Groundwork
By Helen Hill

 Brickell Building for Sale

It’s not often that a Miami rental apartment building designed by Arquitectonica is offered for sale, especially when it boasts a Brickell location. The contemporary-style building at 2100 Brickell Avenue, constructed in 1992, is on the market with an asking price of $5.5 million. The 18 recently remodeled units range from 550 square feet to 1,050 square feet, and the property is being sold for income or a potential condo conversion opportunity. Alfonso Jaramillo of Fortune International Realty, based in Miami Beach’s Arthur Godfrey Road office, has the listing.

Shop Till You Drop in Two-and-a-Half Days 

That’s how long it would take to visit The Mall of Asia in Manila, the Philippines, for just five minutes per store. Miami-based Arquitectonica designed the new 4.2-million-square-foot shopping mall, said to be the third-largest in the world with 700 shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. There’s even a tram service for shoppers to get around the project’s four buildings, including the main mall, the entertainment mall and 5,000 parking spaces. Sounds like shoppers need a GPS system just to find their cars.

Top Award Rushing In

Only three Miami hotels made this year’s Travel + Leisure’s “500,” the magazine’s January 2007 issue that serves as the definitive guide to the greatest hotels worldwide. Return favorites are the Mandarin Oriental and Ritz-Carlton, Key Biscayne with The Tides South Beach a newcomer to the list.

The Tides, an original Art Deco landmark hotel at 1220 Ocean Drive, was designed by famed architect Lawrence Murray Dixon with an elegant limestone and white façade. Now, according to T+L, it’s getting “a sexy new redo” by celebrity designer diva Kelly Wearstler as it moves into condo hotel mode. Luxury hotel operator Kor Hotel Group is overseeing the renovation and redesign of the 45 guest suites, junior suites and penthouse suites, all with ocean views.

Wearstler says her designs for the chic-by-the-shore “boutique apartment-sized rooms” (translation: a comparatively roomy 550-and-up-square-feet-sized space) were inspired by Miami Beach’s sapphire blue waters and white beaches. The sophisticated condo-hotel suites will come complete with upscale furnishings, vintage-inspired Italian fabrics, grass-cloth wall coverings, original artwork and opulent bathrooms. Prices start at just over $1 million. Wearstler is also completely reinterpreting all common areas of the hotel, including the fashionable lobby, bar and 1220 at the Tides restaurant, oversized front terrace and secluded pool deck with cabanas and spa.

The sales center on the hotel’s mezzanine level features a Wearstler-designed model residence. The Tides hotel (average rate $700 a night for a double room) remains open during renovations, which are to be completed by next summer.

Cope with Yoga

Future residents of Boulevard, a new luxury boutique condo at 3360 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, will be able to tap into relaxation and serenity at poolside sunrise and sunset yoga sessions with the appointment of Moses as Boulevard’s own resident yoga master. For the past two years, Moses, founder of “I Love Yoga” and a self-styled “perpetual seeker of truth and enlightenment,” has been working with developer Ricardo Dunin, president of Flagler Group, on de-stressing and finding balance in his life. Dunin wants to bring his own style of “urban living yoga” to help residents find refuge from the hectic metropolitan Miami lifestyle.

The units in Boulevard’s 16-story building feature livable indoor/outdoor rooms that extend the urban dwelling lifestyle outside to capture bay breezes. Design architect is Bernard Zyscovich and interior architect is Alison Spear.

Kitchen Talk

With the International Builders' Show scheduled for Feb. 7 - 10 in Orlando, experts are getting a jump start on forecasting trends. The annual convention and trade-only show sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders is again expected to attract more than 100,000 home builders, architects, developers and other members of the industry to four days of education, exhibits and special events.

Designer Mary Jo Camp, one of three speakers for the seminar “Lifestyle Kitchens: Designs, Materials and Techniques that Guarantee Great Kitchens,” gives a preview of what’s in style.

While kitchens have long been the hub of the house, their importance has grown even more as families' lives get busier. The kitchen is a center of activity, but also a place to get rid of stress, relax and recharge — literally. Charging stations for mobile phones, portable stereos and laptops are an important component in new kitchens. “Plus, you'll know where to find them all,” Camp adds.

According to Camp, incorporating more light into kitchens is a big trend. Her clients want bright, airy and well-ventilated space in a room they use not only for cooking and eating, but also for craft projects, homework, family gatherings and entertaining. Incorporating green-building techniques like “daylighting” — positioning windows to best take advantage of outside light — is one way to illuminate a cooking area. And morning light is especially important in kitchens.

“Cooking in the kitchen provides time to have conversation and family time," says Camp. “The kitchen really is the life of the home; it's interesting to see what the world throws at us and how we come home and talk about it in the kitchen.”

Sounds good for people living in single-family homes in South Florida, but will the trend extend to the condo lifestyle? Ironically, condo kitchens are often state of the art — but with all the attraction of eating out, they may rarely or never get used.

Kudos TO: Related Cervera Realty Services (RCRS), sales and marketing agent for The Venture in Aventura, on achieving a $127 million sellout in record time. The contemporary, mixed-use condominium developed by the Related Group won six 2006 Best of Florida awards from the Builders Association of South Florida; platinum awards in categories for Land Planning, Overall Building and for the Pool, and gold awards for Builders Overall Product, Architecture and Interior Design. In the last 12 months, RCRS successfully closed more than 3,100 units in nine buildings throughout South Florida. The company is currently marketing such high-profile projects as St. RegisResort & Residences, W South Beach Hotel & Residences, The Boulevard, Trump Hollywood, Oasis on the Bay, ICON Las Olas and CityPlace SouthTower.

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.