Renderings of Faena House (inset: Chuck Khubani)

Ashok “Chuck” Khubani, the founder and CEO of Ontel Products and brother of AJ Khubani, is among the buyers at the exclusive Faena House, county records show.

Ask Florida LLC, a company led by Chuck Khubani and family members, purchased unit 10A for $18.5 million, or $3,911 per square foot. The 4,730-square-foot residence includes at least four bedrooms and six bathrooms. It also features a 1,516-square-foot terrace. The sale was recorded on Tuesday.

Chuck Khubani founded the consumer product company in 1994, according to Ontel’s website. Those products include the Iron Wonder, dryer balls, microfiber cloths, the Swivel Sweeper and Pillow Pets. Ontel’s brands have been sold in more than 80,000 stores in the United States and more than 30 countries.

Khubani’s brother, AJ, CEO of the “As Seen on TV” infomercial giant Telebrands, is also active in Miami Beach real estate. He and his wife, Bollywood actress and producer Poonam Khubani purchased units at the Miami Beach Edition last year. Poonam Khubani listed a penthouse at the Edition for $27.5 million in October.

Back at Faena House, another unit closed this week. MBFH LLC, a Jericho, New York-based company led by Andrew M. Levine, paid $9 million for unit 8B, according to Miami-Dade County records.

Buyers at the elite Mid-Miami Beach tower include billionaire Ken Griffin, who paid $60 million for two penthouse units; British billionaire Alan Howard, who paid $14.5 million for unit 4A; and Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who paid $9.5 million for unit 8A.

Griffin’s purchase set a new record for condos in Miami-Dade County, and even beat the record price for a single-family home that previously belonged to the $47 million home at 3 Indian Creek Island Road.

In October, a third Faena penthouse closed for $29 million.

Faena House marks the first of four planned oceanfront condo towers in the ultra-luxury project, which stretches from 3200 to 3500 Collins Avenue. The 42-unit, 18-story tower was designed by Foster + Partners.

Brandon Haw

From the October issue: After leaving his indelible mark in places as varied as Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Frankfurt, India, New York City and Saudi Arabia, England-born architect Brandon Haw is about to do the same in Miami Beach.

Haw, 55, spent 26 years working for Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning firm Foster & Partners before opening his New York firm, Brandon Haw Architecture, in July 2014. He has been intimately involved in the design of two buildings on Miami Beach’s Collins Avenue that are soon to be part of the six-block, ultra-luxurious Faena District. The project is the brainchild of flamboyant Argentinian developer Alan Faena. [more]

800 Fairway Drive (inset: Fairlead principal John Ward)

Atlanta-based Fairlead Commercial Real Estate paid $21 million this week for a Class A office property in Deerfield Beach, according to Broward County records.

Fairlead Acquisitions LLC, led by John R. Ward, acquired 800 Fairway Drive, a 172,508-square-foot office building, and an adjacent 1.8-acre lot. Ward is chief investment officer and principal at Fairlead.

The properties are next to the planned Hillsboro Technology Center, a 925,000-square-foot business park on the site of the former Deerfield Country Club. The Bristol Group and Butters Construction and Development are redeveloping the 72-acre golf course, which will include a hotel, warehouse, office, recreation building and public park when the first phase is completed.

800 Fairway Drive, built in 1987, was recently renovated and includes an on-site cafe, gym, secured parking, atrium lobby, exterior signage and walking paths, according to leasing agent Stiles Realty. The Deerfield Beach building sits on 8.9 acres.

American General Life Insurance Company sold both parcels. The Houston-based company bought the vacant lot from Butters in September for $600,000, according to Broward County property records.

Fairlead, a privately held full service commercial real estate firm, financed the deal with a nearly $18 million mortgage from Bank of Arizona. Fairlead specializes in investment, management, acquisitions, sales, leasing and more. It focuses on office and industrial properties in the southeastern United States, according to the firm’s website.

Developers of the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sunny Isles Beach released new renderings to The Real Deal, including shots of the interior pool restaurant, club room and living spaces.

The joint venture between Fortune International Group and Chateau Group acquired the 2.2-acre site in 2013 and plans to complete the development in the fall of 2018. Arquitectonica is the architect and Michele Bönan, who designed Casa Tua in Miami and Cipriani’s in Miami Beach, is the interior designer.

