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Platinum Condominium |
By Helen
Hill
Is it a sign of the times — developer
distress — or a savvy move to sell off the last units in a
building at prices the market will bear?
At the
forthcoming auction at Miami’s Platinum Condominium,
480 N.E. 30th St., just off Biscayne Boulevard, bargain
hunters can bid on 20 developers’ units, ranging from
one-bedroom, one-and-a half baths (819 square feet under
air) to three-bed, three-bath residences (1,700 square feet
under air). The recently completed, 22-story building facing
Biscayne Bay has 119 units that initially were priced from
$340,000 to $750,000. Now, eight units of varying sizes are
being offered in an absolute sale: i.e., there’s no minimum;
highest bid wins. Another 12 units are being auctioned at
the developer’s discretion to accept the highest bids.
Fisher
Auctions
will conduct the sale at 7 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Miami
Biscayne Marriott, 1633 N. Bayshore Drive, near downtown
Miami. Potential bidders can learn more at an auction
seminar from 7 to 8 p.m. tonight at the Miami Biscayne
Marriott. Contact Kamany Realty at 305-573-6522 or
www.fisherauction.com.
Holding the
Price Line
It’s standoff
time again – many buyers and sellers just won’t budge, even
with worsening market conditions. Celebrities in South
Florida’s ultra-luxury market (more than $5 million) may
have the financial wherewithal to stand firm, but at some
point they do get real. Miami Heat all-star center
Shaquille O’Neal and internationally renowned singer
Julio Iglesias each slashed the asking prices on their
waterfront mansions by enough to land them in the database
of Condo Vultures, a “market information” company
that gives subscribers real estate information so they can
“capitalize on a market correction.”
Iglesias
dropped the asking price on his eight-bedroom, six-bathroom
mansion (which he has owned for 28 years) in Indian Creek
Village by 22 percent, from $32 million to $25 million. The
10,328-square-foot place has languished on and off the
market since October 2004.
O'Neal
controlled the price reduction of his eight-bed, 11-bath
Star Island mansion a bit more. Shaq shaved $3 million off
his $35 million asking price. The basketball center bought
the home in 2004 for $18.8 million, so even if he sold it
for less than the current asking price, he would still
realize a significant return on his original investment.
The
Vultures Database is now tracking 36 ultra-luxury
residences in Miami-Dade and Broward counties with an
average of 448 days on the market and an average price drop
of 14 percent to date, or $1.47 million. The average revised
asking price for an ultra-luxury residence in the Vultures
Database is $8.42 million, down from $9.89 million. That’s a
reduction from $1,402.95 to $1,204.45per square foot.
T database
tracks properties for which the asking prices dropped by 10
percent or $100,000 and/or those that have been on the
market for at least 100 days. It currently lists more than
2,000 residential properties located east of I-95 from South
Miami to Fort Lauderdale – up 32 percent from the 1,700
units listed June 30.
Away From Doom
and Gloom
Despite the
market woes, there are still projects on the radar, and two
recent real estate events highlighted the joys of living in
the Miami area.
Paparazzi
photographed 300 guests walking the red carpet into the
Gusman Theater of the Performing Arts in downtown Miami
for the official launch of Loft 4, the theater’s new
neighbor at 151 S.E. First St.
The Related
Group’s VIPs and Related Cervera Realty Services
President Alicia Cervera Lamadrid, the project’s
exclusive agent, welcomed guests, then showed a Loft 4
trailer film and two shorts – the hilarious Gandhi
at the Bat by Stephanie Argy and Alec
Boehm and the amusing Lance Is a Jerk by
Marc Teitelman, both presented by the Miami
International Film Festival.
The Related
Group’s Attainable Housing Division is planning a
36-story tower of 404 residential units and approximately
five retail units on the ground floor. Prices start at
$139,000; 85 percent of the units are priced under $300,000
to target workforce buyers.
On-Site Bites
On Miami
Beach, the second-floor oceanfront pool deck at the newly
reincarnated The Crown was the setting for a
celebratory book signing by Chef Govind Armstrong of
Table 8 for his just-published first cookbook —
Small Bites, Big Nights.
Guests mingled
in the balmy evening air under a bright full moon, sampling
the chef’s creative hors d'oeuvres with mojitos from event
cosponsor Oronoco Rum. The event also provided an
opportunity to show off the glossy rental apartments in the
new and renovated buildings — spacious, nicely fitted-out
living spaces in a great location. In my opinion, the
apartments have much to offer in value and amenities.
Buzz
So far,
Miami’s Freedom Tower has resisted attempts to
envelop it with a high-rise condo tower that would change
its traditional setting, so it’s nice to know the Biscayne
Boulevard icon beat Ocean Drive as a winning background in a
recent contest. During “Sebring in the City,”
organized by Chrysler and NBC 6, South Florida residents
nominated their choices for the hottest locations to be seen
in a convertible. The three finalists – Lisa Kelley
of Davie, Francisco Lira of Miami and Marianne
Napolitano of North Miami Beach – used a Sebring
convertible for the weekend to create videos of their
favorite locations. Kelley’s winning video, which begins at
the Freedom Tower, put her in the driver’s seat of a 2008
Chrysler Sebring convertible for a 24-month lease.
Coming Up
Architectural
Digest
will hold a
series of open auditions for residential interior design
professionals and nonprofessionals during major design
market events in four cities. Each day, a panel of Digest
magazine editors will meet with candidates to evaluate their
work. Winning submissions will appear both in a future issue
of Architectural
Digest and on the magazine’s Web
site. The kick-off search for new design talent will take
place Oct. 10 and 11 during New York’s annual Fall Market.
Then auditions will be held at the Design Center of the
Americas in Dania Beach during Winter Market on
Jan. 29 and 30, at the Pacific Design Center
in West Hollywood, Calif.; and the Decorative Center
Houston in Texas. The design centers are owned by
Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation.
Helen Hill is
a freelance writer specializing in real estate and lifestyle
topics.
Please send
news items on Miami-Dade real estate to
hhill@miamisunpost.com.
