Apogee South Beach: Ultra-Luxury Living at its Finest – Prices & Availability

The video above is of the construction progress at Apogee South Beach located in the neighborhood of South Beach known as South of Fifth. South of Fifth has become the most luxurious neighborhood in South Beach. Apogee is situated at the southern tip of South Beach, along South Pointe Drive at 800 South Pointe Drive. As you can see above, Apogee is almost complete. Closings for condo units at Apogee are scheduled to begin in September 2007. Apogee rises 22 stories high with only 67 private residences (4 units per floor).

Apogee South Beach will be THE ultra-luxury condo building of South Beach. Celebrities from all over have purchased residences at Apogee. When sales began at Apogee prices started at $3M. The list below will show you information pertaining to the resale units that are currently available at Apogee. Original buyers were given the option of modifying the floor plan of their residence which means that some of these units may be modified versions of the original floor plan. Apogee is known for having very large and spacious residences with top-of-the-line appliances and fixtures.

  • “A” Residence:
    • 4,154 Sq Ft a/c
    • 2,441 Sq Ft terrace
      • Line “04”, West corner with N, S, & W exposures
        • Unit 704$7.6M ($1,829/SF) 3BR
        • Unit 1104$7.75M ($1,866/SF) 4BR
        • Unit 1504$7.75M ($1,866/SF) 3BR
        • Unit 1704$8.2M ($1,974/SF) 4BR
      • Line “01”, East corner with N, S, & E exposures
        • Unit 901$5.2M ($1,252/SF) 4BR
        • Unit 1401$6.5M ($1,565/SF) 3BR

        Apogee Residence A

  • “B” Residence:
    • 3,100 Sq Ft a/c
    • 1,042 Sq Ft terrace
      • Unit 703$4M ($1,290/SF)
      • Unit 902$4.5M ($1,452/SF)
      • Unit 1203$4.349M ($1,403/SF)
      • Unit 1402$4.449M ($1,435/SF)
      • Unit 1603$4.9M ($1,580/SF)
      • Unit 1903$5.2M ($1,677/SF)

      Apogee Residence B

      Take a look at level of quality that will go into the luxurious residences at Apogee South Beach:

      Apogee South Beach bathroom
      Apogee South Beach kitchen
      Apogee South Beach living space

Il Villagio Penthouse – $17,750,000 – A Look at an Ultra-Luxury Condo

Many of you may have wondered, at some time or another, what a $15M+ condo looks like in South Beach. So, let’s take a look at the two-story penthouse condo at Il Villaggio that is listed for $17,750,000. It has an amazing 5,700 square feet with 3 bedrooms, 4 full baths, 2 half baths, a 12-camera security system, private rooftop terrace with pool and Jacuzzi, 4 parking spaces and much, much more. Il Villagio is located on one of the most well-known streets in South Beach, Ocean Drive, at 1455 Ocean Drive. Two words came to mind when I saw this condo: “bad ass”! Make sure to take a look at the MLS listing for more information.

Il Villagio

Il Villagio

Il Villagio

Il Villagio

Il Villagio

Il Villagio

Il Villaggio condos for sale
Il Villaggio condo rentals

2 Bedroom Foreclosure at Carbonell in Brickell Key

Carbonell Brickell Key

There’s a 2 bedroom/2.5 bath foreclosure that just became available over the weekend at Carbonell in Brickell Key. Built in 2005, Carbonell is Brickell Key’s most recent addition. The foreclosure unit is the best priced 2 bedroom unit in the entire building by quite a lot. It is listed at $649,900. The next best priced 2 bedroom at Carbonell is listed at $799,000. It is a bank owned property. Tax records show that there was an original mortgage on the property in the amount of $700,000. At the time of repossession, the mortgage amount owed was $699,627.

Carbonell Brickell Key

The foreclosure unit has 1,558 square feet of interior space, which equates to about $417 per square foot. The next best priced 2 bedroom condo at Carbonell is listed at $544 per square foot, located on the sixth floor, or one floor above the foreclosure unit. Taking a look at the Miami Condo Index for Brickell Key in June 2007 will reveal that Carbonell had an average list price of $592.56 per square foot, while having an average sales price $473.04 per square foot over the preceding six months.

In my experience, I’ve seen banks willing to accept what might seem like a crazy offer just to get the property off of their books. This could be a great opportunity to own a 2 bedroom at Carbonell for under $600,000. This past March, a 2 bedroom/2.5 bath sold for $700,000. It was located in the same line as the foreclosure unit, exactly one floor above it.

Update: Price was reduced to $634,900 on July 26, 2007.

