The Acqualina Brand, a shining star in the Trump Group organization, has grown in leaps and bounds since its inception, garnering awards and accolades every step of the way. A key figure in its growth has been a native New Yorker, drawn to South Florida by the sun.
For Michael Goldstein, President of Sales at Trump Group, his real estate career grew out of a moment of serendipity. He and his wife moved to South Florida from New York City in 1983 and lived with his mother in law in Deerfield Beach.
“The washing machine in her building wasn’t working, so I went to the sales office to find someone who could fix it and ran into the owner of the company.” Goldstein recalls. “We got to talking. He said he’d love to have someone from New York work for him. And he sent me to real estate school. Before that, I knew nothing about real estate, had no thought about being in real estate.”
It turns out, Goldstein was a natural. He parlayed his telemarketing sales experience into his newfound career and made $20 million in sales his first year. Since then, he’s worked on major luxury developments in South Florida, with an estimated sales total of $5 to $6 billion throughout his 30 year career.
He joined the Trump Group in 1998, when they began developing Acqualina, with the first tower debuting in 2006. After the resort, they introduced The Mansions at Acqualina, a residential development. The sales office opened in 2012 and the building sold out in 21 weeks. The Mansions opened in 2015, and the sales office for The Estates at Acqualina opened that same year.
The Estates is a $1.5 billion project, with Phase I expected to debut in 2020. The property boasts Villa Acqualina with over 50,000 square feet of amenities, including an ice skating rink, bowling lanes, and a Flow rider wave simulator. Goldstein says it’s like no other building in the market.
“When it comes to our amenities and level of service, we’re unmatched,” he says. “We set out to find something different and unique that nobody else has. With 1,200 feet of beachfront, it’s like a city here. When you drive onto the property, you enter a whole different world.”
And it seems once you get a taste of the Acqualina lifestyle, it’s hard not to come back for more. According to Goldstein, 52 percent of their sales are from previous resort guests and those who’ve rented or owned within the property.
The development is a strong draw for young families and young grandparents, catering to the needs of multi-generational families by providing so many unique spaces. Perhaps no one appreciates this more than Goldstein, himself, who has three adult children. While he’s never lost his Brooklyn accent, he’s also never looked back to the northeast after relocating to sunny South Florida.
“We love the weather. The weather is what drew us here,” he says. “We love everything about South Florida in general, the pace of life, the fact that you can own so much more real estate here than you can up north.”