A rendering of the art studio at Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach

South Florida’s luxury condominium developers have been rolling out a host of hot amenities, from soccer fields and Hammam spas to cigar rooms and private theaters.

Now comes the latest feature geared to appeal to buyers: and in-house art studio.

The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach said its newest convenience is the first to be offered by Piero Lissoni, the project’s Italian architect and designer.

Buyers at the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach will have access to an art studio outfitted with such necessities as easels for painting, wall space for canvases, a stone surface for sculpting, a table for jewelry making and beading as well as a working sink. It will also have a “wall of light that imitates north faced natural light,” which is optimum for art, according to developers Lionheart Capital.  In addition, the space will offer a library filled with art books for inspiration.

“I liked the idea of having a simple and calm space. A quiet room to create,” Lissoni said in a statement.

Art studio programming will include private and group classes, art talks and trips, and onsite exhibits of residents’ work, the developers said.

Miami artist and sculptor Tatiana Blanco, who advised Lissoni on the working elements for the art studio, said the space is aimed at inspiring residents’ creative pursuits. “Having an art studio in your building is like having a gym downstairs,” she said in a statement. “No more excuses.”

The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach, Lissoni’s first architectural project in the United States, is now more than 50 percent sold, the developers said. When completed in 2016, it will have 111 condominium units and 15 single-family villas, with 1,700 square feet to more than 11,000 square feet. Prices range from $2 million to $40 million.

Other amenities include private spa treatment suites, steam rooms and a sauna, a meditation garden, indoor and outdoor yoga studios, an on-site captained day yacht, private boat dockages and a state-of-the-art fitness center. Residences will have two attended lobbies with 24-hour personalized concierge services, valet parking, a pet salon suite, a BBQ and dining area, a library/conference room, a roof-top pool and a music room. — Ina Cordle

Condo sales in Miami-Dade County had a great start to the month of June, with total sales volume blowing past the last week of May and average prices on the rise, according to data from condo.com

The county’s most expensive sales, however, continued to hover in the $1 million to $2 million price range — with one major exception. Monica Harvey of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell closed on a $6.9 million deal for a unit in the Continuum condo complex in South Beach. The unit had been on the market for 421 days, and was sold for significantly less than its original asking price of $9 million, but Harvey’s sale still nearly tripled the price of the next most-expensive unit in the county.

A $2.4 million penthouse in The Gables Club was the runner-up for last week’s most expensive sale. The unit, which sold in just more than three months, was listed by Helen Nicastri of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate.

Sale prices were so close this week that the third and fourth on the list were only $20,000 apart, and the following two tied with closings of $1.6 million. Miami Beach was dethroned as the city with the most luxury sales, ending a three-week run.

Throughout the county, 180 condos were sold last week for a total of $71 million — a $26 million increase from the week before. Average sale prices were $397,802 and the average price per square foot was $294.

Here’s a breakdown of the data for the week of May 31 to June 6. Click on the map for more information:

Most expensive
Continuum South Tower, Miami Beach | $6.9M | $2,071 psf | 421 days on market |  Monica Harvey of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell

1300 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway in Sunrise and Rocco Ferrera, CIO of Stiles

Fort Lauderdale-based Stiles acquired an office plaza in Sunrise for $18.9 million, according to Broward County records.

An affiliate of Florida East Coast Industries, the overarching company behind All Aboard Florida, Flagler Global Logistics, Flagler and Parallel Infrastructure, sold Sunrise Corporate Plaza, at 1300 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway.

The 112,601-square-foot building sits on nearly 8 acres and was developed in 1999, according to Broward County property records. It last sold in November 2007 for an undisclosed amount.

PNC Bank granted the buyer, SPF Sunrise Corporate Plaza, a $12.6 million mortgage, records show. Stiles Chief Investment Officer Rocco Ferrera signed the loan.

Last week, Stiles sold a Publix-anchored shopping center in Hollywood for $39 million.

Brooke Auclair Schneider, Rick Klepal, Jason Anderson and Roy Kim

Douglas Elliman Development Marketing brought on Brooke Auclair Schneider as senior marketing director. Schneider will be based out of Palm Beach and work on The Bristol, a project being sold and marketed by Elliman. Prior to joining Douglas Elliman, Schneider held marketing roles with Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Penn-Florida Companies, the Park Hyatt Chicago, and Zimmerman Partners Advertising.

