23,500 condominiums — 5,300 apartments — 6,000 hotel rooms — 3.5 million sq. ft. of office space — 4.0 Million sq. ft. of retail…..All within the Greater Downtown Miami area….
Click on the link to see where they plan to put all that “stuff”.
Tag Archives: miami condos
Swire Properties Announces Plans for Northern Trust Site
Arquitectonica-designed tower planned at 700 Brickell
Enlarge
Swire Properties plans an 80-story, mixed-use tower at the 700 Brickell Ave. site it purchased recently for $64 million.
The Arquitectonica-designed high-rise would serve as the entrance to the Brickell CityCentre project currently under construction on both sides of Miami Avenue, immediately west of the 700 Brickell site.
The tower, to be called One Brickell CityCentre, will include retail, Class A offices, condominium units, and a hotel with a restaurant and lounge, according to a statement released Friday. The plan also envisions grand plazas and retail shops connected to Brickell City Centre.
Upon its completion in 2015, Brickell CityCentre will comprise a luxury shopping center, two residential towers, the EAST Miami hotel by Swire Hotels, serviced apartments, a wellness center and Class A offices.
Swire Properties intends to work with the city of Miami to have One Brickell CityCentre approved as an extension of the existing Special Area Plan. The site is currently home to Northern Trust Bank, which had an interest in the sale of the property.
“In creating the vision for One Brickell City Centre, we are mindful of the legacy of the sellers of 700 Brickell Avenue, heirs of the pioneer Brickell family and Northern Trust Bank, a great corporate citizen,” Swire Properties President Stephen Owens said in a statement. “Our goal is to develop a structure that will be artful in its mix of uses and will advance Brickell Avenue’s stature as Miami’s premier destination.”
“One Brickell CityCentre is a tower that, by its design and dramatic contours, creates views above the current Miami skyline,” Arquitectonica principal Bernardo Fort-Brescia said in a statement. “With sightlines that stretch from land to sea, the building’s glow will act as a welcoming lantern for downtown Miami and a portal to Brickell from all approaches.”
Owens told the Business Journal in August that Swire may hold off on developing the siteuntil after the Brickell CityCentre project is complete.
Oscar Pedro Musibay Miami Business Daily
Bulk Condo Rule Extended for 3 Years…
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – April 12, 2012 – In most cases, people who purchase condominium units from bulk buyers won’t be able to sue them if there are construction defects or other problems.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott last week signed a bill that extended the protections for investment groups that have bought multiple units in a building. That means the investors don’t have any more responsibility than other buyers in the building.
The measure went into effect July 1, 2010, and Scott extended it for three more years until July 2015.
The exemption for bulk buyers boosted sales of distressed condos, helping the housing market recover, proponents say. Critics insist the measure isn’t consumer-friendly and shouldn’t become law permanently.
Florida law used to consider a developer anyone who bought more than seven units in a building of 70 units or more. Those buyers were forced to assume the same legal and financial risks as developers who build condos.
The bill eliminated the title of developer for bulk buyers, giving investment groups more incentive to make deals for deeply discounted units.
While investors scooped up South Florida condos, “a lot of other areas in Florida are having problems in terms of absorbing unsold units,” said Marty Schwartz, a Miami lawyer and a co-sponsor of the bill.
Some investor groups have proposed making the bill’s protections permanent.
“I still think there’s a need for it, but only for a limited period of time,” said Donna DiMaggio Berger, a Broward County lawyer who represents condo associations statewide. “Why would we want to make it permanent when the (housing) market is no longer distressed?”
From late 2008 until September 2011, investor groups made more than 100 bulk deals for condos in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, according to CondoVultures.com, a Bal Harbour-based consulting firm. The total dollar value was nearly $3 billion.
Copyright © 2012 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), Paul Owers, Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Distributed by MCT Information Services.
New Related condo would add 382 units to Brickell market
South Florida Business Journal by Oscar Pedro Musibay, Reporter
Date: Friday, March 16, 2012, 8:36am EDT
The Related Group
A rendition of the interior for the 42-story, 382-unit 1100 Millecento Residences,which is planned for a site at 1100 S. Miami Ave.
- Oscar Pedro Musibay
- Reporter – South Florida Business Journal
If The Related Group builds its second new condominium in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood, 1100 Millecento Residences will add 382 units to the market. That would be nearly double the size of the 192-unit MyBrickell, another condo it will begin building in the same neighborhood in the coming days.
The 42-story 1100 Millecento Residences is planned for a site at 1100 S. Miami Ave.
The architecture is inspired by internationally known architect Carlos Ott, who designed the Jade Beach, Jade Ocean and Artech buildings.
The interiors are being done by Italian design firm Pininfarina , which has worked with international brands includingFerrari . This marks the first time the brand has applied its designs to a residential building, Related said.
Six Questions for Jorge Perez
MIAMI-The Related Group is reentering the development market this month after four years of sitting on the sidelines. Related Group CEO Jorge Perez will break ground on MyBrickell, a new condo project in Downtown Miami.
Perez led the evolution of downtown nearly a decade ago, from a business and financial hub to a 24-hour city filled with nightlife, condos, restaurants and culture. Now, he’s preparing for the next wave of construction with the first groundbreaking in the district, post crash.
