Earning a reputation as the Billionaire’s Builder, Manny Angelo Varas and his team at MV Group USA Master craft homes that are works of art and exist in another stratosphere.
MV Group makes high-level architecture possible, like this modern marvel in Miami Beach designed by Kobi Karp Architecture and Interior Design. While art plays a significant role overall, the architecture itself is a work of art. RENDERING COURTESY OF KOBI KARP ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN AND MV GROUP USA
For the past two decades, Manny Angelo Varas has built a formidable roster of clients and friends on speed dial, including heads of countries, design icons like Giorgio Armani, music giants, and owners of NFL and NBA teams. Known as the billionaire’s builder, the understated construction guru and his firm MV Group USA (mvgroupusa.com) have become the go-to source for those seeking to build the best in design and construction.
Varas inside the Fisher Island condo. PHOTO BY DAN CUTRONA
To wit: MV Group once built a glass elevator for a Grammy-winning artist that descended into 2,000 gallons of water and a school of nurse sharks. For another residence, they couldn’t build just any koi pond. This one will have a custom-commissioned 8-foot sculpture of a diver in full gear diving headfirst into the koi pond to greet the homeowners and their guests at the house’s entrance—a testament to MV Group’s understanding of artistic intent and its value-add to a home. And, just as MV Group was building one house for a billionaire client, that client decided to purchase the house next door, expanding the project’s scope and footprint. Varas and his team will also do their magic on that lot, and when complete, MV Group will have created an entire compound worth over $100 million.
MV Group renovated a bachelor pad on Fisher Island to include a home bar concealed behind custom millwork. The lounge area was designed by Evelyn Menin PHOTO BY DAN CUTRONA
In Cocoplum, MV Group’s mega-mansion Casa Costanera became the first of its kind in the neighborhood. “Not that I love breaking rules, but there are no boundaries in what we can achieve if we collaborate effectively,” Varas says. “City officials are allies, and because there’s a guideline or rule doesn’t mean it can’t be changed. I brought up the concept of a flat roof, and we got it approved to be the first flat roof in the City of Coral Gables; they adjusted the code to create the design intent.” That flat roof resulted in a $16 million sale price that today remains a record. “The idea of collaboration with city officials and being innovative in order to achieve the design intent is something we’re looking for—working with clients, architects and designers who are thinking outside of the box,” Varas says. “We’re always willing to fight for a design and capture the designer’s intent as long as it’s feasible.”
Manny Angelo Varas, founder of MV Group, leads by example. The design of his own family home in Cocoplum calls for a luxuriously chic dine-in wine room where the wine is stored at varying temperatures. RENDERING COURTESY OF MV GROUP USA
Whatever the project, Varas and his team ensure the best materials are sourced and the top talents are tapped to achieve that wow factor, no matter where in the world they need to travel to do so. Not only will they source and install fine millwork, but they’ll source exotic wood and custom-treat it to appear aged. Not only will they use natural stone, but they’ll also make sure it’s bookmatched so that all applications are consistent. “We go to a stone showroom and take images of every slab, create elevations to see how the slabs will look, and we dry lay it out to see how it looks. For an Armani project, we did a dry lay in the factory in Italy before it shipped to us,” Varas says. “It was like a Lego set—each piece was labeled.”
ADDING VALUE
For a Fisher Island project with interiors by local designer Evelyn Menin, two challenges presented themselves: what else but time and space? MV Group added 1,000 square feet to an existing condo, earning the owner a $5 million gain. And they did it in the seasonal time frame Fisher Island requires, from April 15 through Nov. 15. “Th is was supposed to be an aesthetic renovation, and we wanted to create value,” Varas says. “We went to the board of Fisher Island and told them we wanted to capture 600 square feet from the private entryway. Then, we created structural beams to extend the interiors onto the balcony.” For a residence in Indian Creek, the owner purchased a 15,000-square-foot house for $50 million and wanted to remove all stone and marble cladding. “Th is multimillion-dollar renovation would not have created terminal value for our client,” Varas says, “so we were able to look at other areas that were already built in order to off set the return on their investment and give it an added aesthetic value of $7 million.” In this way, Varas and his team add terminal value to every property they touch while catering to the tastes and lifestyle requirements of the owners.
This Miami Beach home, built by MV Group and designed by Kobi Karp Architecture and Interior Design, features a verdant outdoor living oasis surrounded by a custom koi pond. RENDERING COURTESY OF KOBI KARP ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN AND MV GROUP USA
DESIGNING FOR THE FUTURE
In 2009, when the U.S. Green Building Council created the LEED AP distinction, Varas became one of the first people in Florida to obtain that license. To this day, he approaches each project with a sustainable mindset, whether recommending a water reclamation system on the roof, sourcing reclaimed marbles and recycled materials, or returning unused materials to the showroom or manufacturer instead of discarding them. “Sustainability is essential in the world, and we’re still behind in design,” he says, pointing to the durability factor. “With saltwater in South Florida, the product can deteriorate. So not only is having a sustainable mindset good for the earth, but it also makes the project more sustainable from a management point.” A severely weatherproofed home in Miami, for example, was raised to have 9 feet below it to allow for sea level rise. The entire house is concrete and features a Tesla solar roofing system with a battery recharging station, water reclamation system and reclaimed wood materials.
MV Group champions the use of organic materials and meeting challenges, keeping the design intent at the top of mind when devising solutions for the build. As such, this home in Miami features a double-story, double-height fireplace that opens onto the living room on one side and the dining room on the other PHOTO COURTESY OF MV GROUP USA
FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE
The home that Varas is building for his own family will feature a fully insulated sit-in wine cellar with 1,000 bottles housed in multiple Sub-Zero wine coolers within that wine cellar—all so that different wines can be served at various temperatures. He’ll have a commercial steam dishwasher in the lounge because he wants to wash glasses in only one minute when he and his wife entertain friends for dinner parties. He’ll have a secondary kitchen meant for food prep and cleanup, a 50-foot perimeter-edge pool, invisible speakers flush within the drywall so you can hear music coming out of the walls, and underwater speakers in the pool so you can listen to music while taking a dip. In other words, he’s not only building it and installing it for clients; he also has a firsthand understanding of how a design or product should function for everyday living.
Another view of the living room. PHOTO COURTESY OF MV GROUP USA
HOW IT STARTED
In 2007, business looked very different. When Varas first entered the industry, he started with small renovations like flooring installations. When the market crashed in 2008, he found a niche opportunity where banks were only funding buildings that had finished interiors. So, he became the in-house builder for these buildings to finish their raw spaces and honed his eye and skill while getting his business off the ground. “Knowing the roots and the bones, what materials cost, how long it takes to install tile, knowing every detail from doing it myself back then as opposed to working for a large company allowed me to get to know a project from the inside out,” he says. “We need to understand the bones of it.”
Today, armed with his own experience, field teams of superintendents, foremen and on-site laborers, and mainly women project coordinators and managers with design backgrounds, a keen eye for detail, and an understanding of the stylistic approach interior designers are trying to achieve, MV Group orchestrates collaborations that include engineers, lighting designers, furniture designers, interior designers and architects to create that superior, think-outside-of-the-box home while maintaining a steady statistic of taking on only 1% of the new client inquiries that pour in daily.