Rick Klepal joined Colliers International South Florida, based in the Palm Beach Gardens office. Klepal specializes in investment sales, capital markets and corporate real estate finance. He was previously with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.

Miami-based Coastal Construction Group hired Jason Anderson as its vice president of Coastal Homes. Anderson most recently served as project manager for the division, which has more than $250 million in current contracts.

Roy Kim, a former top design executive for Extell Development, joined Douglas Elliman as its chief creative officer for Development Marketing, focusing on Florida and California. Kim most recently spent nine months as the head of new development at Compass, but previously told TRD that “when your heart’s not in it, it’s time to go.” In that role, he will advise developers in those markets on design, pre-development planning and new development marketing.

42 Northeast 25th Street in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood

A Wynwood property that was the site of the Aqua Art Miami show during Art Basel Miami Beach last decade has been listed for $11 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The 22,709-square-foot property, at 42 and 50 Northeast 25th Street, is currently owned and occupied by Always Flowers, listing broker Ari Dispenza, principal of Central Commercial Real Estate, told TRD.

Always Flowers, an event designer, had sold its previous site at 50 Northeast 39th Street in the Design District for $2.715 million in December 2011, and relocated to its current site in Wynwood, Dizpenza said.

Miami-Dade property records show that Kako Afe, in care of Always Flowers’ owner Karen Cohen, paid $2.235 million for the Wynwood property in December 2011. The building was built in 1955.

Always Flowers has made extensive improvements to the site, “making it one of the most impressive adaptive re-use projects in Wynwood to date,” Dispenza said.

“They put in all new plumbing, electric, glass partition walls. It was an empty warehouse,” he said, “It was a soup-to-nuts renovation, new everything. They did the building completely over.”

The building also features 23-foot ceilings and skylights. “In this neighborhood, where there are a lot of old garment manufacturing warehouses with very low ceilings, it’s unique,” he said.

Ideally, Always Flowers would lease back the building after it sells, Dispenza said.

The site is within the area of Wynwood that is proposed for higher density residential and commercial rezoning, he said. Currently, the property is zoned for “industrial intensive, heavy-light manufacturing and warehousing-storage type use,” according to property records.

In anticipation of new zoning, prices have been rising in Wynwood, amid a surge of  interest from developers.

Among recent sales, New York-based Thor Equities  last week completed its $26.9 million purchase of nearly a square city block, at 2801 Northwest Third Avenue.

In March, a 78,050-square-foot lot in Wynwood was purchased by Jeronimo Hirschfeld, developer and CEO of Miami-based One Real Estate Investment. The vacant land, at 2201/2245 North Miami Avenue, sold for $15 million, a five-fold increase in three years. Also in March,  Brodson Construction bought a Wynwood office building at 2400 Northeast Second Avenue for $3.7 million, with plans to redevelop the property into retail space. And Redsky Capital paid $26 million in March for a property at 2621 Northwest Second Avenue called the Wynwood Block.

Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Three condo-hotel units at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach are headed for auction this Thursday after their owner filed for bankruptcy.

Units 714, 716 and 2202 at the Fontainebleau II Tresor will be sold in an auction held by the Maltz Auctions company. The auction is on behalf of LaMonica, Herbst & Maniscalco, a New York-based bankruptcy law firm.

Live bidding will be available in New York and Florida, though the casual bidder need not apply — interested parties have to bring a $40,000 cashier’s check to bid on units 2201 and 716, while a $60,000 cashier’s check is required for unit 714. The units can be purchased separately or in a bundle, as a press release for the auction suggests units 714 and 716 can be combined into a two-bedroom, two-bathroom residence.

All three units were owned by a company titled Imperial Capital, which has a Nevada mailing address. Its managing members are Mel Cooper and David Cooper, who were named in New York Supreme Court documents asking them to turn over a portion of their property holdings to satisfy a $4.1 million debt.

Those holdings include the three units at the Fontainebleau, which were purchased by either Mel or David and then transferred to Imperial Capital, along with an apartment in New York’s Trump Tower and interests in several businesses.

Mel Cooper was also accused by his lender, Elaine Thompson, of transferring his New York apartment to Imperial Capital in order to avoid paying the debt.

