Luxe Brands Are Turning Their Hand to Condominiums

Brands famed for their top-of-the-range vehicles, high-end perfume, and upmarket activewear are shaking up the real estate scene by putting their name to luxury condominiums. Here are four that have caught our eye—all of them in Miami. 

Porsche Design Tower

The Porsche Design Tower boasts one of the ultimate toys for petrolheads—an automated car elevator. Vehicles are whisked up to residents’ apartments, where they’re kept safe and sound in glass-walled “sky garages.” Owners of one of these 132 sleekly appointed apartments can then continue to coo over their prized Porsche or Lamborghini while chilling out and hosting parties. As for the 56th-floor penthouse, Forbes reports that it boasts a gallery capable of showcasing up to 11 high-end vehicles—it’s like having a walk-in wardrobe, except instead of matching your shirt to the occasion, you do it with a $100,000 car. A touch OTT? Perhaps, but it demonstrates how Porsche gets the demographic, wooing a loyal car-loving clientele into buying into the brand in a totally new way. 

Bentley Residences

A Sunny Isle Beach neighbor of Porsche Design Tower, Bentley Residences also stars a car elevator as part of its 200 opulent residences. There are also midcentury-inspired kitchens, deliciously angular swimming pools, and marble island bars, from which you can toast your Bentley through a glass wall. Bentley’s Head of Design Collaborations, Brett Boydell, explains to LX Collection why the brand, renowned for its luxury vehicles, has sidelined into the residential market: “Both now and in the future, it is more important than ever that we connect Bentley with innovation and sustainability beyond the car itself.” It’s not just a case of sticking the brand logo on a building, however. The collaboration between Bentley Motors and Miami’s Dezer Development, says Boydell, is authentic: “We have genuinely been involved in designing every single detail of the building, inside and out.”

Missoni Baia

With its Olympic outdoor pool flanked by four-poster daybeds, its elevated tennis court, and residents-only spa, Missoni Baia is something straight out of a Missoni catalog. The 147 luxury waterfront condos overlooking Biscayne Bay offer the sophisticatedly active people who wear Missoni’s luxe sports and swimwear the chance to live the lifestyle. At times, the condominium’s interiors directly reflect Missoni’s trademark designs—from the lobby, with its luminous etched and dichroic glass, to supporting pillars bearing the multihued stitching synonymous with the brand. The residences themselves harness the sleek Italianate side of Missoni, with Blue de Savoie marble counters in the kitchens and cooling Calacatta Ice marble counters in the bathrooms. Head of the house of Missoni, Angela Missoni, has overseen the project, and it shows.

Diesel Wynwood

Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood boasts a pioneering arts scene, and Diesel capitalizes on this, with 159 residences in its own artily branded condominium. Indeed, Bernard Zyscovich, who led the architectural team, says of Diesel Wynwood: “It’s like living in an art piece.” Like Porsche and Bentley, the aim here is to put Diesel’s recognizable qualities and quirks front and center via an entirely new product. The space comprises bold design features consistent with Diesel’s branding: a rooftop pool framed with audacious yellow geometric pillars, a social lounge burning bright with the motto “For Successful Living.” The residences, says Diesel, offer “lots of places to play, and beckon the mischievous side of current and future Miamians.” This highlights why Miami, in particular, is an incubator for these kinds of branded residences; the city appeals to exactly the kind of derring-do, freewheeling, art-loving buyers who are attracted to the out-of-the-ordinary.