Opportunity to Own a 1 Bedroom in Tower 2 of the Luxurious Icon Brickell

Icon Brickell

A few days ago I received an email from a gentleman who holds a preconstruction contract for a 1 bedroom in Tower 2 of Icon Brickell. He prefers not to close on the unit and wanted me to find out if there’s any interest in his unit from someone looking to acquire a condo at Icon Brickell. Even though the market has slowed, I still think there will be interest due to the reputation that the “Icon” brand has created. The “Icon” brand has become synonymous with ultra-luxury living and the Icon Brickell development will be one of the finest in all of Brickell.

Icon Brickell

The gentleman was originally supposed to receive a contract for a 1 bedroom in Tower 1 of Icon Brickell but due to high demand that tower quickly sold out. The developer, The Related Group, did however give him a 1 bedroom in Tower 2 at the same price that he was promised a 1 bedroom unit in Tower 1. It is a G floor plan with 984 square feet of interior space and a 137 square foot terrace. The unit is located on a high floor above the 30th.

Icon Brickell

His price per square foot of $486 is pretty amazing given that units in that same line sold for slightly over $750 per square foot. I spoke with a sales representative at Icon Brickell today to get a feel for how pricing will be once resales begin. She notified me that The Related Group has no plans to launch a resale program for Icon Brickell. I asked her why and she said that resale programs are only launched for their projects when they feel that the market can absorb it. She continued to add that because the market is currently soft they don’t feel that this is the case at this time. Icon Brickell has been sold out of one bedroom units in Towers 1 and 2 for quite some time. I asked her if she could remember what a G line unit was selling for before they sold out. She told me that there was a G line unit on the 46th floor that sold for $750,000.

The gentleman who contacted me is looking to resell his 1 bedroom at Icon Brickell. His asking price is $599,000. A simultaneous closing would need to be done since the developer is not allowing contracts to be assigned at this time. Icon Brickell is scheduled to begin closings towards the end of 2008. If you or someone you know has an interest in acquiring this unit, please drop me an email or give me a call.

Check out the picture slideshow below for more renderings of the Icon Brickell project:

Pictorial & Video Review of The Fantastic Four in Miami

Biscayne Wall

Today was a beautiful sunny day in Miami so I decided to revisit my favorite skyline-gazing spot at the southwestern tip of Watson Island, along with my trusty digital camcorder. It is the perfect location to view the progression of what I have dubbed The Fantastic Four, made up of, from left to right, Marina Blue, 900 Biscayne Bay, Ten Museum Park and Marquis. It may appear as though there are five developments but the smallest of the buildings is located further off of Biscayne Boulevard to the west. Wikipedia refers to these four developments as the Biscayne Wall, but to me it is far shy of a wall when you compare it to fully built-out skylines in cities such as New York City and Chicago.

The name The Fantastic Four came to mind though as each of these four developments are fantastic ultra-luxury high-rise buildings revitalizing the Downtown Miami neighborhood now known as Park West. Park West was recently developed to be Miami’s equivalent to Manhattan’s Park Avenue. In years to come it will become known as Miami’s luxury neighborhood. It is located directly west of I-395, also known as the MacArthur Causeway, which leads straight into South Beach.Museum Park, formerly known as Bicentennial Park, which is the green piece of land directly east of the The Fantastic Four, will be redeveloped by the Miami Art Museum and the Miami Museum of Science and Planetarium to be transformed into a world-renowned park. It may not seem like a lot of land from the picture above but it is actually comprised of 30-plus acres. The luxury condo buildings in Park West are walking distance to the American Airlines Arena, the newly constructed Carnival Center for the Performing Arts and Bayside Marketplace.

In future months, as closing dates approach, there will be many opportunities to buy into these four buildings at discounted prices. Condo units in these buildings, as well as the thousands of other units coming to market in Miami over the next 18 months, were heavily purchased by investors. Their plan was to flip each condo unit for a profit prior to closing, but demand dried and prices headed south. Many will end up walking away from 20 percent deposits and instead write it off on their taxes. Closings at Ten Museum Park have already begun and Marina Blue should begin theirs towards the beginning of August.

The following pictorial review will give you a closer look at each of these buildings as they appear today:

Marina Blue

Marina Blue

900 Biscayne Bay

900 Biscayne

Ten Museum Park

Ten Museum Park

Marquis

Marquis

Note: Watson Island offers the best views of both the Miami and Miami Beach skylines. With the exception of Parrot Jungle and the Miami Children’s Museum, it is a wonder how this land has remained vacant for so long. Flagstone Property Group is supposed to develop a mix-used project known as Island Gardens, with hotel, restaurant and retail space as well as a a “50-slip mega-yacht marina that would accommodate yachts of up 450-feet long”. I haven’t heard of any progress in over twelve months and it doesn’t appear as though anyone has broken ground on the land that I stood on today.