Friday, May 7, 2010

New Condo Sales Spike At ICON Brickell In Downtown Miami


MIAMI, FL--Buyers closed on 126 new condos in April in the three-tower ICON Brickell  (top left photo) projects in Greater Downtown Miami, pushing the overall closed sales ratio up to 23 percent in the nearly 1,800 complex, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

Following newly implemented discounts, buyers purchased an average of more than four condo units per day in April compared to an average of just under two units per day in the first three months of 2010, according to the report based on the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To Miami™.

"The ICON Brickell is the popular project of the moment in Greater Downtown Miami for value-oriented buyers," said Peter Zalewski, (middle right photo) a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC.

 "Buyers have purchased about 300 units in the first four months of this year compared to only 125 units in the previous two years of sales. As positive as the sales activity has been this year, more than 75 percent of the nearly 1,800-unit project is still available."

The ICON Brickell is comprised of a north, south, and west tower with a combined 164 stories of residential condos, restaurants, bars, retail, a hotel, spa, and an enormous amenities deck.

Considered by many to be the most unique project in Greater Downtown Miami, the ICON Brickell has developed a strong following of prospective buyers and tenants who want to invest or rent in the one-of-a-kind project.

Pricing had been the biggest challenge stopping buyers from purchasing the units as the original preconstruction contracts were written up in 2006 at amounts greater than $600 per square foot, according to the licensed Florida brokerage Condo Vultures® Realty.

The average closed sales price for the more than 400 sales to date at ICON Brickellis $448 per square foot. Prior to the deep developer discounts introduced in January, the average closed sales price was $543 per square foot, according to a recent Condo Vultures® White Paper™.

In the first quarter of 2010, more than 700 new condos were sold at an average price of $326 per square foot, down from an average price of $357 per square foot at the end of 2009
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Greater Downtown Miami is a 60-block stretch from the Rickenbacker Causeway north to the Julia Tuttle Causeway, Interstate 95 east to Biscayne Bay. Greater Downtown Miami is comprised of the Brickell Avenue Area, the Downtown Area, and the Biscayne Boulevard Corridor.

Between 1963 and 2002, developers constructed 11,500 units in the Greater Downtown Miami market. The boom years of 2003 to 2010 nearly tripled the total inventory that exists in the submarket.

The overall inventory could have been greater if not for several proposed projects being ultimately cancelled or delayed.

Despite the apparent oversupply, buyers are purchasing units in Greater Downtown Miami a strong pace.

The strong buying activity in Greater Downtown Miami in the first quarter of this year has pushed the overall closed sales ratio for the epicenter of Florida's condo crash to more than 70 percent, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report.

A year ago, buyers purchased units at half that pace, acquiring only 370 new condos between January and March of 2009. At that time, only 59 percent of the 22,250 new condo units constructed in Greater Downtown Miami since 2003 had been sold, according to the report based on the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To Miami™.

Bulk Buyer Acquires 10 More Condos In Downtown Miami


MIAMI, FL--The same private equity group that acquired 80 units at the end of 2009 in the Met 1 (bottom right photo) condominium has just purchased an additional 10 units in the new 40-story tower in Greater Downtown Miami, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

The bulk buyer now own 34 percent of the 268 condo units sold at Met 1, and 20 percent of the 447 total residential units that exist in the project, according to the Condo Vultures® Bulk Deals Database™.

The buyer, a Florida corporation with Alejandro Angulo, Juan C. Angulo, Jose L. Innocenti, and Miguel A. Innocenti as principals, purchased 10 units in Met 1 for $2.75 million, or $263 per square foot, in a deal that closed April 21, according to report based on Miami-Dade County records.,

On Dec. 29, 2009, the same principals using three corporations purchased a combined 80 units for $16.7 million, or $248 per square foot, according to the report based on the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To Miami™.

The Met 1 bulk buyer purchased at an average price of $250 per square foot, which is a 40 percent discount on $414 per square foot average for individual transactions with the developer in the project, according to a recent Condo Vultures® White Paper™.

"More than 70 percent of the 22,250 condo units constructed since 2003 in Greater Downtown Miami have been sold," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC.

"Buyers have acquired more than 5,100 units in Greater Downtown Miami since July 2008 when the first bulk deal occurred. Since that time, bulk buyers have been active but still only been able to acquire about 20 percent of the new units that have traded due to strong demand from individual purchasers."

Contact: Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures®,  800-750-0517 or by email at peter@condovultures.com

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