Our Story

Over the past 25+ years, Wave Group Development has specialized in delivering boutique Class-A multifamily and hospitality projects in Miami-Dade.  Our business is devoted exclusively to real estate investment, ground-up development, and strategic repositioning.  Alessandro Ferretti founded the group in 1993 with a progressive vision to permanently improve South Beach and the Greater Miami Area. Today, his impact is evidenced throughout the city.  Major projects include the Lord Balfour Hotel (66-key hotel located at 350 Ocean Dr), ArteCity (202-unit condominium located on 21st St and Washington Ave), the Atlantic Center (a 40,000 SF mixed use building located on 1st St and Washington Ave), and the Ambassadors (28-unit condominium located on 1st St and Alton Rd).  Across the years, Wave Group Development has collaborated with organizations such as Arquitectonica (an award-winning international architecture firm), Douglas Elliman (a best-in-class national real estate brokerage), and Miami’s most reputable consultants and contractors.  We are constantly scouting for opportunities in growing neighborhoods where we can deliver value through our proven local expertise, longstanding relationships, and learned market intuition.

Our Mission

We seek to deliver elegantly designed properties to under-served neighborhoods across Miami and engage the local community through curated art and thoughtful programming.

Alessandro Ferretti (Principal)

Equipped with a doctorate in civil engineering and architecture from University of Bologna, Italian-born Alessandro Ferretti first dove into real estate in 1980 when he joined his family’s engineering firm in Verona.  Shortly thereafter, he became the lead project manager and assistant developer for the 100,000 SF conversion of a group of 16th–century buildings in Verona into commercial and residential space.  In 1984 he founded and managed Costruzioni Verona SRL, a firm dedicated to the construction and renovation of residential buildings in Italy.

1990 marked Mr. Ferretti’s entrance into the international development field. He founded FAI SRL, a company designed to assist international developers through the preconstruction, development and sales & marketing processes, and in 1991 he opened FAI’s first US office on New York’s Madison Avenue. 

Mr. Ferretti’s introduction to Miami and to the world of hotels came in 1993 with the purchase of his first oceanfront property in South Beach, The Sharon Hotel, which he sold in 1997 and subsequently converted to the Shore Club by New York developer Philip Pilevsky.  Mr. Ferretti’s vision then led him to the burgeoning, renaissance neighborhood of SoFi (south of 5th Street).  His developments in the area include The Wave, a 66-room boutique hotel at 350 Ocean Drive, The Ambassadors, a three-building condominium at 235 Michigan Avenue, and The Atlantic Center, a mixed-use building complex designed by Arquitectonica, one block north of the world famous Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant.

Other major projects in South Beach include the restoration of The Lord Balfour Hotel on Ocean Drive, The Traymore Hotel on Collins Avenue, and ArteCity, a 202-units residential project spanning an entire city block between 21st and 22nd Street, Park and Washington Avenue, in the “Cultural Campus” of Miami Beach.

Presently, Alessandro is also the managing partner of a real estate private equity fund focusing on residential properties.

Since 2005, Alessandro has served on the Board of the Art Center South Florida (ACSF), as Chair of its Facilities Committee. Under his guidance, ACSF sold its building at 800 Lincoln Road for $88 million, which was the highest recorded real estate sale in South Florida on a per-square-foot basis. This allowed the small non-profit to establish a substantial endowment fund for future programs. Alessandro is overseeing the development of its new headquarters in the bohemian neighborhood of Little Haiti. In addition, from 1992 to 1995, Alessandro had also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Casa di Cura Città Di Verona, a private hospital in Verona. 

Alessandro lives in Miami Beach with his wife Paola, and they have two sons who both work in real estate development. Alessandro is a dual citizen of the US and Italy, and he enjoys traveling, photography and diving in his spare time.