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Bellini at Williams Island |
When
Williams Island was first developed in the early 1980s (a
full decade before the city of
Aventura
was founded), it set a sophisticated new standard for the
Northeast Miami-Dade waterfront. The tony island, marketed as
“The Florida Riviera,” even had superstar spokesperson and
resident Sophia Loren raising the glamour quotient.
Over the
years, Williams Island
has grown larger, while holding its own in the Aventura luxury
residential league with buildings and amenities that include the
exclusive Island Club health club and spa, marina and 16-court
tennis complex. Now the last remaining residential site at
4100 Williams Island
Blvd. is about to get a luxury boutique tower, Bellini at
Williams Island.
Developer Martin Z. Margulies, who recently built Bellini
in Bal Harbour,
has taken over the project originally dubbed La Vogue and is
planning an exclusive 70-unit, 24-story tower. Each unit will
have a three-bedroom floor plan ranging from 2,300 to nearly
2,700 square feet. With the building’s distinctive elliptical
shape, each will be a corner residence with wraparound glass
balconies and water views in all directions. Other niceties
include a private elevator for each residence, 10-foot ceilings
and top-of-the-line materials and finishes. Kitchens will have
Poggenpohl cabinetry and high-quality appliances, while classic
marble master baths and first-rate fixtures are a given. All the
usual amenities — fitness center, sauna, media room, children’s
game room and lounge, 24-hour valet, concierge and resident
service front desk — will be included and residents will have
access to all Williams Island amenities. Margulies, a noted art
collector, plans to include art works throughout the public
spaces.
The
price for all this luxury: between $1.2 million and $3.5
million. The sales and information center just opened onsite and
Bellini is scheduled for completion by 2010.
What
they’re saying about us
The ups
and downs of Miami real estate are attracting national coverage
in print and online media. Tom Dyson, a frequent
contributor to DailyWealth.com, a free daily e-letter
with more than 400,000 subscribers, quoted Groundwork recently
on the number of condo foreclosures in the Brickell area. He
came away with an opinion that may or may not gel with reality.
“The condos down here are all full of South Americans,” he
wrote. “In total, I’ve probably spent two hours sitting in
lobbies waiting for Realtors on this trip. I watched the people
coming and going. They are all Latin. They speak Spanish, they
have pets, they seem wealthy. The bottom line is, the condo boom
in downtown Miami is 100 percent based on Latin money.
“For me,
condo living is an awful way to live,” Dyson continued. “They
are like hotels. I hate elevators. I’d never buy one of these
things. That’s just me. Others like the urban lifestyle.… I
think there’s at least another 15 percent downside, but it could
be as much as 40 percent at worst. Right now, you could get a
bottom-of-the-line condo for about $350,000. That’s still way
too high, in my opinion…. Bottom line, if you’d like to own a
Miami condo, wait another year.”
Still,
Dyson’s Miami visit did have its moments. “I was there last
week,” he wrote. “To get a tour of one condo building, I told
the ladies in the sales office I was a buyer. As soon as I said
it, I felt like the gazelle who unknowingly stumbles into a
lion’s den … eyebrows raised, papers shuffled and the
receptionist started shooting surreptitious glances at her
bosses when she thought I wasn’t looking. I felt like a mark.
Thousands of Realtors have lost their jobs in Miami and
thousands more sit around all day waiting for their phones to
ring … or for a dumb tourist like me to stumble in. Another
Realtor I dealt with was so clingy and desperate, I had to ask
her to stop calling me.”
Value
for savvy retirees
On the
upside, a recent article in Business Week
identifies some of the best values in places to retire and gives
snapshots of four markets that have cooled considerably in
recent months. Guess what?
Miami
ranks right up there along with Bend,
Ore.; San Diego,
Calif.; and Fort Mill, S.C., as fast-growing communities blessed
with natural beauty and an array of activities. The article
praises the changing Miami: “The city has done much to spiff up
its image.… The changes, along with the usual sun and fun, have
attracted a huge number of speculators as well as wealthy South
Americans and other foreigners buying second homes or investment
properties.”
