Jewelry designer Paul Morelli paid $18M for property in April

Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck and their Miami Beach property. (Getty, Corcoran)Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck and their Miami Beach property. (Getty, Julian Johnston)
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been renting a bayfront mansion in Miami Beach that’s asking $130,000 a month.

The celebs — who broke off their engagement way back in 2004 — are staying at 2700 North Bay Road, according to the New York Post, which first identified the property.

Lopez was the one who rented the mansion, the report noted. Jewelry designer Paul Morelli bought the 10,114-square-foot property in April for $17.5 million.

According to the listing, the home has 11 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and three half-baths. The property also features a pool, dock, boat lift and guest house. It has 100 feet of water frontage on a half-acre lot. Julian Johnston of the Corcoran Group has the listing. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

House Beautiful – Inside the Miami Mansion That Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck Are Currently Renting - MV Construction Group
For Lopez, North Bay Road must be like going home again. She owned the mansion at 5800 North Bay Road until 2015, when she sold it to Phil Collins for $33 million. Collins sold it in January to private equity billionaire Orlando Bravo and his wife Katy for $39.3 million.

Properties along the bayfront street have seen strong demand during the pandemic. Tech and finance magnates have paid sky-high prices for waterfront homes, lots and teardowns, sometimes buying two at a time.

Shutterstock’s billionaire founder Jonathan Oringer and his wife Talia paid $42 million for the waterfront mansion at 4358 North Bay Road. Marc Gardner, who leads North American Bancard Holdings, bought a mansion and adjacent lot at 4580 North Bay Road for $37 million. Billionaire hedge fund manager Dan Loeb picked up a spec mansion at 6440 North Bay Road for $20 million and a teardown farther south for $12 million.
And Gabe Plotkin, founder of investment management firm Melvin Capital Management, bought two adjacent properties at 6360 and 6342 North Bay Road for $44 million.

Lopez and Affleck can even mingle with their real estate honcho neighbors. Their rental is just a few blocks away from Starwood Property Group’s Barry Sternlicht, whose waterfront abode is at 2374 North Bay Road. Daniel Doherty III, principal and co-founder of commercial real estate company Eastern Real Estate paid $18.3 million for the waterfront home at 2324 North Bay Road in April. And JDS Development’s Michael Stern is building a huge waterfront mansion about three miles up the street.