The 212-unit, 52-story tower will include a beach restaurant, pool deck, kids club, spa, gym and wellness center, a library, car wash and electric car charging stations. Additional amenities, for an extra charge, include access to housekeeping, fuel delivery, personal chefs, dog walkers, nannies and childcare, reservations and grocery shopping.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. will manage the property, according to a press release.

In September, developers Edgardo Defortuna, Manuel Grosskopf and their companies won a legal fight with the condominium association at the Tropicana building in Sunny Isles, which had charged the developers with blocking a redevelopment of the nine-story Tropicana to preserve the oceanfront view at the Ritz.

Other Sunny Isles projects, either completed or in the works, include Aurora, Mansions at Acqualina and Chateau Beach. – Katherine Kallergis 

Renderings of Miami Center

Cushman & Wakefield has leased nearly 30 percent of the office space at Miami Center as the property undergoes a $20 million renovation. 

Year-to-date, the leases cover 228,000 square feet at the downtown Miami office tower, at 201 South Biscayne Boulevard.

Jon Blunk, Cristina Glaria and Laurel Oswald of Cushman & Wakefield brokered the lease renewals and expansions, which include anchor Citigroup’s 125,000-square-foot lease and Shook Hardy & Bacon’s renewal of its 54,700-square-foot lease. Hughes Hubbard & Reed, represented by Rashid Siahpoosh of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, renewed its 23,500-square-foot lease.

Jones Walker, represented by Doug Campbell of Campbell Real Estate, also renewed its 14,700-square-foot lease. Harper Meyer expanded its office to 13,500 square feet. Patrick Duffy of NGKF represented Citigroup, Shook, Hardy & Bacon and Harper Meyer.

Overall vacancy in the third quarter was 12.6 percent, a 2 percentage point decrease from the same period last year, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Crocker Partners owns the 34-story building, which is adjacent to the InterContinental Miami. It was built in 1983. The firm acquired it in 2012 for $262.5 million. Crocker is renovating Miami Center’s main lobby and exterior, including a new building entrance with a porte-cochère and valet drop-off, a glass curtain wall system replacing the existing north and west facades and new signage.

Richard Meier & Partners is the architect for the renovation. – Katherine Kallergis

Worth Avenue (Christopher Ziemnowicz) and Lincoln Road

Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road ranks as the 10th most expensive retail street in the United States, and Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue is not far behind, according to a new Cushman & Wakefield research report released Wednesday.

Rents on Lincoln Road have held steady for the past year, at $325 per square foot. Worth Avenue rents have jumped 20 percent, year-over-year, to $150 per square foot, marking one of the largest growth rates globally. Affluent residents, coupled with a rising number of international visitors and part-time residents have led to the growth, Cushman & Wakefield said.

The report, Main Streets Across the World, tracked more than 500 of the top retail streets. The two South Florida cities were the only ones in Florida among 21 cities nationwide that made the list. Worth Avenue tied with Boston and Georgetown at 14th place in the United States.

New York’s Upper Fifth Avenue again ranked as the most expensive retail street in the world, with rents rising to $3,500 per square foot in 2015, up 3.6 percent year-over-year. That makes it 46 percent more expensive than the world’s second ranked street, Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, according to the report.

The United States had seven of the top 10 most expensive cities in the Americas. Seattle posted the highest rent growth in the U.S., up 27.3 percent to $70 per square foot. Los Angeles posted the highest retail rents outside New York, at $800 per square foot, a 23 percent increase year-over-year.

Amid rising rents, Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue has attracted global luxury retailers, such as Cartier, Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Graff, Gucci, Hermès and Louis Vuitton.

In Miami Beach, Lincoln Road’s rents and property values have skyrocketed in recent years, as national and international investors and retailers have targeted the pedestrian promenade. Tenants include H&M, Anthropologie, Intermix, Forever 21, Apple, Gap, Urban Outfitters and lululemon.

In September, Michael Comras and partner Jonathan Fryd sold an entire block on Lincoln Road for $370 million to a Spanish billionaire. Amancio Ortega, whose fashion empire includes Zara, purchased the 1001 to 1035 block. Forbes ranks Ortega as the fourth richest person in the world.

Improvements for the popular street are now coming. In October, the Miami Beach City Commission approved a measure that will allow Lincoln Road business and property owners to create a Business Improvement District. The plan is to assess area business and property owners to create a maintenance and management program for up to 10 years.

