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Change for the better?
By Helen Hill
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Europeans are still willing to shell out millions
for a Sunny Isles Beach penthouse. Pictured here: a
computer-generated image of a penthouse in Jade
Ocean. |
Many
people believe that a change in policies and actions by
financial companies would go some way toward mopping up
the current foreclosure mess.
Members of ACORN (Association for Community
Organizations for Reform Now) took action against a
company they say is to blame for some of the current
ills. Protesters converged on Ocwen Financial’s
offices in
West Palm Beach
and Orlando last week to demand that the loan servicer
adopt a set of best practices that would modify loans so
families willing to make payments could remain in their
homes.
ACORN called on Ocwen to make major reforms in the way
it services mortgages. They requested that the company
put an immediate end to the foreclosure processes
against owner-occupied properties and modify all
subprime ARM loans to a permanent freeze on the teaser
rate, resulting in an affordable, fixed mortgage. This
should include waiving late fees and capitalizing the
arrearages. The activists also demanded that Ocwen
actually maintain the properties under its contract with
the Department of Veterans Affairs or give up the
contract to someone who can handle the work. In
Florida,
Ocwen has 376 VA residential properties that have been
foreclosed on and are up for sale; ACORN urged the VA to
end its contracts with the company.
Closure of a different kind
It’s not the best time to be in the mortgage business
according to Mortgage Daily’s www.MortgageGraveyard.com,
which reports on the death rate of
U.S. mortgage lenders employing at least 50 people.
The fallout figures in the subprime mortgage industry
have increased from 18 failures in 2006 to almost 150 in
2007. These included such names as American Home
Mortgage Investment, Ameriquest Mortgage, Fieldstone
Investment, First Magnus Financial, Mortgage Lenders
Network USA, New Century Financial and Option One
Mortgage Corp. In the first weeks of 2008, seven
failures have already been reported.
Some good news
Optimists abound and why not?
Miami is still appealing for real estate projects
(especially if they don’t include residential condos).
Just announced is Off Brickell, a $120 million
mixed-use complex planned for a 3.5-acre site in the
burgeoning neighborhood adjacent to Publix, between
Coral Way and S.W. 15th Road in Miami, two blocks west
of Brickell Avenue. Miami’s Urban Review Design Board
has cited Off Brickell as a “model project” that should
be emulated by other developers going through the design
process.
Taylor Development and Land Company,
which specializes in urban mixed-use development, and
Economos Properties, a hotel development and
management company, are partnering to build the
568,000-square-foot Off Brickell. It will include a
150,000-square-foot Class A office building, 86,000
square feet of retail space and a 213-room Hilton
Garden Inn (the brand’s first property in the area).
Epicure Market of
Miami Beach has signed a letter of intent to lease
37,000 square feet for a new marketplace and restaurant.
Construction on the office building, designed by
Dorsky Hodgson Parrish Yue, is scheduled to begin
in March 2008 with delivery in 2010.
Darryl Robinson, Peter Harrison and Josh Gibbons at
Transwestern
are the exclusive office leasing agents. Retail leasing
is being handled by Michael Finkel at Koniver Stern.
More happy news
High-end buyers are still finding
Miami irresistible judging by two sales, listed at a
total of $26 million, announced by Fortune
International. A family from the
Midwest
purchased the leading penthouse at the three-tower
Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences,
South
Beach,
listed at $17 million, as a secondary home. For their
money (the actual sales price is not revealed until
closing), they will get Ritz-Carlton service and
amenities as well as six bedrooms in nearly 8,000 square
feet on the top three floors of the exclusive 25-unit
South Tower, with 360-degree views of city and ocean.
The new, circular 20-story building designed by
architectural firm Revuelta,
Vega,
Leon
adjacent to the restored Seville Beach Hotel is
scheduled for completion in 2010.
In
Sunny
Isles Beach, a 6,200-square-foot penthouse in the
50-story Jade Ocean, listed at $9.2 million, was
purchased by a European couple that saw the unit
featured in the project's virtual reality tour. The
duplex residence, one of six penthouses in the Carlos
Ott-designed building, features five bedrooms,
six-and-a-half baths and multiple terraces with
180-degree unobstructed city and ocean views. Jade
Ocean’s amenities include memberships to the
Quintessentially concierge group. The buyers should
be able to move into their units in late 2009.
Miami
is still growing up
Loft 2,
which was launched as a model of successful
public-private partnership (the partnership being
developer Rafael Kapustin, the city of
Miami,
Miami-Dade Transit, the Miami Parking
Authority and The Related Group), recently
celebrated its successful completion. Related Cervera
Realty Services, the exclusive sales agent for the
second in the “Loft” series of urban high-rises
developed by Related, announced that more than 85
percent of Loft 2’s 496 residential units have closed.
The 35-story tower at the southeast corner of
Second Avenue and Northeast Second Street in downtown
Miami targeted “workforce” buyers, with initial prices
in the $100,000s. The tower, designed by Miami
architects Cohen Freedman Encinosa, spans the
First Street Metromover.
Loft 2
may be the last of the series for the time being.
Loft 3 is on hold and the proposed Loft 4
condo has been canceled.
Just up
Biscayne Boulevard,
across from the Adrienne Arsht Center for the
Performing Arts, buyers can close on their units and
move into the 60-story
Opera
Tower
at 1750 N. Bayshore Drive,
which has received its temporary certificate of
occupancy. Developer Florida East Coast Realty, Inc.
announced that the 635-unit project is sold out, and
resales are under way.
Buzz
The Related Group
has created Condo Lease Finder to take up the
slack on units where buyers have, or possibly will,
default on future contracts. The new rental
division will exclusively lease and manage
developer-owned units in a one-stop shop to help
potential renters find a luxury condominium that fits
their location requirements and lifestyle. Currently the
division is leasing units in
Bal Harbour, downtown Miami and Brickell.
Kudos
Congratulations
to Kimberly A. Kirschner, CIPS of Kirschner
Realty International on her election as 2008
chairman of the board of the Realtor Association of
Greater Miami and the Beaches. She and the entire
board of directors will be installed on Feb. 1 at the
Country Club of Coral Gables.
Please send news items on Miami-Dade real estate to
hhill@miamisunpost.com |
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