The German Who Reimagined South Beach (and Then Lost It All)
Before SoFi became SoFi — before the steakhouses, the yachts, and the $3,000-per-square-foot price tags — there was one loud, eccentric German with a checkbook and a vision:

Thomas Kramer.

In the early 1990s, South Pointe was… let’s call it character-building.

High crime. Abandoned buildings. Zero glamour. Most people avoided it.

Kramer saw land nobody wanted and decided he’d turn it into Miami’s version of Battery Park City.

Then he went out and bought 45+ acres for roughly $45 million — about $1M per acre.

For context:

Today, that acreage would likely cost closer to $100 million per acre.

Miami appreciation is a different sport.

And here’s the thing:

He wasn’t wrong.

His fingerprints are all over today’s SoFi:

- Portofino Tower, the project that proved luxury buyers would bet big on the neighborhood.

- Murano at Portofino, Murano Grande, Apogee, The Yacht Club — all built on land he assembled and envisioned.

- He effectively set the stage for South of Fifth to become one of the most expensive ZIP codes in the country.

But Miami loves a plot twist.

Kramer’s rise was as dramatic as his fall.

A massive Swiss court judgment over unpaid debts to his former father-in-law flipped the story — fast.

Star Island palaces and infamous parties turned into foreclosure and an exit from Miami.

Where is he now?

Still alive, mostly in Europe, occasionally on TV… but the helicopter arrivals and flamethrower nights are long gone.

Love him or hate him, Miami’s luxury skyline owes him a chapter.

His boldness (and chaos) helped create the Miami we know today.

Tomorrow: Part II — a very different kind of German developer shaping Miami’s next decade.