Also in October, Miami Beach commissioners also approved a master plan for the street. Designed by New York landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, the plan will overhaul Lincoln Road – enlarging sidewalks, adding extensive landscaping and turning some side streets and back alleys into pedestrian walkways that will serve as new retail and restaurant venues.

Oceana Key Biscayne

A Brazilian banking executive made $2.75 million on a unit at Oceana Key Biscayne that he purchased last year, Miami-Dade County records show.

Jose Olympio da Veiga Pereira, who has ties to Credit Suisse in Brazil, sold unit 120N for $8.25 million to Orion Heights LLC.

Pereira paid $5.5 million for the 3,787-square-foot unit in September 2014 when the 154-unit project began recording closings. It has four bedrooms, six bathrooms and one half-bath, according to property records. In a Harvard Business School luncheon invitation, Pereira was described as managing director of Credit Suisse and head of investment banking in Brazil.

Consultatio developed the luxury oceanfront condominium at 350 Ocean Drive. More than 90 percent of its units sold for more than $550 million last year. Oceana Bal Harbour sits on 10.3 acres and includes 12 villas, 500 feet of beach frontage, a pool deck, gym, putting green, spa and tennis courts.

The Argentine developer is also building Oceana Bal Harbour, which closed on a $332 million construction loan in April 2014.

The buyer is a Key Biscayne-based LLC that is tied to a company in Aruba, state records indicate. The island town of Key Biscayne has a population of about 12,000. Projects include 101 Key Biscayne and the contentious Miami Marine Stadium site.

Midtown Miami

Alex Vadia, principal of Midtown Opportunities, has sold his Six Midtown Miami development site and additional land for $55 million, two months after filing a termination notice with the county for his previously planned project.

AMLI Residential, a Chicago-based developer of luxury apartments, bought the 6.6 acres of vacant property, which was the former site of a Chiquita Banana shipping facility. AMLI has approved plans to develop about 700 apartments on the site, between 2900 to 3010 Northeast Second Avenue in Miami, according to CBRE, which brokered the sale.

AMLI plans two rental building, designed by Zyscovich Architects. The north building would have 485 units in 12 stories. The south building would have 215 units in eight stories, according to a release.

AMLI has been on a buying spree in South Florida in recent months. In October, the company bought the Signature at Davie Apartments & Townhomes for a combined $114.8 million from a company led by Armando Codina. And in April, an AMLI affiliate paid $104.5 million for the 350-apartment community Modera Dadeland in Kendall.

Chiquita Banana site

Vadia had paid $11.5 million for the Six Midtown property in 2011. Extra value was created by assembling the lots and allowing AMLI Residential the time to entitle the property while under contract, according to CBRE.  

CBRE’s Robert Given, Gerard Yetming, Zachary Sackley, and Mary Kate Swann, along with Casey Rosen and Dennis Carson of CBRE’s National Retail Investment Group, arranged the sale, according to the release.

CBRE marketed the property on behalf of Midtown Opportunities as part of a 17-acre portfolio in Midtown Miami. AMLI’s site are aimed to preserve water views for the next wave of development in Midtown Miami, CBRE said.

The remaining two tracts within Midtown are the ‘Entertainment Block’ at 110 N.E. 36th Street and ‘Midtown 1’ at 3501 N.E. 1st Avenue. The tracts are currently being positioned to be brought to the market soon, Given said in the release.

Vadia previously planned a 32-story Six Midtown Miami Condominium tower with 398 residential units that was to be built on a vacant 2.1-acre site in the 3100 block of Northeast First Avenue. In September, he filed a “Termination Of Condominium,” according to Miami-Dade County records. The Six Midtown Miami Condo project had been formally announced in July 2012, but Vadia never launched sales. Vadia had declined to discuss his plans for the site with The Real Deal in recent weeks.

Midtown Miami, a 56-acre urban redevelopment, has become a major residential and shopping area north of downtown Miami, and is considered one of the city’s few self-contained walkable communities.

As the area continues to develop, two separate residential projects are currently under construction: Midtown 5 and Hyde Midtown Suites & Residences.

Magellan Development are building Midtown 5, a 26-story tower at 3201 Northeast 1st Avenue. The project broke ground in January. When complete at the end of next year, it will have 400 apartment units, retail and office space.

Related Group and Dezer Development broke ground on Hyde Midtown Suites and Residences at Midtown Avenue and 34th Street in late September. When completed during the second quarter of 2018, it will include 60 hotel rooms and 410 luxury condominiums.

