Congress Unanimously Agrees To Make FHA Financing Easier For Condo Buyers

In a rare moment of solidarity, Congress unanimously agreed to pass the proposed changes to the FHA approval guidelines for condo purchases, opening the way for middle-income buyers to participate in the condo market once more.

Over recent years, the FHA has imposed nearly impossible guidelines for condo purchases that have left a large segment of buyers out of the market, particularly first time homebuyers. The problem has been that in order to secure an FHA loan for a property, the buyers must qualify (relatively easy), AND the building must qualify (almost impossible). The approval process was expensive and the costs were not refunded in the event that the project was rejected. The approvals had to be renewed every couple of years as well. Most condo associations opted to forego the application and just not have FHA as an option for purchasers in the building. With the new guidelines, the projects no longer need to go through the approval process. Buyers can now apply for a spot-approval on individual units and the owner-occupant vs investor ratios have been lowered. Bravo!

This is going to be a big help for actual residents of the Downtown Miami area who are ready to buy a condo, but maybe don’t have the 20%-35% down payment that is currently required to buy a property. You can read more about the new guidelines here.

Drone Footage of the One Thousand Museum Construction Site

Below is a drone video of the One Thousand Museum construction site as of this past Monday, September 5th, the date that the footage was shot. It showcases the breathtaking views that condos at One Thousand Museum will offer as well as provides a bird’s-eye view of the progress that has been made thus far to the tower.

One Thousand Museum Construction Tour

Enjoying the view from One Thousand Museum with developer Gregg Covin

Yesterday morning, I was given the opportunity to tour the One Thousand Museum construction site with co-developer Gregg Covin. It was quite a treat to finally step foot inside a development that I have followed so closely over the past three and a half years. As a resident of Park West, I walk and drive by the One Thousand Museum construction site on a daily basis; to admire its impressive form from the street is one thing, but to tour it and see the building’s lines and curves from the inside looking out is quite another.

As of yesterday morning, construction at One Thousand Museum had reached the 19th floor. While on my guided tour, I was permitted to go as high as the 15th floor. Even from just the 15th floor, however, the views were breathtaking. Along with three townhouse units, each with impressive 20-foot ceilings in the living and family rooms, I also had a chance to tour two half floor residences, one located on the south side of the building and the other on the north side. When viewing the half floor residence located on the north side of the building, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of separation the residence had from its neighbors to the north at Ten Museum Park. From street-level, One Thousand Museum and Ten Museum Park are just about connected, but the residences themselves have good separation due to the pools that wrap around at the top of each building’s pedestal.

If all goes according to plan, One Thousand Museum will be topped off this time next year. While touring the building yesterday, Covin shared with me that hopes to top-off the building by August 2017 and then obtain a TCO about 13 months thereafter. Until then, One Thousand Museum is a masterpiece in the making.

southeast corner townhouse unit

overlooking the living room with 20-foot ceilings

second level of southeast corner townhouse

touring a half floor residence

overlooking Museum Park

view east from 1000 Museum

terrace

southeast view from One Thousand Museum

getting the lay of the land from developer Gregg Covin

northeast corner

half floor residence on the north side

a picture-perfect day!

the pools create nice separation between residences on the north side

overlooking the pool on the west side of 1000 Museum

southwest corner townhouse – 10th floor

southeast corner townhouse – 10th floor

southwest corner terrace

northeast corner terrace at 1000 Museum

“It’s the Market” Says Carlos Rosso on Auberge Miami Delay Until at Least Late 2018

Scene from the Auberge Miami Launch Party at the the project’s sales center. Sean McCaughan.

Auberge Miami is being delayed until at least late 2018, and they have offered lease extensions to at least one tenant of the existing structure on the site until the middle of that year. According to  Related’s condo division president Carlos Rosso, who spoke to Miami Condo Investments, “it’s the market.” Surprised? Probably not.

