Tips For Foreign Investors Seeking EB-5 Visas & Paramount Miami Worldcenter Update
EB-5 can be a great opportunity for foreign investors who seek American citizenship to be able to do so, but the investment visa is not without risks. It is very important to choose the right project to invest in, so that the investor does not lose their investment without securing the visa. As a rule, the investment money must be considered an at-risk investment, but savvy investors can review their potential projects and choose the one most likely to end in the visa PLUS the return of their funds.
What Are Some Tips To Ensure Success?
When reviewing EB-5 opportunities, it is important to choose a project that actually creates a minimum of 10 full time jobs per visa issued. Good intentions are great, but the project has to actually happen in order for the visas to be issued. Because of this, it is important to invest with an experienced developer who is well-funded and already under construction.
If a developer is not experienced, the project is unlikely to come to fruition, leaving the EB-5 funds at risk. In this case, the investor may or may not be able to recover their $500,000 in investment money, but the $50,000 in administration fees are nonrefundable.
If the project comes to fruition but does not create the required amount of jobs per hopeful EB-5 investor, then a portion of the investors will receive their visas, but those who signed on later in the project would lose their administration fee and may or may not be able to recover their $500,000 investment. Investing in condos is safer in this instance, since investors are more likely to recover their money through the condo sales. Recovery of the funds is more tricky for parking garage or infrastructure projects.
Don’t be greedy. It is extremely rare to find an EB-5 investment program that will provide the investor with the visa AND a healthy financial return. Many times, investors receive a small return and the visa. This brings me to Paramount Miami Worldcenter, which has an interesting offering that is one of the best I’ve seen.
How Does The Paramount Miami Worldcenter EB5 Opportunity Work?
The developer of Paramount Miami Worldcenter is offering a limited number of EB5 investment opportunities to buyers of condos in the project, which is currently under construction in Downtown Miami. There are around 35 opportunities remaining of the original 150. The opportunities are funding just 14% of the capital required for the project, which has already secured its $285 million senior loan and is 60% sold with 50% deposits due prior to closing.
With 150 available investor visas, 1,500 jobs are required to be created. The project is estimated to create over 5,000 total jobs, so investors should have no problem securing their visa upon completion.
At the time of closing, EB5 Investors are offered two options:
1 – They can close on their condo separate of the investment and move in immediately.
2 – For the investors who prefer to roll their investment funds into their condo purchase, they have the option to delay closing by three years on a leaseback program with the developer. The developer will offer the apartments for lease and split the income from that rental with the investor. After the three year term, the investor can close with the use of their investment funds.
The remaining residences start at $626,000 for a 1 bedroom plus den with 1,095 interior square feet up to $1.8 million for a 3 bedroom plus den with a southeast view and 2,376 interior square feet. Overall, prices average $675/square foot and penthouses are available upon request.
If you or someone you know is interested in more information on the EB5 program, please contact our office for a full presentation.
Behold! The Fairchild In Coconut Grove’s Grand Beasley Residence
The Fairchild in Coconut Grove has released a new floor plan that is perfect for large families who need plenty of space but crave waterfront life. The Grand Beasley Plan is a combination of the Northeast and Southeast corner residences that makes one sprawling estate.
With 6,388 interior square feet and 1,550 square feet of wraparound terrace space, the Grand Beasley plan is indeed grand. It features 5 bedrooms, 6.5 baths, an office/study, formal living and dining room, family room, breakfast area and service quarters. Architect Max Strang did a beautiful job of including very usable features into the floor plan, which was designed as the future owner will use it. There is very little wasted space.
This floor plan is available on the 1st, 3rd or 4th floors of the 5 story boutique development and includes 4 parking spaces. Prices start at $6.2 million.
Live Like Zaha: Zaha Hadid’s Personal Residence Hits The Market
If you are an internationally acclaimed starchitect and the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize in architecture, you do not live in a normal condo. You take a condo in a great building with a phenomenal view and you redesign the whole thing so that every room emulates your style and brilliance.
That is what happened to Apartment 730 at the W South Beach. In 2010, Zaha Hadid purchased two apartments for $2,785,000 and combined them. She took out virtually all of the walls so that the view would not be obstructed and finished it off with her own fabulosity. Now that she has sadly passed, her estate has placed the apartment on the market for $10 million. Let’s take a gander at the MLS photos and see how one of the greatest architects of our time lived.
Happy Memorial Day From Miami Condo Investments
On this and every Memorial Day, the Miami Condo Investments Team would like to extend our gratitude and remembrance to the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice, keeping us safe, so that we can continue being free to do what we love. Their sacrifice is not forgotten.
We hope that everyone enjoys their holiday and continues to remember that freedom is not free.
