed loan with a named lender. St. Regis Sunny Isles has $532.1 million and Bank OZK has funded $418.3 million of it since 2020. A $36 million pre-development loan is a different animal entirely.
- Named general contractor. Coastal Construction is building the St. Regis. If nobody can tell you who is pouring the concrete, the schedule is a hope.
- Escrow and deposit terms. Are deposits protected and staged, or front-loaded and exposed?
- Delivered comparables. Has this developer finished a building like this one? Jade Signature is Fortune's answer. Many developers have no answer.
Foreign Buyers and the Latin America Channel
This is where Fortune differs from every other developer on this list, and where the 2026 shift is clearest. At Faena Residences, demand is running roughly 60 percent foreign and 40 percent domestic, with nearly 100 units presold for about $300 million as of November 2025, Defortuna told The Real Deal. That inverts the recent Miami pattern, where new-condo demand had tilted domestic as New Yorkers and other out-of-staters moved south during the pandemic.
Fortune sells where its founder comes from. Defortuna is Argentine, the firm markets its projects at expos in Buenos Aires, and he reports strong demand from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina. He also described a specific urgency taking hold: foreign buyers moving now because they expect a fresh wave of New York buyers to push prices up. Treat that as what it is, a developer's read on his own market, not a forecast. But the presale numbers behind it are real.
Here is the point I make to every international client looking at a Fortune project, and it applies more sharply here than anywhere else: Fortune is both the developer and the brokerage. When a Colombian or Argentine client asks me why they need their own agent if the developer's own team will sell to them directly, my answer is that the person across the table works for the seller. That is not an accusation, it is a structure. A strong developer record does not replace your own representation. On a Fortune tower I represent you on the buyer side, and that separation is exactly what protects your interests on price, unit selection, and contract terms. If you are buying from abroad, my foreign national buyer guide and the LLC structuring guide cover the mechanics before you sign.
My Take for Buyers
My honest read on Fortune in 2026: the three projects are not interchangeable, and buyers should stop treating them as one decision. St. Regis Sunny Isles is the funded one, with $532.1 million closed, Coastal Construction building, and a south tower nearly sold out. If you want the lowest delivery risk in this portfolio and you can clear the $5 million entry on remaining units, that is where it is. Faena has the presale momentum and the cultural pull, but construction has not started and 2029 is a long runway. Ora is the most speculative of the three and priced accordingly from $900,000.
The broader lesson applies past Fortune. In this market the useful question is no longer "is the developer good?" It is "is this specific tower funded?" Those were close to the same question in 2021. They are not the same question now, and that gap is where buyers are getting hurt. That is where a buyer's agent earns their keep.
"When a buyer asks me about a Fortune tower, my first question back is which one, because the funded project and the announced project are two different risks wearing the same logo. Closed construction debt is the line I care about, and everything else is a brochure."Gerardo Gonzalez, Licensed Real Estate Agent at Compass
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