Cooper filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in December.

The Fontainebleau Miami Beach, designed by prominent architect Morris Lapidus, first opened in 1954, according to the resort’s website. Hotel owners spent $1 billion on a 2008 renovation of the 20-acre oceanfront resort.

From Luxury Listings NYC: A bejeweled lobster atop a handmade hat; a lamp “inspired by the ethereal color spectrum of the cosmos;” and Rolex’s newly updated Oyster Perpetual Day-Date are just a few of the luxe items featured in this issue of LLNYC. Check out the full list after the jump. [more]

Victoria Beckham

1. Victoria Beckham shopping real estate in SoFla for new fashion store [Gossip Extra]
2. Cerberus said to buy 4,200 rental homes in top U.S. deal [Bloomberg]
3. Q&A with boutique hotel icon Ian Schrager [HotelNewsNow]
4. Floresta apartments in Jupiter sold for $76M [South Florida Business Journal]

— Sean Stewart-Muniz

Current reader favorites:
1. Condo prices and rents flattening in downtown Miami: report
2. LeBron James’ waterfront Miami manse is under contract
3. $4B SoLē Mia master-planned development unveiled
4. Take an early look at the new Miracle Mile
5. AC Hotel in mid-Miami Beach opens Saturday

The home at 440 West Dilido Way and Jeff Miller of Zilbert International Realty

A freshly built waterfront home on the Venetian Islands has just been listed for sale at $11.5 million, The Real Deal has learned. 

The home, at 440 West Dilido Way, was just completed this year by owners Ricardo Moraes and Maria Gonzalez Moraes, according to Miami-Dade County property records. Ricardo Moraes is the U.S. distributor for Officine Gullo, a design company based out of Florence, Italy, that has worked exclusively with kitchens for the past 90 years.

Moraes spared no expense building his Venetian Islands dream home. The kitchen cost $500,000 to build — an Officine Gullo design, of course — and even the two-car garage door is made out of the same Ipe wood paneling as the pool deck and outer fence.

Listing agent Jeff Miller of Zilbert International Realty told TRD that the owners decided to move elsewhere, though he declined to go into more detail. He said to entice buyers, he threw in a membership to any beach club, plus a one-year subscription to the Anatomy fitness club, which starts at around $185 a month.

The home features open spaces, tall ceilings and a straight view to the bay. Other features include a 1,600-square-foot rooftop deck, oak floors throughout the home, and a massive retractable glass wall in the master bedroom than opens into the quarter-acre property’s backyard.

“More and more people are looking for single-family homes for the value,” Miller said. “When [buyers] look for a three-bedroom apartment, they’re confined to 3,000 square feet. For single-family homes, you can get a brand new product here for half the price and twice the size.”

From the New York website: Despite exchanging niceties and riffing on the fraternal nature of the industry, some of crowdfunding’s biggest names made one thing very clear at The Real Deal‘s New Development Showcase and Forum — competition remains as fierce as ever.

Silverstein Properties CEO Marty Burger, Fundrise president and co-founder Dan Miller, Prodigy Network’s Rodrigo Nino and Allen Shayanfekr of Sharestates joined TRD managing editor Hiten Samtani to dish on the state of real estate crowdfunding, which is revolutionizing the way institutional players are raising capital for their projects. In the above video, our panelists discuss the rise of U.S. crowdfunding firms, the impact of venture capital on the field, and more. — TRD

Sample Row, Pollo Tropical, Tahiti Gardens

Three South Florida commercial properties have recently sold between $4.9 million and $10 million, in deals brokered by Marcus & Millichap.

Sample Row shops, Coral Springs: $9.8M

Sample Row, a 90,552-square-foot shopping center at 7663 Sample Road in Coral Springs sold for $9.8 million. The property was originally listed for $11 million.

Douglas K. Mandel, a first vice president of investments, Barry M. Wolfe, a vice president of investments, and Alan Lipsky, an associate, in Marcus & Millichap’s Fort Lauderdale office, had the exclusive listing for the property on behalf of the seller, a private investor from Miami Beach.

The buyer was a limited liability company from North Miami, Marcus & Millichap said.