Check Out The Virtual Reality Tour Of Chateau Beach’s $18.5 Million Sky Villa
Perched near the top of the 33 floor glistening beachfront tower, Chateau Beach in Sunny Isles, is a duplex sky villa that will blow your mind. The sky villa is located on the 24th and 25th levels and features 8,272 interior square feet with 2,402 square feet of terrace space that includes a private pool. Properties like this are too beautiful to get the message across with only photos, so we have tracked down a virtual reality tour, essentially putting you in the villa from the comfort of your home.
The villa is being sold fully furnished for $18.5 million and features 5 bedrooms, 7.5 baths with gorgeous ocean views. Here is a floor plan of the property, so you don’t get lost.
South of Fifth’s newest boutique development, Louver House, is headed for the finish line of completion, with closings expected next month. In honor of the architecturally significant building, let’s have a look at their signature features… LOUVERS.
Louvers are architectural details, sometimes window blinds or shutters, that have horizontal slats that are angled to admit air and light, but to block rain and direct sunshine. They date back to the middle ages, when they were used to ventilate large kitchens without allowing rain and snow inside. Today, they have a more luxurious application and are typically used for those who love to enjoy the fresh air of a patio, but prefer to stay dry and save the tourist-level sunburn for the beach.
Louver House’s aluminum louvers tout over 15,000 linear feet of louver blade, which is almost 3 miles. That’s enough material to form a radius stretching across the Intracoastal, reaching both the Julia Tuttle and MacArthur Causeways, encompassing most of Virginia Key and all of the islands in between the causeways.
Combined, they weigh well over 50,000 lbs and have over 30,000 screws and bolts holding them together. All of the materials of these particular louvers are sourced from American-made products from American suppliers and are proudly made here in the US.
Now that they are installed, you can see that they beautifully create privacy and intimacy, while still allowing for views of the lush neighborhood and architectural detail to the building.
Louver House Construction Progress
Louver House is developed by Mast Capital and is located at 311 Meridian Avenue in the South of Fifth neighborhood of Miami Beach. They have only 12 residences in 5 floors. The grounds feature a host of various gardens and relaxation areas, with a rooftop swimming pool overlooking Miami Beach. Each of the residences at Louver House has expansive outdoor living areas and large interior layouts. The smallest layout is over 2,000 square feet of interior space and all layouts have 3 bedrooms with 3 bathrooms and a powder room.
Prices for the remaining four condo residences at Louver House average $1,250 per square foot.
GlassHaus in the Grove Releases Introductory Prices & Renderings
Coconut Grove is getting a new boutique condo development. It isn’t waterfront, it isn’t a high rise, and it isn’t located on South Bayshore with the other luxury developments, but it is giving me a serious throwback to the Jardins neighborhood of São Paulo, and I like it.
For those who don’t know, Jardins is an upper-class neighborhood within São Paulo. It is located just blocks from countless restaurants, lounges and bars. There are museums and high-end shopping steps away, yet the homes are nestled in peaceful seclusion amongst the lush greenery and mature hardwood trees.
GlassHaus may not have been aiming to be the Miami embodiment of São Paolo’s natural elegance, but they’re delivering it anyway. The modern minimalist design juxtaposed with the tropical hardwood hammock located just blocks away from the city hustle and bustle just works.
GlassHaus will have just 5 floors, the first level has three residences with the ambiance of garden living. There are shade trees and large outdoor terraces. The 4 floors above each have five residences per floor ranging from 1-3 bedrooms. On the roof, Glasshaus residents will enjoy a fully-equipped summer kitchen and dining area, with a pool, sundeck and lush landscaping to match the environment below.
The floor plans for Glasshaus range from 1,080 to 2,380 square feet with between 1 to 3 bedrooms. Each residence has 11 foot ceilings with floor to ceiling glass. The current prices at Glasshaus start at just under $600,000 for a 1 bedroom up to $1.3 million for a southeast corner residence with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 baths.
Below are some Glasshaus renderings. What do you think?
Market Stat Monday: Epic Residences
To answer a reader request, this week we are going to look into one of the Downtown area’s most luxurious and appropriately-named buildings… Epic Residences. For those who don’t know, Epic Residences and Hotel was built in 2008 by Ugo Colombo. It is known for level of service, fantastic layouts, luxurious finishes, Epic pool parties and the famous restaurants, Zuma and Area 31.
It is not uncommon to bump elbows with celebrities at the property on any given weekend. Some of the celebs who have dined or partied onsite include Kardashians, Madonna, Miami Heat players, Glenn Close, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow, Will Smith, Lenny Kravitz, David Beckham and a host of others. The food and cocktails are top notch as well. The decor and cuisine are sophisticated with views of the Miami River and docks large enough to house some of the largest yachts known to Miami. Mark Cuban is known to dock his 288 ft “Fountainhead” yacht here.