GlobeSt.com caught up with Perez to talk about why now is the right time to break ground and what he will do differently this time around. Perez also discusses his strategy for the next wave of development.
GlobeSt.com: Related has more than 20 new projects in condos, market rate apartments and affordable housing. What signs do you see the time is right to move out so aggressively?
Perez: Out of the 20 jobs, more than 70% are affordable and market rate rentals. The market for both these segments in South Florida is extremely strong. Our affordable jobs are at 100% occupancy and there is an immense need in this sector. On the market rate rental side, South Florida occupancies are over 95% and rents have risen considerably over the last few years. We expect this trend to continue and feel that the multifamily rental market will be very strong over the next decade.
GlobeSt.com: What will you do differently this time around as you resume condo construction in downtown Miami?
Perez: We are requiring much more cash upfront for all our new condo developments. In the two jobs that have already been launched, we are requiring 40% of the total purchase price at construction start and the balance to be paid over the construction period. The high equity requirements should eliminate all speculation, which was the main factor in the collapse of the housing market in 2008 and 2009.
GlobeSt.com: I’ve heard you say you will focus on high performance, value-driven properties in the next wave of new construction. Can you explain that?
Perez: Our new projects in the Brickell market are characterized by high ultra modern, cutting-edge design both in the outside architecture and interior of the units. For MyBrickell, for example,Arquitectonica will be designing the exterior and Karim Rashid will be in charge of the interiors. Similarly in Millecento, Carlos Ott will design the exterior and famed Italian designer Pinifarina, will be in charge of the interiors.
We are doing this at extremely affordable pricing with sales at Millecento starting at $350 per square foot, a price that can be achieved only because we were able to buy the land during the recession and construction prices are still at very reasonable levels. As the market improves, both land and construction will go up and these prices will be impossible to recreate.
GlobeSt.com: What is your financial formula to weed out speculators and assure demand is solid for your new condo projects?
Perez: By requiring our buyers to put over 40% equity in their purchases, we will be weeding out all speculators. We have three types of buyers: those that want to live there full-time; those that want a second home in Miami and; those that are buying, particularly in the Brickell/Downtown area to rent their apartments and keep until the real estate market improves.
GlobeSt.com: What do you see as the biggest challenges in this new round of condo development in Miami?
Perez: The desire of international buyers to purchase in Miami has created a mini-boom, increasing land values to almost the prices realized during the top of the market. Additionally, as more developers announce jobs, construction pricing will also increase. These factors translate into higher prices which could dampened the interest in the market.
GlobeSt.com: Are you concerned about overbuilding?
Perez: Real estate is an imperfect market where people don’t have full knowledge of what others are doing. As a response to these perceived new demands, there could be new supply that exceeds these demands, as has happened repeatedly in the past. We are hoping that we have learned the lessons of the past and that developments are not started until real buyers, with substantial equity, have committed to the jobs.
Categories: Southeast, Multifamily, Residential, Development, Six Questions, Florida, Miami
Residential market: a white-hot 1Q in Miami
The first quarter of 2011 might be Miami’s strongest three-month period since the housing bubble popped.
After the last six months of 2010 saw a cooling down after federal tax stimuli expired, inventory of both single-family homes and condominium units is falling dramatically.
“The market is ‘en fuego,'” meaning “on fire,” said Nelson Gonzalez, a senior vice president at Esslinger-Wooten Maxwell in Miami Beach. “I’m working seven days a week.”
Gonzalez said there was no comparison between the activity he saw in the first three months of 2010 and the same period this year.
“How do I compare a snail with a cheetah?” He said.
In the single-family market, for example, there were 3,348 closed deals in the first quarter, according to Miami MLS data provided to The Real Deal by the Keyes Company. That represents a nearly 9 percent increase over the same period in 2010, and a 173 percent jump over the first quarter of 2008.
“We’ve not only had a good, solid closing first quarter, but the second quarter will be outperforming any quarter we’ve seen in the last few years in units sales, because of what we’ve already seen that’s pending,” said Keyes CEO Mike Pappas.
The jump over the first quarter of 2010 was significant because it came without the help of federal tax stimuli, Pappas said. “Last year you were going up against the end of the stimulus tax credit. The volume we did in March was as big as any month since 2007.”
According to data from the Miami Association of Realtors, pending home sales (which include single-family homes and condos), jumped 18 percent last month compared to March 2010.
The activity hasn’t come without casualties, however. While volume has more than doubled since the time the bubble burst, prices are now down to about half of what they were, he said.
While the median sales price of a single-family home in Miami in the first quarter of 2008 was around $310,000, it’s now around $150,000.
In the city of Miami (as opposed to county-wide, which was the region covered in the rest of the data here), the median sales price was $199,600, according to the most recent 2011 numbers from Zillow.com, in the first quarter. That was a drop from a peak of $339,000 at the end of 2008.
Gonzalez said the activity he’d seen in Miami Beach’s high-end market was coming largely from buyers, typically end-users, afraid to miss the bottom.
“The people that had the money — and again, everything is all-cash — there’s not financing involved — are getting off the fence because they’re seeing that the bottom happened a year ago and don’t want to miss the boat at the bottom,” he said.
By Alexander Britell
Miami Capital Properties 