“The sale is reflective of the strong recovery of Broward County’s retail market. The property received strong interest from both local, out of area, and international investors. The ultimate purchaser is based overseas and was attracted to the property as a long-term hold with an immediate opportunity to add value,” Wolfe said in a statement.

Sample Row was built in 2001 and consists of three one-story buildings on 4.35 acres. The plaza is home to retailers including home goods stores, medical providers, and DaVita Dialysis.

Tahiti Gardens, Lauderdale Lakes: $8.7M

Tahiti Gardens, a 112-unit apartment complex in Lauderdale Lakes, sold for $8.7 million, or $77,679 per unit, according to Ryan Nee, regional manager of Marcus & Millichap’s Fort Lauderdale office.

Derek R. Gibbs and Daniel J. Cunningham, senior associates, had the exclusive listing for the property on behalf of the seller, a limited liability company from Fort Lauderdale,  and the buyer, a limited liability company from Boca Raton.

“The seller acquired the property in 2009 in distressed condition and made significant renovations,” Gibbs said in a statement. “The buyer purchased the property using non-recourse, highly leveraged bridge loan capital. He realized the opportunity to push rents, lower expenses, and either resell for a higher price or refinance and hold on a long-term loan upon maturity of the debt.”

Built in 1972, Tahiti Gardens, at 3460 Northwest 50th Avenue, consists of two two-story buildings with 60 one-bedroom/one-bathroom units, 48 two-bedroom/one-bathroom units and four two-bedroom/two-bathroom units.

Pollo Tropical, Alton Road in Miami Beach: $5M

The site of Pollo Tropical, a 4,423-square foot net-leased property at 1454 Alton Road in Miami Beach, sold for $4.925 million, Nee said.

Mandel, Benjamin H. Silver, an associate vice president of investments, and Richard Niewiadomski, an associate, in Marcus & Millichap’s Fort Lauderdale office, had the exclusive listing for the property on behalf of the seller, a family from Coral Gables.

Miami-Dade property records list the owners as the Pallot family.

The buyer was a foreign investor, Marcus & Millichap said.

“The buyer realized the opportunity to capture a prime corner location in the heart of South Beach,” Silver said in a statement. “While Pollo Tropical’s lease potentially extends another 18 years, there will be significant upside by either bringing the rent to market or by redeveloping the site at the end of that term.” — Ina Cordle

SLS Hotel South Beach

The luxurious SLS Hotel South Beach has traded hands for $125 million, or $892,857 per room, The Real Deal has learned.

GoldenPeak Capital Real Estate, an international real estate management company based in Guernsey, was the buyer, according to Miami-Dade County records and corporate records. 

Los Angeles-based Sam Nazarian co-owned the 140-room, 13-story hotel with CIM Group. The redeveloped upscale property, at 1701 Collins Avenue, features two restaurants, the Bazaar by José Andrés and Katsuya by Starck, as well as lounges Hyde Beach, the Terrace and Bar Centro. Owners spent more than $80 million on the redevelopment, completed in 2012.

The South Beach SLS integrates the original 1939 Art Deco building with an adjacent building composed of ten villas, the Hyde Beach lounge and six bungalows.

Nazarian’s sbe Hotel Group, which also operates the Raleigh Miami Beach, sold the 1.3-acre SLS Hotel South Beach site to 1701 Miami Owner, an affiliate of the buyer.

“As the SLS brand continues to grow, we found a great owner in GoldenPeaks Capital Real Estate, which shares our vision for this world-class property,” Nazarian, chairman and CEO of sbe, said in a statement.

GoldenPeak’s Daniel Tain is listed on the buyer’s corporate records. Tain, a GoldenPeak board member, is co-founder and director of the Dubai and Guernsey-based Amiri Group and more than 20 international companies. Tain’s businesses operate throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

As part of the sale, sbe will continue to operate the hotel through 2030, according to a press release.

In May, sbe also sold the SLS Beverly Hills hotel for $195 million to Torrance multilevel marketing and hotel firm Sunrider International, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Hotels along Collins Avenue in South Beach have been drawing investor interest at record prices.

The sale of the Collins Avenue property follows that of the James Royal Palm, now called the Royal Palm, at 1545 Collins Avenue. Chesapeake Lodging Trust, a real estate investment trust focused on high-end hotels, paid $278 million for the 393-room hotel, or more than $707,000 per room, in February. Near the SLS, the Shore Club was purchased by HFZ Capital for $175.3 million in December 2013. HFZ has plans to convert the 309-room hotel at 1901 Collins Avenue  into 100 rooms and 75 condo units.

