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A New Nymph for Ocean Drive
By Helen Hill
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Next Sunday Sarah Giller Nelson speaks about
Designing the Good Life: Norman M. Giller and the
Development of Miami, a book co-written with
noted MiMo architect Norman M. Giller |
The Congress Group Inc. just announced plans to build Kallisto,
a new über-luxury condo project, at
120 Ocean Drive in the buzzing South of Fifth area of
Miami Beach.
For anyone who’s forgotten ancient Greek mythology, Kallisto, which
means
“most beautiful,” was the nymph who was seduced by Zeus and bore him
a son, Arcas. Anger or jealousy led to her
transformation into a bear and eventually she became the
heavenly constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear) — a
South Beach-style saga if there ever was one.
The Boston-based developer plans to build a 19-story building on
the .4-acre site on the west side of
Ocean Drive.
The New York office of Miami-based architect Bermello
Ajamil & Partners Inc. designed the top 12 floors
with a total of eight single-floor units and two duplex
penthouses (the upper penthouse includes a private pool
on its terrace). Floor plans range from 4,396 to 7,947
square feet with large terraces.
The sixth-floor open amenity deck will offer a pool, spa and picnic
area overlooking the ocean and the city. There also will
be four stories of parking and a commercial unit at the
lobby level.
Kallisto’s “smart
building” technology will allow residents to control
everything — from television to the stereo to lighting,
window coverings and HVAC, as well as direct
communication with the 24-hour concierge and parking
valet — with the touch of a remote control button.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for early summer; completion is slated
for November 2010. Units start at $4.5 million.
Miami Beach agent John Lennon is handling
sales.
Foreplay for foreclosures
Can hapless owners facing foreclosure do anything about it?
Perhaps!
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
announced Project Lifeline, a program in which
six major lenders have agreed to allow seriously overdue
homeowners to suspend foreclosures for 30 days, giving
them time to work out affordable loans. This follows the
government-brokered Hope Now plan, which freezes
rates on some high-cost subprime mortgages for five
years to aid borrowers whose introductory rates jumped.
Initially, Project Lifeline’s pilot program — for seriously
delinquent homeowners whose mortgages are 90 or more
days past due — will involve Bank of America Corp.,
Citigroup, Countrywide Financial, JP Morgan Chase & Co.,
Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo.
Another possible option is to turn to a service company such as
Outreach Housing LLC in
Margate.
The loss-mitigation organization specializes in
assisting victims of the lending industry through
coordinated legal and mediations services. In the past
month, Outreach Housing reports that nearly 500 case
files referencing lender violations have been filed on
behalf of homeowners currently being threatened with
foreclosure; 100 percent of these enrolled homeowners
still own their homes.
Spectrum
Another report in an occasional series highlighting the range of
asking prices for homes in
South Florida.
This week, we report on two Northeast Miami-Dade
condominiums. Selling prices in this market reflect such
factors as location, a realistic starting price and the
anxiety level of the sellers.
A garden condo at
3545 Magellan Circle in Aventura’s Marina Village
Gardens is being offered at $275,000 ($251
per square foot). The 1,096-square-foot unit in the
guard-gated community at The Waterways offers 2
bedrooms, 2 baths and a terrace off the living room. The
renovated eat-in kitchen has new granite countertops and
wood cabinets. The master suite has two closets, dual
sinks, a Roman tub/shower and its own terrace. There,
you can easily barbecue on the screened porch and walk
to the Marina and Waterways restaurants and shops.
Lori Fein with EWM Realtors in Aventura is
the listing agent.
A brand-new luxury condo on the 28th floor of Turnberry Ocean
Colony in
Sunny
Isles Beach is now being offered at $2.1 million ($758 a
square foot) — a good value considering that this is
less than the original purchase price of $776 a square
foot.
The three-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath residence is 2,772 square
feet and offers east, west and north views of ocean and
city — from Miami to Fort Lauderdale — and is
designer-ready. The building, completed in 2007 by
developer Turnberry Associates, offers the same quality
construction, fine finishes and cachet as Porto Vita in
Aventura, as well as a private restaurant, bar and gym,
spa, doorman, valet and five-star amenities, according
to listing agent Howard E. Marcus, of Coldwell Banker,
Aventura.
Buzz
With a new emphasis on a larger commercial component in Biscayne
Landing’s 193-acre development, Boca Developers are
awaiting approval from the city of
North Miami
for the next phase, a mixed-use town center. The
four-block center on 25 acres will include offices,
retail shops, a hotel, entertainment centers and some
residential units — all intended to help establish the
urban neighborhood in a rural setting as a destination.
Biscayne Landing is already part of a LEED ND
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Neighborhood Development) program and all buildings will
be LEED certified to meet national efficiency criteria
for water, energy and material usage.
When a big-box store closes, the empty building can be a problem.
Urban planners consider vacant big boxes a destabilizing
factor that depresses property values, attracts vandals
and breeds crime. A company called Budget Development
Partners is turning these buildings into
climate-controlled storage facilities, and has completed
26 such storage facilities in
Toronto, the Carolinas, Virginia and Florida at a
typical renovation cost of $7.5 million.
However, Miami-Dade can show off an even more desirable renovation
— the conversion of an empty Kmart in the California
Club Mall on
Ives Dairy Road into a county middle school.
A correction: The Related Group’s Loft 3 project in downtown
Miami was not on hold, as previously reported, and the
RCRS sales office currently on the site is being
relocated to make way for demolition of the existing
building in the near future.
Coming up
Next Sunday, Feb. 24,
Noon:
The Wolfsonian-FIU Brunch and Book Signing. Sarah
Giller Nelson speaks about Designing the Good
Life: Norman M. Giller and the Development of Miami,
a book co-written with her grandfather, Norman M. Giller,
a noted architect of MiMo (Miami Modern) buildings.
Members, $25; all others, $35. RSVP required:
305-535-2631 or
thea@thewolf.fiu.edu.
Thursday, Feb. 28,
7 p.m.:
Talk by architectural historian Robert Rubin on Living in a
Glass House, the Maison de Verre in the 21st Century.
The Maison de Verre is an exceptional private
residence designed by modernist Pierre
Chareau in
Paris
in the interwar period. Members and students,
free; all others, $10.
Please send news items on Miami-Dade real estate to
hhill@miamisunpost.com |