“This area continues to mature and attract Miami’s cultural elite, a dynamic mix of renters, owners, retailers and entrepreneurs,” Gerard Yetming, senior vice president of CBRE, said in a statement. “Wynwood, Edgewater, Midtown and the Design District have all experience phenomenal appreciation in real estate sales prices and rents over the last two years as the caché of these neighborhoods continues to rise.”

From left: Adam Neumann, Miguel McKelvey and Shanghai (credit: Instagram)

From the New York website: After opening locations in the U.K., Israel and the Netherlands, WeWork has its sights set on a new and potentially massive international market: China.

The coworking giant, fresh off a $10 billion valuation, is actively searching for locations to set up shop in Shanghai, a source with knowledge of the company’s plans told The Real Deal.

WeWork’s Shanghai plans, however, don’t appear to be as far along as those for Berlin, where the company is most likely to open its next international location, the source added.

Another source indicated Goldman Sachs may be advising WeWork in its Chinese expansion, with the company looking to partner with local real estate operator Shanghai Huge Enterprises, a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate Legend Holdings. This claim, however, could not be independently verified.

A representative for WeWork declined to comment.

Since getting its start at 154 Grand Street in Soho in 2010, the fast-growing startup has expanded domestically and abroad. It opened its first international office in London in October of last year, followed by locations in Tel Aviv and Amsterdam.

Through the first half of the year, WeWork was the most active tenant in Manhattan, leasing nearly 600,000 square feet of space.

Having a local Chinese partner would help WeWork navigate some of the cultural differences such as changing its food options and amenities (goodbye, keg parties?) to ones better suited for Chinese white-collar workers, according to Afzal Tarar, founder of advisory firm Arcis Capital and a former partner in PwC’s Shanghai office.

In addition, the company may also look to change its name to one that would translate better to Chinese office workers.

“Coming up with a catchy Chinese name is important. WeWork would not translate well to Chinese,” Tarar said, adding that most major Western companies in China operate under a distinct Chinese name.

The company is also likely to face competition from local players like UR Work and People Squared.

Konrad Putzier and Hiten Samtani contributed reporting.

Real estate firm Exclusivee and Azimut’s Fred Dauibe hosted a jewelry launch in early November aboard the 88-foot Sofia Azimut yacht.

Exclusivee works with properties such as Armani Residences and Porsche Design Tower. It’s currently working on the $7 million listing of unit 502 at the St. Regis Residences in Bal Harbour, and the $10 million listing of unit 2301 at Portofino South Beach.

The brokerage partnered with Azimut and Graff Jewelers to host Brazilian celebrities, such as Indy race car drivers Helio Castroneves and Adrian Fernandez, and their clients at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. – Katherine Kallergis and Sean Stewart-Muniz

Lincoln West Gardens in Miami Beach

Lincoln West Gardens, a low-rise condo building on Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road, has hit the market for an undisclosed price. 

Avison Young was tapped to list the 40-unit, bulk condo at 1250 Lincoln Road. Michael Fay, principal and managing director, and John Crotty, principal, are representing the owner LWG Condominium Association Inc. It was built in 1985, according to Miami-Dade County property records.

The listing comes on the heels of the firm’s bulk condo sale of Surf House in Surfside, for $55 million, according to a release.

Prices have skyrocketed in the Lincoln Road district, most recently with the blockbuster sale of an entire block, from 1001 Lincoln Road through 1035 Lincoln Road, for $370 million. Retail rents on Lincoln Road ranked as the 10th most expensive  in the United States, according to a Cushman & Wakefield research report released Wednesday.

The condo building is in a residential area one block west of the retail district, which starts at 1111 Lincoln Road, the Herzon & de Meuron-designed parking, retail and commercial garage. – Katherine Kallergis

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the property was listed for $55 million. It has no listing price. 

Roughly 500 real estate professionals gathered at the W Fort Lauderdale for ISG’s presentation

There’s little doubt that the South Florida residential market is getting tighter, said ISG Principal Craig Studnicky at a presentation on Wednesday, but he believes the region will once again ride a wave of growth in the coming years.

Studnicky, along with his colleague Philip Spiegelman, spoke to a room of roughly 500 real estate professionals at the W Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday morning. The pair presented their newly published ISG Miami Report for fall 2015, which took a broad look at new condo development and sales activity across South Florida.

