Checking In On IconBrickell’s Sales And Rental Values

It has been 3 months since we last checked in on IconBrickell’s pool project, and construction is now well underway. The photo above was taken this morning during one of our showings. You can see that the trees have been removed and their soil is now being removed to make way for the tile demolition.

Back in November, we noticed that the prices were in a virtual free-fall. Thankfully, the trend has not continued now that the work is underway. In the last 3 months, the average sales price per square foot has actually risen to $492/square foot and sellers have been discounting their listing prices less than the Brickell market overall. IconBrickell sellers are accepting an average of 94% of their asking price, opposed to the average of 92% of asking price that is being accepted throughout the neighborhood.

In the rental market, we have seen a flurry of action! A whopping 96 apartments were leased in the building during the last 3 months, with 49 pending contracts waiting for move-in day. The prices have fallen, but not as far as many have feared. Apartments are starting at $1,700/month for studios, $1,900/month for one bedrooms and $2,500/month for two bedrooms. Please also note that the prices I am giving are AFTER negotiation. The landlords are not negotiating as much as some may hope. The studios are offering very little room for negotiation, one and two bedrooms may reduce their asking price by $100 or so, but nothing dramatic. Despite the pool hiccup, it seems the building is still very popular to tenants.

One metric that was alarming to me was the fact that there are currently 228 active listings for sale in the project, but only 12 closings during the last 90 days and 14 units with contracts in escrow. Since inventory is up and closings are down but values are holding steady, this tells me that only the owners who really need to sell are doing so. This is good news for IconBrickell fans, it shows the owners understand that the building will be restored to its former glory once the repairs are complete. Unfortunately for those who were hoping to capitalize on the building’s situation, it doesn’t look like that strategy is panning out as well as many had hoped.

We will check back in a few months and see how the trend is moving along. In the meantime, you can browse the available options here.

‘Your Million Dollar Houses Will Soon Be Under Water’ Wake Up Call Confronted Icon SoBe People as They Woke Up

Photo by Stephen Conlan.

Somebody had a lot to say to the sandbar dwellers of Miami Beach, although most of the message went squarely to the residents of the ritzy condos at Icon South Beach, the first building facing it, right across a temporary parking lot and causeway overpass. “YOUR MILLION DOLLAR HOUSES WILL SOON BE UNDERWATER” was painted (we assume) sometime overnight in simple, black capital letters, on the rooftop parapet of the gutted South Shore Hospital’s bones.

The meaning is obvious to anyone in Miami Beach not asleep under a rock. This resort town of extravagant real estate prices is under unusual and immediate threat from sea level rise. As experts and hard-hitting longform magazine article writers keep reminding us (Remember when Rolling Stone blared “Goodbye Miami” across a two-page spread?), Miami Beach is reckoning with its very real fate. Oh, and whoever wrote that thing way up there should either work on their English or their geography. Plenty of houses will be underwater yes, but the condos it’s facing aren’t houses, they’re homes. There are a few actual houses, but they are to the east. At least the posh people at Icon won’t have to constantly see it anymore though, in addition to having more time until inundation at umpteenth floors up. Developer Russell Galbut, who has been trying to build on the old hospital site for years, quickly had it painted over.