W South Beach Sells 11 Condos At $1,649 Per Foot In Q1 2010
The
W South Beach Residences condominium-hotel (top left photo) project is one of those project not experiencing a reduction in pricing from the downturn in the U.S. economy or even the dramatic crash of the South Florida housing market, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.
Developers of the 20-story, oceanfront W South Beach project in trendy Miami Beach were able to sell 11 units in the condo-hotel for $15 million, or an average of $1,649 per square foot, in the first quarter of 2010, according to the report based on the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To South Beach™.
"The W South Beach is commanding top dollar despite the economic challenges of our time," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC.
"Wealthy buyers whether they be successful business leaders, professional athletes, or celebrities are forging ahead to purchase new units in the W South Beach for nearly $2 million each. It is worth noting that several of these buyers had preconstruction contracts with 20 percent deposits dating back a few years.
"Not all of the transactions are new buyers but it is still impressive that the W South Beach developer has been able to sell this many units at this high of a price even in South Beach."
South Beach is the trendy neighborhood on the southern portion of the barrier island that attracts celebrities and athletes, jet setters and working class tourists alike who all come looking for the Miami Beach experience.
South Beach is defined as South Pointe Drive north to 24th Street, the Atlantic Ocean west to Biscayne Bay, according to the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To South Beach™.
South Beach Pricing Remains High
As the W South Beach pricing remains high, the total number of sales are low at 2009 project.
With less than a dozen units transacted between January and March 2010, the W South Beach has now sold only 54 units, or 13 percent, out of a total of 408 units, according to the report.
The 54 units at the W South Beach to sell did so at an average of $1.7 million, or $1,1674 per square foot, putting the project in an exclusive category of only nine condominiums constructed since 2003 to sell at an average developer price of more than $1,000 per square foot.
The list of $1,000 per foot condos includes the Apogee, Continuum South Beach, and the De Soleil South Beach.
A project not on the$1,000-per square-foot list is the
Setai condominium, (top right photo) just down the block from the W South Beach. The Setai has sold for a average of $861 per square foot, according to the report.
South Beach New Condo Sales Slow To Trickle In Q1 2010
South Beach developers sold only 17 new condo units in the first quarter of 2010, down from 31 units in the first quarter of 2009 and 136 units in the first quarter of 2008, according to a new Condo Vultures® White Paper™.
The slow South Beach sales in the first quarter of 2010 are a stark contrast to the more than 720 units that transacted across Biscayne Bay in Greater Downtown Miami during the same January through March period, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report based on Miami-Dade County records.
The few buyers that did purchase new condos in the Miami Beach neighborhood of South Beach paid an average price of $1,364 per square foot in the first quarter of 2010, up from $803 per square foot a year earlier in the first quarter of 2009, according to the report based on the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To South Beach™.
Many of the buyers had preconstruction contracts dating back a few years to the boom times, and faced losing a substantial portion of their 20 percent deposits if they failed to close on their units, according to the licensed Florida brokerage Condo Vultures® Realty.
Some four miles west across the MacArthur Causeway, the average sales price for a new condo in Greater Downtown Miami was $326 per square foot in the first quarter of 2010, according to a recently released Condo Vultures® White Paper™.
"Real estate sales today more than ever are a function of price," said
Peter Zalewski, (middle left photo) a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC.
"Many people want to live or invest in the barrier island city of Miami Beach for the sand, glamour, and sex appeal, but an increasing number of investors and second-home buyers are seriously looking to Greater Downtown Miami as an alternative given the $1,000 per square foot pricing difference.
"South Beach will always be South Beach but the rich premium to own on the barrier island is turning out to be a tremendous selling point for developers peddling new condos on the mainland side of Biscayne Bay."
Future Of Trump Tower III Condo Project Finally Unveiled
For months, the South Florida real estate industry has speculated about the future of the completed but vacant 43-story oceanfront tower in Sunny Isles Beach presold as the
Trump Tower III (lower right photo) condominium.
Some industry watchers proposed that the 271-unit project would not become a condominium in the short term but instead be sold off to a Wall Street institutional fund that could operate the tower as a luxury rental project.
Once the market recovered, the speculation usually went, the units could be sold off by the bulk buyer to individual buyers at a premium compared to today's pricing.
The Trump Tower III project's future was finally determined on April 20 when the developer of record formally filed the declaration of condominium paperwork, clearing the way for individual unit sales to begin at Collins Avenue property in southern Sunny Isles Beach, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.
"There are a lot of institutional funds that are disappointed that another entire tower got away," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC. "Numerous opportunity funds were pursuing this project as a bulk deal as it could have been purchased in its entirety. In the end, the project's future will be just as it was originally planned, a luxury condominium.
"The only real difference is, the pricing is going to be a lot less than what it originally started at back in the boom days."
Sunny Isles Beach, an oceanfront city east of Aventura in Northeast Miami-Dade County, is home to the second largest concentration of new condos to be built in South Florida during the go-go days of the last real estate boom, according to the licensed Florida brokerage Condo Vultures® Realty.
At the end of 2009, more than 24 percent of the 6,300 new condo units built or converted in the barrier island city of Sunny Isles Beach during the boom years in South Florida remained in the hands of developers, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report.
The Trump Tower III project - with 195 two-bedroom and 76 three-bedroom units - alone represented nearly 20 percent of the unsold Sunny Isles Beach inventory at the end of 2009, according to a recent Condo Vultures® White Paper™.
Trump Tower III is one of three luxury skyscrapers with a combined 813 units and 129 floors that together comprise the oceanfront complex named after famed New York real estate developer Donald Trump (lower right photo) as part of a licensing agreement.
As of Feb. 10, some 57 percent of the units in the Trump Towers were still in the hands of the developers, according to the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To Sunny Isles Beach™.
At about that same time, Dezer Properties finalized an agreement to take control for the project from co-developer, the Related Group with Jorge Perez, (lower left photo) according to the Miami Herald.
Corporate records have since been filed with the Florida Secretary of State removing Perez and other Related Group executives from the official list of members, leaving the father-and-son team of Michael and Gil Dezer as sole owners.
The new condo documents for Trump Tower III - officially as TDR Tower III Condominium Association - names
Bernard Diamond as the president.
Discounts Trigger 100 New Condo Sales In Sunny Isles Beach
Buyers purchased more than 100 new condominium units in Sunny Isles Beach in the first three months of 2010 as the average price tumbled 12 percent, or $70 per square foot, on a year-over-year basis, according to a new Condo Vultures® White Paper™.
Between January and March of this year, Sunny Isles Beach developers sold off units at an average price of $508 per square foot, down from $578 per square foot during the first quarter of 2009 and $652 per square foot in the first quarter of 2008, according to the report based on the Condo Vultures®Official Condo Buyers Guide To Sunny Isles Beach™.
The discounting helped developers in Sunny Isles Beach to outsell their counterparts in Miami Beach's South Beach neighborhood, where only 17 new condo units transacted but at an average price of more than $1,350 per square foot.
Greater Downtown Miami, by comparison, experienced nearly 720 sales at an average price of $326 per square foot, according to CondoVultures.com.
"The buying pool for new South Florida condos is proving to be extremely deep despite the fact that financing is difficult to obtain," said
Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC.
"The trend continues to be strong sales at projects where the developers have discounted their prices deep enough to grab the attention of all-cash buyers.
"The unwillingness of South Beach developers to cut their prices on new units has worked to drive buyers to other areas such as Greater Downtown Miami and Sunny Isles Beach."
Contact: Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures®, 800-750-0517 or by email at
peter@condovultures.com
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