“We are selling, and as soon as we get to our (desired) presales we will start construction. The sales center is open” Rosso said. In April the Related Group reported that reservations at the first of the three planned towers at Auberge Miami were at 20 percent, while the more recent ISG second quarter market report placed sales at a more modest 15 percent, with both presale numbers reflecting the significantly slumping real estate market. As ISG Principal Craig Studnicky, whose firm has a partnership with Related, told the Real Deal, “It’s not terribly surprising” that Related would chose to delay the gargantuan condo project by a year, or more. (The first tower is planned to have 290 units, while the while the whole thing was designed with a whopping 1400) “Related will keep pushing” until they hit the right sales number, Studnicky said.

And, as Rosso basically confirmed, it looks like that’s exactly what Related is doing, according to leasing emails leaked to The Real Deal for some of the existing commercial space on the site, offering an extension to a current tenant until late August 2018. This means that instead of the originally planned 2017 groundbreaking, they likely don’t plan on building a thing there until at least late 2018. Of course, that also depends on how sales go from here.

Boutique Townhouse Project ‘One Bay’ Underway in Micro-Hood East of Design District

On the far side of Albert Pallot Park from the offramp to the Julia Tuttle Causeway, nestled in a little-known micro-neighborhood east of the Design District with a variety of architectural styles and some cute surprises, a townhouse development called One Bay is currently under construction. With unit sizes ranging from 800 to 2500 interior air conditioned square feet, all units come with private entrances leading onto a private road going through the center of the community. Most also come with private garages and private roof decks, except for some single story units. There’s a community pool, and walking distance to the park and the Design District.

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.

As of Yesterday, One Unit Had Closed at Centro

Photo by Lucas Lechuga.

As of yesterday, one unit had closed at Newgard Development Group’s Centro, in Downtown Miami. The condo in question is Apartment 2502, a 2-bedroom unit. Residents of Centro have begun moving in, but unsurprisingly, (because that’s just how these things go in Miami) a few months later than planned. Centro includes 352 total units.

Zaha May be Gone, but She Lives on in the Construction of One Thousand Museum, by Now Showing Off Its Spectacular Curves

One Thousand Museum, designed by the recently deceased grande dame of architecture herself Zaha Hadid, has already reached the fifteenth floor, as multiple news sources have announced. These photos are from the project’s Facebook page, which also links to plenty of those articles. That rather rudimentary floor plate count is no biggie however, because you can now finally see the structural exoskeleton coursing up around that parametric facade, supporting it from just a few key points on the exterior. In other words, every passer can finally take in the architecture. We can all now see some of what Zaha envisioned all along, in solid concrete, and that’s pretty great.

Big New Mixed-Use Project Coming to Old Channel 10 Studios Site on Biscayne Boulevard, Replacing Art School

Quadro

A 13-story building called Quadro with 198 rental apartment units and 28,000 square feet of retail space is being developed by Alta Development in the Miami Design District at 3900 Biscayne Boulevard, the former site of the Channel 10 Studios, and the current location the Miami  Arts Charter School which is relocating to Wynwood.  Naturally, it’s called Quadro because the building stretches from 39th to 40th Streets, although 40th Street doesn’t actually intersect with Biscayne Boulevard here (the next intersection isn’t until 50th Terrace), so that’s something…

From renderings revealed on The Next Miami, the design itself looks attractive and logical, if not particularly unique in any way. It does, however, urbanize what until now has been a rather atypical suburban stretch of Biscayne Boulevard, and it does it well. Alta partnered with the Related Group on the neighboring Baltus House, so they’re not unfamiliar with the area. Alta hired Revuelta as the design architect and Behar Font as the architect of record, although they bought the land from Nancy Karp, wife of architect Kobi Karp, a year ago for $18.4 million. Whatever anyone says about those Karps and the quality of their architecture (and I’ve said a lot), you’ve got to admit they’re pretty damn talented real estate investors.