321 Ocean and Peter Zalewski

The first of at least eight new preconstruction condo projects planned for the ultra-luxury South-of-Fifth neighborhood of South Beach has been completed, at a time when the pace of unit resales is slowing.

The first transaction deed for a condo in the newly completed 321 Ocean project, with a combined 22 units, was recorded on May 20, according to Miami-Dade County records.

In total, a dozen condo units in the 321 Ocean project, developed by 321 Ocean Drive LLC with David Arditi, have been recorded at an average price of more than $1,390 per square foot, for a combined price of $41.4 million as of May 31, according to government records. The development features a pair of buildings — one fronting the famed Ocean Drive, and the other the Atlantic Ocean.

Individual unit sales in the project have transacted at prices ranging from less than $1.4 million to nearly $6 million. On a price-per-square-foot basis, units in the 321 Ocean project have traded from less than $600 to nearly $1,900, according to government records.

Aside from the 321 Ocean project, at least seven more condo projects with nearly 135 units are in the presale phase or already under construction in the South-of-Fifth neighborhood, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)

Overall in Miami Beach, developers have announced plans to build 37 new condo buildings with more than 1,760 units as of May 31, according to the data.

In completing the 321 Ocean Drive project, developers have now constructed 30 new condo buildings with nearly 2,715 units east of I-95 in the tri-county South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties since this cycle began in 2011.

An additional 108 new condo buildings with nearly 11,000 units are currently under construction in South Florida, according to the data.

The new condo projects that are under construction or recently completed account for nearly 33 percent of the nearly 42,500 units announced for South Florida during this cycle.

In the South-of-Fifth neighborhood, demand for condo resale units has fallen on a year-over-year basis, as prices have risen.

In the first four months of 2015, buyers acquired about 76 South-of-Fifth condo units on the resale market, at an average price of about $1,038 per square foot, according to data from the Southeast Florida MLXchange.

By comparison, buyers purchased nearly 120 South-of-Fifth condo units between the January through April period of 2014, at an average price of less than $925 per square foot, according to the data.

The slowdown in sales comes as nearly 225 condo units in the South-of-Fifth neighborhood are currently on the resale market, at an average asking price of more than $1,350 per square foot as of May 31, according to the data.

At the current 2015 transaction pace of 19 units monthly, the South-of-Fifth neighborhood has nearly 12 months of condo resale supply available for purchase heading into the traditionally slower summer tourism season.

A balanced market is considered to have about six months of supply available for purchase. Less months of supply generally indicates a seller’s market, and more months of inventory suggests a buyer’s market.

The unanswered question going forward is whether the South-of-Fifth neighborhood will be able to maintain — and increase — the price premiums that developers and unit resellers have come to expect, given the number of new and existing units available for purchase.

Peter Zalewski is a real estate columnist for The Real Deal who founded Condo Vultures LLC, a consultancy and publishing company, as well as Condo Vultures Realty LLC and CVR Realty brokerages and the Condo Ratings Agency, an analytics firm. The Condo Ratings Agency operates CraneSpotters.com, a preconstruction condo projects website, in conjunction with the Miami Association of Realtors.

Deme Mekras and Elliot Shainberg

After 10 years at Marcus & Millichap and two years at Franklin Street Real Estate Services, Deme Mekras and Elliot Shainberg decided in March to start their own commercial real estate firm, Miami-based MSP Group.

Together, they’ve closed more than $500 million in deals in South Florida.

“Our focus is what it has always been: the private sector of the multifamily business,” Mekras told The Real Deal.The pair has experience executing transactions for private investors, local and regional banks, large institutions, national special servicers, operators backed by hedge funds, and national agencies, according to a press release.

Mekras was previously regional managing partner at Franklin Street and a founding member of the Marcus & Millichap Miami office. Shainberg was a senior director at Franklin Street and a senior associate at Marcus & Millichap.

The company has three exclusive assignments since launching at the end of March — two multifamily properties in Hialeah and a land development opportunity in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, at 314 Northeast 26th Terrace.

