DAMAC's $347M Surfside Permit Bigger Than Its Announced Project

Miami-Dade County issued a $347.2 million master building permit on September 8 for 8777 Collins Avenue in Surfside, the address where Champlain Towers South collapsed in June 2021, killing 98 people. Permit #2026070143 covers 496,000 square feet across 20 floors, county permit records show, and lists the developer of record only as “Ref Only/Solara Surfside,” a placeholder, not a confirmed corporate entity.

DAMAC Properties, the Dubai-based developer, bought the roughly 1.8-acre parcel in a nearly $120 million deal finalized in 2022, and has since marketed a Zaha Hadid Architects-designed project there called The Delmore. Prior reporting described that project as a 12-story, 37-unit building priced from $15 million a unit, with zero units sold as of April 2026 and DAMAC working to resubmit its master building permit. This new permit’s scope, 20 floors and nearly half a million square feet, is larger than the building publicly described in that reporting.

Why it matters

This is the first building permit of this size logged at the collapse site since DAMAC bought the land. South Florida developers and buyers watching the Delmore’s stalled sales now have a hard county record to weigh against DAMAC’s public marketing: a permitted envelope that does not match the previously reported unit count and floor count for the same address. Nothing in the county record itself says why the gap exists, but it is a fact worth tracking as the project moves toward a relaunch.

The numbers

The permit lists a declared value of $347,200,000, a building size of 496,000 square feet, 20 floors, “multifamily” use, and “new” construction as the scope of work, with the contractor of record listed as “Owner.” That is roughly triple the reported price DAMAC paid for the land itself. The Delmore, as previously reported, is a 12-story, 37-unit building with prices starting at $15 million per unit.

What’s next

DAMAC has said it plans to relaunch Delmore sales later this year after securing insurance and a general contractor, according to prior reporting, and is resubmitting its master building permit. The American Developer has not independently confirmed that this September 8 permit is that resubmission, since the permit’s own developer field does not name DAMAC. Confirmation of the entity behind the permit, and a fuller accounting of the size gap, are the two open questions to watch as the project proceeds.