‘White box’ condos in Miami may seem like one-in-a-million. They’re gorgeous, of course, and anywhere else except Miami, they’d be drooled over. Heck, they’re drooled over here too. But there certainly isn’t for a lack of them. Often used as second homes or investment properties, they’re typically spectacular units, with defining characteristics being great views, luxurious kitchens and baths, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and minimal interior decoration. White plaster is everywhere. When done well, they embody the ‘South Beach luxe’ look. When done poorly, you can tell they’re only occupied two weeks out of the year. This example, Unit 4401 at Jade Ocean, is done well. It’s listed for $5.499 million.
Another AC Hotel by Marriott is Coming to Miami, This Time in Edgewater
A decade ago, the only people who would dare get a hotel room along Biscayne Boulevard anywhere north of Downtown Miami and the city border were the occasional oblivious out-of-towner, and hookers. Boy has all that changed. Boutique hotels have moved in, with the Vagabond changing literally everything, and now the chains are following. Across the street from the under construction Hampton Inn, an AC Hotel by Marriott is being planned at 3400 Biscayne Boulevard, according to the Next Miami. It’s by the same developer as the Hampton, which is expected to open in September, and appears to have a somewhat similar design to the AC Hotel on Miami Beach, which is also a Kobi Karp… um, creation.
Grove at Grand Bay is Done, Receives Temporary Certificate of Occupancy
Grove at Grand Bay seen from Park Grove. By Sean McCaughan.
The two twisting towers known as Grove at Grand Bay, which in their short lives have already become iconic Coconut Grove landmarks, have received their temporary certificate of occupancy, with closings beginning this week. They were originally going to be Danish architect Bjarke Ingels’ first completed project in the Americas, but due to construction delays were beaten out by Via 57 West in New York. The buildings have been entirely sold out for a while, except for the last remaining penthouse, a $28 million unit which developer David Martin had originally intended to keep for himself. According to Martin, who spoke to Real Deal, interior build-outs should be completed within three months, with move-ins expected in the next four to six.
Subtropical Modernist Coconut Grove House by Shulman + Associates Hits the Market for $6.95M
A modernist Coconut Grove house which featured in Dwell Magazine, and which I featured on Curbed Miami, soon after completion has hit the market with a price tag of $6.95 million. The house, thick in the hammock of the Grove’s Camp Biscayne, was designed by local architect Allan Shulman of Shulman + Associates, and designed to embrace the outdoors with a reserved detachment from it. “It didn’t seem like the kind of landscape you wanted to go trudging through with your boots, but one that you wanted to observe with detachment,” Shulman told Dwell. “We were trying to emphasize how precious the landscape is.” by floating boardwalks around the very wet, sunken site, and cantilevering the living room over it. Then on the other side of the home is a much more traditional backyard, with pool and grill.
Chalks Still Working on Ambitious Seaplane Base on Watson Island
Chalks, which has plans to build an ambitious new seaplane base on Watson Island, recently submitted a new one page set of plans to the City of Miami with a new site plan showing how the structure would be oriented on the site. The surreal and spectacular building will be a towering multi-purpose structure, with a seaplane hangar and airport on the ground floor, commercial and exhibition space above, and the whole thing topped with a lighthouse, to a design by architects Wolfberg Alvarez. This is how the Herald described it January:
Vega showed commissioners a circular, nine-story building with a hangar and terminal on the bottom floor and a hanging garden in the center. Roughly 50,000 square feet of restaurant, retail and office space were included, an exhibition garden was planned on the fifth floor, and a media room and steakhouse completed the upper levels. The ninth floor was an observation deck, where people can watch seaplanes take off over Government Cut.
Unafraid of Market Slowdown, Colombian Developer Proposes Naranza at Edgewater
Ay dios mio! The Miami real estate market is in the doldrums and yet, hey this is Miami, where out-of-towners come to live out, and build, their flights of fancy. Hey, we don’t judge. Introducing Naranza at Edgewater, a 137 unit, 20-floor condo tower being launched in August by Colombian developer Prodesa. The building is at a site on NE 31st Street, East of Biscayne Boulevard, and immediately behind the Related Group’s Paraiso megaproject, which means the copious bay views in the project’s renderings (above and below) won’t actually exist. Sorry Charlie.