The 5,300-square-foot site east of Biscayne Boulevard is zoned for up to 36 stories. The two-story office building onsite is leased to two tenants, making it a well-positioned site for investors looking for income-producing land in an exploding area, Mekras said.

The property, which last traded for $37,500 in 1994, is now on the market for $1.335 million.

MSP’s goal for this year, Mekras told TRD, is to to pick up more inventory for the company’s client base of income investors, and focus on relationships with those clients.

“A lot of times when you’re at a company where the goal is growth and expansion, you lower [your] standards. That became tiresome,” he said. “We’re small enough so that quality control is possible.”

From left: Miami’s Villa Blanca, listed on Luxury Retreats for $9,000 to $14,000 per night, and Joe Poulin

From the New York website: A luxury rental site that can best be described as Airbnb for mansions raised $11 million in Series B funding, in another sign of how the sharing economy is making inroads into real estate.

Montreal-based Luxury Retreats, which lists vacation mansions and apartments with prices often exceeding $1,000 per night, has now raised a total of $16 million from investors. The latest round was led by Canadian venture capital firm iNovia Capital, as first reported by TechCrunch.

Luxury Retreats was founded by Joe Poulin in 1999. Many of its competitors in the home-sharing space have picked up serious cash from investors in recent years. Onefinestay, a rival site that lists short-term mansion rentals, raised $40 million from investors including Hyatt Hotels in late 2014. Meanwhile, Airbnb, which lists homes — and sometimes treehouses — in all price categories, is expanding across the globe, and is reportedly valued at more than $20 billion.

As the largest real estate market in the U.S., New York City has drawn significant interest from these startups and Luxury Retreats is reportedly planning to expand its presence in the Big Apple. The site currently lists five apartments on Central Park South and one unit in an Upper West Side high rise, with nightly rents ranging from $450 to $3,000.

Riva Fort Lauderdale, a 15-story riverfront residential tower, launched construction at a recent VIP groundbreaking ceremony.

Located on a 2-acre waterfront site at 1180 North Federal Highway across the river from George English Park, Riva features spacious units and terraces with panoramic views of the ocean and downtown Fort Lauderdale skyline.

The 100-unit condo project will feature a Riva water taxi boat service for residents. Units range from $645,000 to more than $1.7 million, with penthouses starting at $2 million. Condos will include private elevator access, contemporary bathrooms with porcelain flooring, gourmet kitchens and outdoor terraces. Bradley Deckelbaum of Premier Developers is the developer behind Riva.

Completion is scheduled for fall 2016. — Katherine Kallergis and Sean Stewart-Muniz

A street-side rendering of the Town Center at Sawgrass expansion

Sawgrass Malls is getting another huge open-air expansion, this time a full-price retail section, owner Simon announced Tuesday.

Town Center at Sawgrass will span 118,000 square feet and host about 25 full-price retailers, along with four new sit-down restaurants. A new parking deck will accompany the expansion, with space for 2,000 vehicles.

An aerial rendering of the 118,000-square-foot expansion

Construction is expected to begin in early 2017, with an estimated completion date of fall 2018.

Simon, the mall’s owner and a massive multi-national real estate company, cited huge demand for full-priced stores from both shoppers and retailers as one reason why it’s building the expansion.

Town Center is the third open-air expansion for the mall to be announced in recent years. However, it is the first to host full-priced retail stores in Sawgrass.

Colonnade at Sawgrass, a section with designer outlets, has grown three times since it was first built. Its latest iteration will be complete in 2016. Century 21 Department Store will open there this fall, marking the retailer’s debut in Florida and its first foray outside the Northeast.

The Oasis at Sawgrass, which is home to entertainment venues, restaurants and retail stores, will also undergo upgrades during 2016 — Sean Stewart-Muniz

Proposed 18-unit townhouse development on U.S. 1 in Miami

A proposal to transform four single houses and two vacant lots into 18 townhouses on U.S. 1 near Miami Science Museum is now dead. At its May 28 Planning and Zoning Board hearing, the Miami City Commission unanimously denied the rezoning of the properties to allow for the larger project designed by Borges + Associates.

Even though the 18 townhouses had won a recommendation from Miami’s Planning and Zoning Appeals Board, city commissioners cited neighborhood opposition in rejecting the owner’s rezoning request from single-family to multi-family, according to video of the May 28 hearing.