ISG Principals Craig Studnicky and Philip Spiegelman

“Right now we’re living in a market that has contracted again,” Studnicky said.

The consensus, he said, was that a strengthening U.S. dollar hamstrung real estate sales to foreign buyers — a demographic largely credited with helping the Miami market resurface after spending years in crisis-mode.

“The surge in value of the dollar has caused a softening of new condominium absorption in our area,” the report states.

Data from the report shows that there are 17,007 condo units in the pipeline in submarkets east of I-95 up to Fort Lauderdale. That statistic is pulled from developments in varying stages of completion since 2012 — some have already opened, while others aren’t set to deliver until 2018.

Roughly 12,900 of those units, or 76 percent, have been sold so far, according to the report. Neighborhoods with the largest absorption include Brickell, which has sold 85 percent of its 5,513 units expected to open by 2017. North Miami, Key Biscayne and Coconut Grove are all wrapped into one submarket in the report — the trio share 1,409 units in the pipeline, of which 85 percent have been sold. And the Biscayne corridor, which covers everything from Wynwood to the Omni district, has sold 76 percent of its 4,318 units.

Spiegelman, another principal with ISG, said a slew of global factors will help Miami stay in the spotlight despite the slump in sales.

He said the Miami International Airport, for instance, is the country’s second busiest airport for international passengers behind JFK in New York. A new Knight Frank report shows ultra-high-net-worth individuals, who have a net worth higher than $30 million, chose Miami as their sixth-favorite place to live. And PortMiami is one of two ports on the East Coast that can take advantage of the new shipping from the Panama Canal’s widening, when it opens in 2016.

“What follows a contraction — an expansion,” Studnicky said. “Bad times don’t last forever.”

Janet Yellen

From the New York website: The Federal Reserve is likely to raise its benchmark interest rate in December, judging from the central bank’s official minutes from its October policy meeting released Wednesday.

While most Fed officials believe the economy will be ready for higher rates come December, the minutes noted an increase from the current, historically-low rates might still be delayed by “unanticipated shocks” or disappointing economic data.

But such warnings appear increasingly formulaic, according to the New York Times, with investors and analysts convinced that a rate hike is imminent following October’s strong jobs report.

“I am comfortable with moving off zero soon, conditioned on no marked deterioration in economic conditions,” Dennis Lockhart, president of the Fed’s Atlanta branch, said Wednesday at a conference in New York.

The central bank has held short-term interest rates near zero since December 2008, a critical element in its policy to stimulate economic growth by encouraging borrowing and risk-taking.

Real estate investors and analysts have expressed concerns, however, that movement on rates could destabilize robust market conditions. [NYT] – Rey Mashayekhi

Miami skyline (Credit: Creative Commons)

A new amendment to the Miami 21 zoning code that could heavily affect small lot owners is headed for a final city commission vote Thursday, much to the surprise of some real estate brokers and developers.

The proposal, which already passed a first reading in October, would alter the minimum and maximum lot sizes for development throughout the city of Miami.

Some of the changes are dramatic: in the T4 and T5 urban zoning areas, which can be found in neighborhoods like Little Havana, Overtown and Allapattah, the minimum lot size to build a new structure would jump from as little as 1,200 square feet to a flat 10,000 square feet.

In denser areas that use the T6 zoning, like Brickell, the proposal would prevent development on lots smaller than 20,000 square feet. Before, the minimum was only 5,000 square feet.

Some brokers have already expressed worry over the proposal. Peter Andolina, an agent with Metro 1 who specializes in land sales, told The Real Deal that he’s working on several deals that could turn sour under the new code.

“It just seems like there has to be some kind of accommodation made for people that already own 5,000-square-foot lots,” he said. “ I haven’t been able to get a straight answer from anyone at the city on what all this is about.”

The ordinance was proposed by City Manager Daniel J. Alfonso, on behalf of the city of Miami, according to agenda documents. Its purpose, according to the application, is to “encourage appropriate development based on density and intensity regulations.”

(Click to enlarge) A chart of the proposed changes

Commissioner Francis Suarez told TRD that he will likely request a deferral at tomorrow’s meeting, which would push back a vote on the issue to the commission’s second meeting in January 2016.

Suarez said he’s been fielding similar concerns from real estate professionals who aren’t sure what the new code would mean.

“We don’t want to do anything that makes it harder for someone to build efficiently,” he said.

