Icon Brickell’s Most Expensive Listing Stagnates, then the Big Pool Breaks
Unit 4601-2, the most expensive apartment for sale at Icon Brickell, located in the north tower, has been on the market for a solid year and four months, seeing multiple price drops along the way. Currently offered at $4 million, today however is still not its day. The pool broke big time, meaning a construction site downstairs for the next 12-14 months and assessment charges for everyone!
The 3,520 square foot bay front condo with fabulous views of Downtown, the bay, and the beach originally asked $4.8M when it was listed in February 2015. Reduced to $4.2M in May 2015 it was reduced again to $4M in July 2015. The listing expired for a month that summer and has stuck to its price ever since. Let’s see what happens next.
Leave your opinions of the destiny of Unit # 4601-2 in Icon Brickell Tower II in the comments!
What Will Icon Brickell’s Leaky Pool Do to Property Values?
The ongoing situation with Icon Brickell‘s leaky pool, the pool’s reconstruction, the fees being assessed to each unit’s owners to cover that cost, and the lawsuit seeking that money back, means a lot of people are asking questions about their property values. In three towers with a combined 1718 units, a hotel, restaurants, and a rooftop nightclub, that’s an army with a money problem. Here’s Lucas’ prediction:
“It’s to be expected that rental prices will be adversely affected by the pool repairs and renovations for the next 12-14 months or however long the project ends up taking to complete. Sales prices and rental prices are highly correlated, especially for a building such as Icon Brickell which has a high concentration of investor-owned units. As rental prices decrease, the overall return to investors will go down. In order to provide the same pre-assessment return to would-be buyers, the sale prices would need to come down.”
So once the pool’s done, everything will just bounce back?
“It’s a big piece of the puzzle. The special assessment is only like $8K per unit. What’s going to hurt the building values more is when rental prices go down because investors will get a lower return. Once their return goes down enough, they’ll figure it’s better to sell and invest their money elsewhere. Yes, once the pool reopens, rental prices should bounce back to where they should be.”
From the Air Jade at Brickell Bay Looks Better Than Ever
Jade at Brickell Bay is back and looking better than ever! For almost four years, a dark cloud hung over the luxury tower as an exterior work project to correct construction issues concerned and kept away would-be buyers. Scaffolding and rope hung down the sides of the building and, at one point, residents were unable to use their balconies on weekdays and the pool deck during certain hours. A few months ago, almost four years later, the exterior work project was completed and Jade at Brickell Bay is once again regarded as a top luxury option for buyers and renters. Take a look at our drone video below to see Jade at Brickell Bay in all her glory.
Miami-Dade County is Suing Genting Over Huge Tax Breaks on Its Undeveloped Casino Land
Resorts World Miami
The situation with Resorts World Miami, a gigantic casino and resort proposed by Malaysian casino conglomerate Genting, has deteriorated from a glittering (although very controversial) development on Biscayne Bay in Downtown Miami, to a stagnant and mysterious project bogged down by legal obstacles and lawsuits. A suit that Genting filed against the county attempting to force through legalization of a casino is ongoing while the county has hit Genting with three separate suits arguing that the company has received unfair tax breaks and refunds, reports the Miami Herald.
The suits appear to correspond to the three years in which the county’s Value Adjustment Board granted the company substantial tax refunds (2012, 2013, and 2014) totaling about $2.5 million with $255,000 in interest. Unsurprisingly the county isn’t happy, but neither is Genting, which has counter-sued saying they believe the county inflated the assessed value to begin with. That assessed value, for 2012, was $132 million for the building and land that was the former bay front home of the Miami Herald and was to become Resorts World Miami. This was only slightly more than half of the $232 million the company paid for it. That same year, Genting was able to get that assessed value reduced from $132 million to a very impressively low $88 million. Meanwhile, without a casino, beyond a few empty promises Genting has shown little interest in building a resort of any kind on the site, and the land remains empty.
Herzog & de Meuron’s Jade Signature is Really Far Along
May 23rd photo via Jade Signature.
Construction at Jade Signature, designed by starchitects Herzog & de Meuron, is looking really far along from this photo posted to the project’s Facebook page on May 23rd. Count for yourself, but construction has at least reached the halfway point of the luxury condominium tower’s full 57 stories. And that’s including the 50-foot-deep underground parking garage. Meanwhile, the project has dropped a flood of (mostly) new renderings, showing off its penthouse and unit interiors, and some additional common spaces. Check them all out, below.
Should Miami Beach Build a Fire Station & Parking Garage in Flamingo Park?
Proposed Flamingo Park Fire Station and Garage Option.
The City of Miami Beach’s Neighborhoods Committee is meeting today to study a potential new fire station and parking garage in Flamingo Park at a proposal at a meeting today. The garage/station complex would go at the south end of the park where a parking lot currently exists, nearby the existing fire station, and potentially also absorb the Police Athletic League building next door. The city is looking at various design options, although they all do essentially the same thing: gobble up public park space that could go to other, more public, uses in the future. And at either 50 or 75 feet high depending on the ‘preferred alternative’ the city picks, the building would tower over the park and neighborhood around it, where zoning typically limits height to 35 feet. ‘Save Miami Beach Neighborhoods’ is opposing the project, with a petition on their website.
Downtown’s Magnificent Walgreens Building Has Hit the Market
Walgreens Building
The historic Walgreens Building on Flagler and E. 2nd Street, a beautiful classic streamlined moderne retail building from the art deco era that in recent years was home to the la época department store (which has its own fascinating history), has hit the market. With 5 stories above ground and 1 below, the 50,000 square foot structure has that rarest of Miami amenities, an actual basement. Inside is a grand, three-story atrium space with circular staircase and glass elevator, which originally contained, believe it or not, a Walgreens Drug Store. The price is “To be determined by the market” apparently, but if your’e a serious buyer (who intends to treat it as well as it deserves and not tear it down for some ugly P.O.S.), the Walgreens building is listed by Gerard Yetming and Mika Mattingly of Colliers International Realty. So, go ask them.
Deca Capital Group has withdrawn their request for a height variance to build a 90-foot high mixed use project of 15 luxury condos on top of premium retail on Purdy Avenue, after controversy ensued in the neighborhood, reports the Real Deal. Tentatively titled Sunset Harbour Residences, renderings made the design look rather sexy and sleek, with long horizontal lines and a cross-block breezeway. The design would have exceeded the zoned 50-foot height limitations of the area, which annoyed some neighbors including those next door at the Lofts at South Beach, who would’ve lost their north facing views. So, it looks like the little guy (or at least littler guy) won after all.
Brickell’s Villa Regina, Known for its Yaacov Agam Rainbow Facade, is Redoing its Lobby
Villa Regina, one in a row of iconic and brightly colored 1980s, Miami Vice/Cocaine Cowboys-era condo towers along Brickell Avenue, is redoing its lobby. The building is dominated by its bright rainbow facade created by the artist Yaacov Agam, an Israeli sculptor and experimental artist best known for his contributions to optical and kinetic art (according to Wikipedia) and for colorful facades that captured a certain architectural moment in the 1980s. Originally developed by Nicholas Morley, Villa Regina was also one of developer Ugo Colombo’s earliest projects (see below).
The facade was recently restored and is staying put luckily. Apparently the building’s owners did away with the original lobby 5-6 years ago, and have now decided to do away with it again, with a new, much lighter, design by John Richard Medina & Associates Architects. Considering how radical of a change the new lobby appears to be in renderings, let’s hope it coordinates with the rest of the facade.