“It’s pretty clear they simply don’t want it,” said Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, whose district includes the proposed development. His colleagues concurred. “This commission has a reputation of listening to the neighbors,” said Commissioner Frank Carollo. “I don’t think we should be departing from that. Clearly there is opposition from the residents.”

Representatives for Southeastern Investment Group Corp., the owner of the six contigious lots beginning on the corner of South Miami Avenue and U.S. 1, tried to persuade the five-member city commission that the 18 townhouses would improve the area by reducing a dangerous traffic situation created by cars backing out of the existing four residences onto U.S. 1. In addition to the townhomes, Southeastern also proposed building an underground garage with a side street entrance.

Southeastern, which lists Key Biscayne resident Alex Zakharia as its president in state corporate records, purchased the lots for a combined $976,000 between 1997 and 2004. The company teamed up with South Miami-based CEN Construction to build the project, according to Southeastern attorney Lucia Dougherty, a shareholder with Greenberg Traurig.

“This particular area is inappropriate for single family housing,” Dougherty said during the May 28 hearing. “We don’t believe this is a reasonable use of these properties.”

Bob Liu, a CEN principal, told commissioners the project would act as a buffer between the single family houses and the busy U.S.1 corridor. “This is not spot zoning, but correctional zoning,” he said.

However, several homeowners spoke out against Southeastern’s plans and commissioners received an opposition petition signed by 40 neighboring residents.

Pedro Puerto, whose three-bedroom house at 40 Southwest 30th Road fronts the proposed development, was one of the objectors. “The protest is based on improper land use that debases the quiet area we reside in and is not in keeping with the single family character of the neighborhood,” Puerto said. “This is being hailed as an improvement to the area only by developers, lawyers, architects and people who do not live there.”

Reinaldo Borges, principal and CEO of Borges + Associates recently told The Real Deal he does not know what his client now plans to do with the six properties. Liu and Zakharia did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Renderings of the proposed Bay Harbor Continental project

A divided Bay Harbor Islands town council passed a resolution late Monday calling on the Miami-Dade County Commission to overturn historic designation status for the Bay Harbor Continental, a cooperative apartment building with 35 units in Bay Harbor Islands.

The council passed the resolution 5-2 with Vice-Mayor Stephanie Bruder saying the vote was about home rule. The resolution cited economic hardship imposed on many elderly residents of the aging co-op as a result of the county’s designation of the building as historic in April. Eighty-six percent of the co-op residents had voted earlier to approve the sale of the building to P3 investments.

Speaking at a May 20 meeting where the Miami-Dade Historic Preservation Board rejected an appeal to demolish the building, Michael Hartman, vice president of the co-op, said most of the building’s residents are on fixed incomes and need the money from the sale.

Most, he said, would be unable to afford special assessments to fix deteriorating balconies and roof areas that supporters of the sale say would cost millions.

At the meeting, several residents expressed strong opposition to the proposed demolition of the building. Thirteen of the 35 owners in the co-op opposed the sale, with some saying they will have nowhere else to go if the building is demolished. A number of owners also said that because of the building’s co-op status they would face huge tax liabilities if the building were sold.

Preservationists strongly oppose both overturning the historic designation status and demolishing the building. The 1958 building is an iconic example of Miami Modern or MiMo design, and the first historically designated building in Bay Harbor Islands, Daniel Ciraldo of the Miami Design Preservation League said.

“I think it puts more buildings at risk,” he told The Real Deal of the council resolution. A recent county survey found that 18 buildings in the town had been demolished recently with another 19 approved for demolition — many of them deemed as architecturally significant. Much of the fight over development in the city has focused on Bay Harbor’s East Island, which the National Trust for Historic Preservation has designated as one of the 11 most historically endangered places in the country.

P3 Investments is appealing the historic designation and a vote on the issue is expected at a county commission meeting on June 30. The company wants to replace the Bay Harbor Continental with a seven-story Pininfarina-designed luxury apartment building containing 28-units that Pininfarina designers said “will put new energy into MiMo.”

Last month in a decision that preservationists called unprecedented, the Miami Dade County Commission voted to strip historic designation from the Seaside Terrace Condominium in nearby Surfside — another building where residents were pitted against one another over whether historic designation had devalued their investment and limited their ability to sell their units.