Arguably the proposal’s biggest impact would be to small lot owners, said developer Andrew Frey, who heads his own firm Tecela. Miami is mostly broken up into 5,000-square-foot lots, he said, and most lot owners are individuals that only own one parcel.

“Small property owners would be forced to get some kind of permission from the city,” Frey said, “or they would be forced to sell out to an assembler.”

A July 2015 photo of the Venetian Causeway construction (Credit: Phillip Pessar)

1. Miami Beach braces for Art Basel traffic with Venetian Causeway closed [Miami New Times]
2. Palm Beach’s ‘Bankers Row’ still in Top 10 most-expensive streets for rents [Sun Sentinel]
3. New rules could make it easier to get mortgages for condos [Miami Herald]
4. Boca Raton’s iPic sues AMC, Regal Entertainment for anticompetitive practices [SFBJ]

— Sean Stewart-Muniz

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From left: Jorge Perez, Bernardo Fort-Brescia, Gary Nader and the Miami Dade College site

The Related Group is teaming up with Arquitectonica on a proposal for Miami Dade College’s Biscayne Boulevard mixed-use project, to compete with the unsolicited bid from a partnership of Gary Nader, Roberto Rocha and FR-EE Architects.

Yet other prospective bidders — including developer Chateau Group and design firms Oppenheim Architecture and R.J. Heisenbottle Arcthitects — are already falling out, The Real Deal has learned. They say the Jan. 19 deadline is too tight to pull together all the resources to create a quality proposal. And the odds of winning, they say, may not be stacked in their favor.

“It’s a very, very special project, which means a very specialized firm or group of people have to come together to be competitive with the Nader one,” said Kathia Dash, director of business development at Coral Gables-based R.J. Heisenbottle Architects. “They have a definite advantage,” she added, citing unlimited time to prepare their proposal.

The college is soliciting a developer to enter into a public/private partnership for a 2.6 acre parcel at 520 Biscayne Boulevard. The site is currently used as a surface parking area at the college’s Wolfson Campus. The proposals are to include a cultural center with a 1,600-seat performing arts theater, a conference center that can house 3,000 people, a museum measuring at least 100,000 square feet, and parking.

Arquitectonica founder Bernardo Fort-Brescia confirmed to TRD that his firm is partnering with Related on a planned proposal.

Dragados USA, which is active in public/private partnerships, is still analyzing the financial aspects of Miami Dade project before deciding to bid, said Senior Vice President Chris O’Neil.

Others, who were among more than 50 attendees at a pre-proposal meeting for the project earlier this month, say they are out.

“We don’t have enough time to prepare, and we are involved with our other developments,” Julio Ruffinelli, an architect with Chateau Group, told TRD. The firm is developing Fendi Chateau Residences, the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sunny Isles Beach, and another mixed-use property in Sunny Isles that is coming up for approval on Thursday evening.

Some are out for now, but hoping to get in later. “If we’re not partners with someone at this point, we will be on the sidelines to see if any of the developers need a construction manager down the road,” said Andrew Gotschall, who is involved in business development at Turner Construction Co.

Miami Dade College earlier this year received the unsolicited proposal for the Nader Latin American Art Museum from a group of partners that includes Miami art gallery owner Nader, Rocha, CEO of Sofran Group, FR-EE Architects and others, which prompted the college to put out its current “supplemental information package,” requesting bids.

In addition to the Latin American art museum, the 69-page proposal from Nader and partners includes a performing arts theater, sculpture garden and conference center, as well as two residential towers with 528 units, a condo-hotel with 144 units, a restaurant space and parking.

The group’s proposal will still be enhanced, and other partners may be added before the Jan. 19 deadline, William Riley Jr., an attorney with Gray Robinson who represents the group, told TRD.

It’s the second time in a decade that Miami Dade College has looked for development proposals for its key property. In 2007, the college put out an “Invitation to Negotiate” for the site, but ended up shelving the plan amid the real estate downturn, before choosing a winner. Proposers included a partnership between developer Gregg Covin and architect Chad Oppenheim, but no finalist or winner was selected, according to a college spokesman.

“We were all burned,” Carl Romer, vice president of operations at Oppenheim Architecture told TRD. “Our last go round was very costly for us as far as an investment, and the project was pulled, and kind of left everyone hanging in the air holding the bag.”

