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Down with Negativity!
By Helen Hill
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The British are coming. And at least one of them has
bought a pad like this at the Mondrian South Beach
for $5 million. |
It
was a wild ride up when everyone loved South Florida
real estate — and many still do — but now some pundits
are getting snarky about a place they don’t understand
very well. For example, Entrepreneur.com recently
included
Miami in “Places to Avoid” in a list of “Some of the
Best and Worst Places to Buy.”
The reason given — “half-built and abandoned
condos, a shrinking job market, a tough time getting
insurance against hurricanes and a job problem” —
indicates that the writer needs a reality check,
especially in finding any “abandoned” condos! Even
qualifying the statement with “Yes, you can get a good
deal, but do this only if you don't need the
appreciation from the home in the next decade,” ignores
that South Florida’s attractions — weather, lifestyle,
recreational and cultural assets, and a vibrant
community — continue to appeal to buyers.
I believe that, overall, the news is not as bleak as the
cynics would have us believe. Condos and homes are
selling very slowly, at bargain prices, and there’s a
lot of residential inventory to be absorbed. But the
fact is we’re in a down cycle, which occurs just about
every decade in
South Florida, according to Miami-based real estate
analyst Michael Cannon.
Some happy news
South
Beach continues to attract high-end buyers. The sale of
Penthouse Villa C at The Setai, at Collins Avenue
and 20th Street, closed last week at $6 million ($1,680
per square foot), down from the $7 million it was first
listed for 11 months ago. The 3,571-square-foot unit is
still raw space, giving the Eastern European buyer the
opportunity to configure and decorate it to suit.
Two weeks ago, another sale at The Setai closed
at $1.122 million ($1,367 per square foot), just shy of
the $1.125 million listing price. The tastefully
decorated one-bedroom, one-bath unit of 821 square feet
on the 28th floor was on the market for only a couple of
months and was bought by a visitor from
Britain. Casey Koslowski, a real estate agent
with Majestic Properties, closed both deals.
Morgans Hotel Group
just racked up the most expensive condo sale on West
Avenue at Mondrian South Beach. A British buyer
paid just more than $5 million for a 4,000-square-foot
tower suite with a 2,000-square-foot terrace and a
customized interior by design star Marcel Wanders.
The tower suite lifestyle offers a butler serving
breakfast each morning and canapés and cocktails each
evening on request. Reportedly other European buyers are
honing in on Mondrian South Beach, including English pop
singer Craig David, who also bought a tower
suite.
An affordable green home
New homeowners Tangelia Sands and family
celebrated the completion of their new
Liberty City house, the first affordable green home in
South Florida
made possible with public subsidies. Architect Steven
Luria designed the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house
on Northwest 61st Street,
following the strict LEED’s (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design)
Green
Building
Rating System from the
U.S.
Green
Building
Council.
Developer Ario Lundy of Palmetto Homes of Miami, Inc.
built the home on a parcel conveyed by the city of
Miami specifically for affordable housing.
The Sands family qualified as moderate income (120
percent average median income or below) and received
financial assistance toward the purchase of the $225,000
home from the city of Miami’s Department of Community
Development, the Housing Finance Authority of Miami-Dade
County and the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.
Urban living gets better
When Neo Vertika broke ground in June 2004, it
was only the second residential building alongside the
Miami River. Developer Lissette Calderon
pioneered the urban living concept with Neo Lofts.
Neo Vertika in Brickell, located on the south bank of
the
Miami River, was the first South Florida high-rise
project to feature splits — two-story volume-oriented
spaces — and single-level lofts for young professionals.
Now the final round of amenities is opening in the
building. Andu Restaurant and Lounge at
141 S.W. Seventh St.,
which opens next week, targets young, sophisticated
urbanites with an eclectic menu of Mediterranean cuisine
with international influences.
Architectural and design company Telesco Associates
of Bay Harbor Islands has designed a 150-seat restaurant
with vaulted ceilings, a circular private dining area,
hanging multicolored glass bubbles and gray slate
floors. The company also is completing work on a new hot
spot in the building, the Irish-themed pub Waxy
O’Connell’s, following on the recent opening of the
first Waxy O at
1248 Washington Ave.
in South Beach.
The
Bilbao
Effect
There’s an interesting side note to the New World
Symphony’s new Frank Gehry-designed building, now
under construction behind
Lincoln Road. Gehry’s design of the Guggenheim Gallery
in Spain birthed an unlikely phenomenon known as the
Bilbao
Effect —
stimulating breathtaking architecture in neglected
areas.
Apparently, towns and cities in northern
England are competing to build the biggest, brashest and
best architecture with the idea that amazing design
stimulates economic activity and regenerates run-down
areas. Not exactly the situation in
South
Beach, but it will be interesting to see if Gehry’s new
structure brings even more architectural stars to town.
Spreading the
Miami
vibe elsewhere
Thanks to
Miami Beach
real estate agent Mark Zilbert of Zilbert
Realty Group for news of an unusual development
project in
Belize,
a Central American country being pitched as the next
potential real estate hot spot. A developer plans to
re-create
South Beach's Ocean Drive on the Caribbean side with a
collection of hotels that includes replicas of the
Colony Hotel and the Breakwater, as well as condos,
villas, shopping and entertainment centers. At this
South
Beach, 4,000-square-foot villas will be available for
$400,000 and two-bedroom condos for less than $200,000.
Stay tuned….
Meanwhile, Miami-based WSG Development Company,
the developers of Canyon Ranch Living,
Miami Beach, are taking their expertise to
Memphis,
Tenn., with a new mixed-use project called Midtown
Memphis.
In cooperation with the city of
Memphis
and the
Memphis
and Shelby County Community Redevelopment Agency,
WSG
Memphis
will work on the first big-box development in a 10-mile
radius. The project aims to revitalize the city area
with luxury residences, class-A office space, a hotel,
street-level restaurants, high-end retail shops,
entertainment venues and public promenades.
Kudos to…
Bernard N. Horovitz,
of Bermello Ajamil & Partners, on being elected
the 2008 president of the American Institute of
Architects Miami Chapter. Natividad Soto, of
Ferguson Glasgow Schuster Soto, Inc., is the new
president-elect. Kricket Snow, of Zyscovich
Architects, and Virgilio Campaneria, of
HKS Architects, are the new vice presidents of the
chapter.
Please send news items on Miami-Dade real estate to
hhill@miamisunpost.com |