It’s being designed by Arquitectonica, and comes with the standard crop of amenities, including gym, clubroom, spa, and pool on the 6th floor amenity deck, and a roof deck up on the 20th. Anywho, according to Fortune International Realty, which is handling the sales, pricing is the least expensive per square foot available in Edgewater. 1 bedroom units start somewhere in the $300,000s. However, those 1-bedrooms are a rather smallish 650 square feet. Units range from there to larger corner two-bedroom units, with dens, in the high $500k. So, is it a bargain? You decide.
Flying Over Richard Meier’s Surf Club Four Seasons in a Drone
The combo historic and contemporary The Surf Club Four Seasons is nearing completion in the heart of Surfside since its topping-off over a year ago. As you can see in our latest drone video, the new condominium and hotel towers, which were designed by Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design in collaboration with starchitect Richard Meier, have been entirely glazed, while significant exterior and landscaping work remains on the lower floors as well as the exterior of the historic, Russell Pancoast-designed private club structure at the heart of the project. Meanwhile, across A1A, the inland side of the project (the low-rise contemporary block) appears virtually complete. The whole thing should be done this winter.
The project will include an 80 room Four Seasons Hotel as well as two 12-story residential towers, which Real Deal reported in June were 80% sold out. Unit prices range from $3.4 million to $18 million, and top out at more than 7,000 square feet in size. Meanwhile, Fort Partners, the developer, is obviously happy with its starchitect. They’ve kept Meier on to design the two residential towers they have proposed to build over the Miami Beach Marina in South Beach.
An Aerial Look at All Aboard Florida/ Brightline Train Station Construction
Construction of the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach Brightline Stations is on schedule for the beginning of passenger train service next month, according to an update last week at the Brightline construction blog. The stations are also coming along pretty nicely when seen from the air. While construction for both the Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stations is coming along nicely, construction at MiamiCentral, the Miami terminal station and by far the largest of the three (the fourth station, connecting to Orlando International Airport, is coming in Phase II) is approaching the level of the elevated train tracks. Check out the video, below.
In Downtown Miami, construction on the massive 11-acre MiamiCentral is progressing. Installation of the Florida I Beams (FIB’s) continuing, things are moving smoothly at the MiamiCentral Brightline station. Once the FIB’s are installed, work will begin on the elevated train tracks. The tracks will be installed on a slab, which will be cast on top of the FIB’s. In addition, the process of excavating for all of the rail infrastructure foundations is now complete and about 90 percent of the columns have been cast.
Just on the other side of the Miami-Dade County Overtown Transit Village, 3 MiamiCentral is also rising. In just a couple of months, the building has reached its tenth floor! Shoring for the fourth level parking garage has been completed and the installation of glass panels on the third level, below the office tower, is underway. Going forward, construction crews at 3 MiamiCentral will continue with rough plumbing, electrical work and HVAC ductwork installation, in addition to casting sections of the ninth and tenth floors.
Have You Seen This Design District Sculpture of Kate Moss Doing The Splits?
Photo via Miami Design District.
What would Edina Monsoon think of this? Supermodel Kate Moss has become a universal symbol of fashion and the fashion world. “Moss as an abstraction, an idealized figure who is more of a cultural hallucination than an actual person of flesh and blood,” says Opera Gallery Director Dan Benchetrit, whose gallery loaned this sculpture of Moss contorted in an exaggerated, and probably impossible yoga pose to the Miami Design District.
The piece is called Myth Fortuna and was created by British artist Marc Quinn, who Benchatrit says “chose Moss because she’s an icon of our age.” To that point, the surrealness of the sculpture could symbolize the transformation of the Design District neighborhood, and even Miami as a whole. It’s on display in the Paseo Ponti, looking into the Palm Court, between Loro Piana and Hermès.
As The Miami Market ‘Adjusts,’ Downtown Condos Nosedive & Rents Hold Steady
Photo by Bill Dickinson, via Flickr.
After five straight years of property value gains, Downtown Miami condominium resale prices are down 4% so far this year. On the rental side, a just-as-impressive streak of lease inflation in the urban core that began back in 2012 has finally broken. Rents are staying flat these days, and showing some downward pressure, due to piles new apartment inventory churning away in the pipeline and just now coming to market. Both of these market shifts were reported in the mid-year report from the Miami Downtown Development Authority, released this week, and the implications could be big. The greater Downtown area has for years been the center of Miami’s rapid urbanization, seeing huge amounts of growth. It fueled big gains. Well, the gains have finally gone, and Downtown’s performance is a lead indicator for the rest of Miami. The boom has bellowed out.