With
19,000 condos expected to be completed and many buyers not
expected to close on their units, bargain season is here, the
article notes. It also quotes local real estate professionals
saying the best bets lie in Miami Beach, in the middle of the
island, and in newer waterfront buildings with fab views and
lots of amenities.
Bid
for bargains
When I
wrote about the planned Avanti at the Villages of Normandy
Isles in 2004, the project showed much promise. The
innovative, waterfront townhome community on North Shore Drive
was designed to replace an architecturally challenged post-war
affordable housing apartment building and pick up on the
neighborhood’s architectural MiMo heritage.
All this
came to pass: Avanti was completed with 34 four-story, upscale
townhomes in a contemporary tropical design that maximized the
light, the views and the outdoor lifestyle. Each unit features a
distinctive exterior, private roof terrace or balcony and
two-car garage. The homes range from 2,787 to 3,569 square feet.
Outdoors there is a waterfront pool, and 16 units have deeded
docks on the no-fixed bridges waterway.
The
townhomes were originally priced from $563,000 to $1.2 million
and 25 were sold soon after completion last year. Then the
market soured and, to spur buying activity, the last six unsold
homes were auctioned last weekend, coordinated by the Auction
Company of America in Miami.
But
unexpectedly, the auction fizzled halfway through. Two homes
were offered outright — one went for $420,000 (about $195
per square foot including the 10 percent buyer’s premium); the
second went for $380,000 (also about $195 per square foot with
premium). Two more homes were sold in a closed, negotiated deal
and the sale was then concluded with two homes in developer’s
limbo.
Real
estate auctions have become more common recently. They can be
good for buyers, but for overwrought, overextended developers,
they may not be the easy answer to unsold units.
Buzz
In case
it’s news to anyone, single females are buying more homes than
single male buyers. According to a recent study by the National
Association of Realtors (NAR), young women between 25 and 34
bought 1.76 million homes from July 2005 to July 2006,
accounting for 22 percent of the market. That’s up 14 percent 10
years ago. Meanwhile, single male homebuyers accounted for only
9 percent in the same period. Among the reasons for the trend —
single women are earning more money, growing more independent
and financially stable, and running their own businesses. It’s
about time!
Kudos
The
2007 Community Advancement Awards
were flying fast and furious at the recent Developers &
Builders Alliance annual black tie dinner gala at Mar-a-Lago
Club in Palm Beach. Kobi Karp, of Miami-based Kobi
Karp Architecture & Interior Design (KKAID), was recognized
as the Architect of the Year for his role in raising the bar in
urban planning and his contributions to community growth;
Regatta, a new Miami Beach waterfront development on Indian
Creek at 65th Street, won the award for Best Multifamily
Residential Project for G&D Developers and The Weintraub
Companies.
The
Governor Condominium
— a division of the Miami Beach-based project Artécity at
21st Street just west of Collins Avenue, won the 2007 Project of
the Year award for “bringing the building back to its original
splendor while adding the components and amenities of the 21st
century.” Proud recipients: Artécity CEO Alessandro Ferretti
and COO Maurizio Cavalieri.
Coming Up
Tonight
(Thursday)
from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., the Wolfsonian-FIU, 1001
Washington Ave., Miami Beach, will host a “members’ preview” and
opening reception titled “Fashioning the Modern French
Interior, Pochoir Portfolios in the 1920s.” Pochoir was a
traditional technique that involved the hand application of
color to a print using a series of carefully cut stencils
(pochoirs). The luminous images were an alternative to drawing
and photography, and conveyed designers’ conceptions of the
1920s modern interior design aesthetic. The preview is free for
Wolfsonian-FIU members, $10 for all others. Call 305-535-2645 or
e-mail svp@thewolf.fiu.edu.
Please send news items on Miami-Dade real estate to
hhill@miamisunpost.com.
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