One of the things that I love about the design of Epic is that there are two entrances. One for the residences and a separate entrance for the hotel and restaurants. Residents receive all of the same service as the hotel guest, but don’t necessarily have to be bothered by the people coming and going. As a resident you are able to set up a charge account and order room service from either restaurant, or to go to the pool and enjoy cocktails and pool food. The Exhale Spa is also onsite, and is continually one of the top-rated spas in the area.
Despite the service and luxury, Epic is not without its problems. They are currently in the midst of a construction project that started as a standard repainting of the building, only to end up as a reinforcement of the balconies and a litigation claim against the developer. I personally interviewed the building manager after reading the claim (back to my real estate geekiness), and was reassured that the reinforcement does not reflect any danger to the residences, just that if they didn’t go ahead and do the work now, it would be a problem later on. They want the developer to pay for the repair, so made the lawsuit. Buildings are typically victorious in these types of claims, so I anticipate everyone will be just fine in no time. The repairs are a bit of a nuisance, since the balconies need to be partially covered for a few weeks, but the repairs are nearly complete.
Another tough pill to swallow for Epic residents is the new neighbor. It was recently announced that Aston Martin Residences, a 66 story behemoth of a tower will be built on the lot neighboring Epic to the East, distorting the views from some of the units. Ideal for Epic? No.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say what I’m pretty sure everyone has been thinking about Aston Martin. It probably won’t happen anytime soon. This is the developer’s first go-round at building a Miami tower, the design of the tower is ambitious (with an underground parking garage on a bayfront lot) and the market is not very strong right now for pre-construction buildings that are still in the conceptual phase. Anyway, let’s stop talking about the neighbors.
Epic Residences Sales Statistics
When we look at these statistics, we are going to leave out the penthouse levels and riverfront townhomes, since those are considered outliers. As of today, there are 64 available sales listings, or 18% of the building. 20 of the available listings have a South view of the Biscayne Bay, Miami River and Brickell skyline. Those are listed at an average of $701/square foot. There are only 3 units available with a North view of Downtown Miami, listed at an average of $556/square foot. The East and West corners each have 2 listings, priced at $1,050/square foot and $905/square foot respectively.
The last 5 months have brought only 7 closed sales in the project, 2 of which were townhomes. That gives us 46 months of inventory, which is alarming. I feel like many people are in a panic over the new tower, because so many of the active listings have the water view and all of the non-outlier sales this year have had a North view. They are selling at an average of $456/square foot and the sellers who are finding buyers are accepting 93% of their asking price, on average.
Epic Residences Rental Statistics
The rental market at Epic is refreshingly healthy! There are only 18 active rentals as of today that are unfurnished and only 9 are not townhomes or penthouses. They average in price of $3.28/square foot.
We have additional good news for the Epic rental market. So far in 2017, there have been 18 closed unfurnished rental deals, 13 of them have been non-penthouse and non-townhome units. That means that there is only 3.5 months’ of inventory available on the market. This makes it a super healthy rental market! The overall rented price of the units that found tenants was $3.11/square foot and the owners only negotiated to 95% of what they were asking for.
Another interesting fact I noticed from the values of the rented apartments is that again we are seeing that the corner units are the least expensive per square foot in the building. the 9 South facing units averaged $3.52/square foot, the 11 North facing units averaged $3.17/square foot, the 2 East corner units averaged $2.96/square foot and the 1 West corner rented for $3.12/square foot.
As for the sales market, I anticipate an uptick of deals once the litigation is settled and financing is once again available. I can’t think of a new project that is under construction that would be in direct competition with Epic the way that some of the Brickell buildings compete against one another. Epic is Epic and that is that.
What are your thoughts?
Video Tour of 3 Bedroom Condo at Biscayne Beach
As the new darling on the block, Biscayne Beach has garnered much interest from buyers, renters, and Realtors alike. Many are eager to see its finishes, views, and floor plans. Last week, a client of mine closed on a spacious, 3 bedroom unit at Biscayne Beach. Located on the southeast corner of the 30th floor, it boasts breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean, Biscayne Bay, and city skyline from its 10-foot high floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Judge for yourself, but I consider it one of the best views in Miami.
The unit will hit the market next week with an asking price of $1.75M. It will include two side-by-side parking spaces located on the 1st floor.
Nasdaq To The Frost Museum: Ring My Bell!
Be on the lookout! The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science has been asked to open the Nasdaq market on Monday morning!
The opening will happen remotely at the museum in Downtown Miami, which opened on May 8th. Dr. Phillip and Patricia Frost will join Frost Science, President Frank Steslow, to ring the Opening Bell.
The Bell ceremony will begin at 9:22am on Monday morning (May 22), according to the press release. The official ringing of the Nasdaq Opening Bell will take place at 9:30am sharp. Please remember that these times are in New York time, not Miami time… don’t miss it!