Now, the timing is too short to put together the necessary resources, including a professional renderings firm, zoning attorney and parking consultant, he said. “You really have to join with other groups to have a strong showing,” Romer said. “There are just too many factors right now that don’t seem to make it a level playing field for us.”

Poonam Khubani listed her penthouse at the swanky Miami Beach Edition for $27.5 million in September

From the October issue: South Florida is a magnet for celebrities, catering to fashion designers, star athletes and international artists alike. Luxury homes in Miami Beach, Coconut Grove and Southwest Ranches have been among the recent hot spots for buying, selling and listing of real estate by celebs. The Real Deal took a look at what’s been trading among the A-listers. [more]

Renderings of planned upgrades to Bal Harbour Shops (Credit: Zyscovich Architects and Whitman Family Development)

After a contentious hearing that lasted more than three hours, the Miami-Dade County historic preservation board on Thursday voted 6-3 against protecting Bal Harbour’s Church by the Sea from the wrecking ball.

A majority of the board members were reluctant to cast aside Miami-Dade historic preservation chief Kathleen Kauffman’s conclusion that the building, which is the oldest structure in Bal Harbour, did not meet strict special preservation criteria that applies to churches.

The congregational church has an agreement to sell its property to the Whitman family, owners of the neighboring Bal Harbour Shops. Over the last couple of weeks, the congregation moved out without first finding a new home and removed the building’s stained glass windows even though demolition permits had not yet been obtained.

During the hearing, board member Enid Pinkney made a motion to direct staff to begin the process of designating the church a historic structure despite Assistant County Attorney Ed Kirtley informing the board that it could not take any action without a favorable recommendation from Kauffman.

“When I came back to Miami in 1953, congregational churches would not let any black people attend,” Pinkney told The Real Deal after the meeting. “Church by the Sea was the exception. Its pastor would preach to us. That is part of Miami’s history.”

Nevertheless, six board members did not feel comfortable going against Kauffman and the congregation. A majority of the church members approved the deal with the Whitman family, who plan to expand the Bal Harbour Shops on the land where Church by the Sea is located.

“We have to go by the recommendations presented by staff,” said board member Roger Carlton. “If our staff says it doesn’t meet criteria, I don’t think we can go forward.”

However, the sale of Church by the Sea to the Whitman family has divided congregation members. Daniel Torres, a resident and churchgoer who formed Bal Harbour Neighbors Alliance to stop the demolition, pleaded with the board to save the building.

“It is a magnificent piece of architecture that’s been here since Bal Harbour began,” Torres said. “I believe that means something.”

The Whitman family recently attacked the alliance as a front group for Bal Harbour Shop’s competitors Aventura Mall and the Miami Design District, according to the Miami Herald.

Following the hearing, alliance attorney and former state legislator J.C. Planas said the fight is not over. “We disagree with the staff’s interpretation and we are going to look into seeing if the board can redo its motion,” Planas said. “We appeal to the church not demolish anything as of yet.”

A 2009 photo of Miami’s skyline (Credit: Nigel Morris)

A ritzy penthouse in Brickell might be out of reach for most South Floridians, but a new report from CoreLogic shows that the region has more affordable neighborhoods with good schools than most of the nation.

The report looked at 7,200 zip codes throughout the United States and matched them up the median price to buy a house in each area, along with their residents’ median income. Areas where a family would have to drop more than one third of its income to buy a house were deemed unaffordable, while spending less than one third was labeled as affordable.

Out of the 7,200 zip codes, 1,823 had at least one elementary school that posted test scores above state averages. And of those 1,823 zip codes, 1,192 had home prices above what a median family could pay.

Despite the continued rise of home prices in South Florida, the region had 20 affordable zip codes with at least one good school, placing it fourth in the nation. Ahead of South Florida was the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area with 22 affordable zips, Detroit, Michigan, with 45 and Chicago, Illinois, with a whopping 172.

Some of our 20 zip codes include: 33172 in Doral, where the median price for a home was $149,000. The area’s above-average elementary school is the Doral Academy of Technology, which enrolls 190 students, according to the report. 33054 in Miami Gardens, with a median home price of only $92,000. The school there is the North Dade Center for Modern Language, which enrolls 405 students. And 33312 in Fort Lauderdale, where the median price for a home is $195,000, and the school is the Charter School of Excellence at North Lauderdale, with 34 students. — Sean Stewart-Muniz

Here’s a complete list of South Florida’s top 20 affordable areas with good schools: