Check Out the Amenities at Fisher Island’s Very Plush Palazzo Del Sol

Residents are already moving in to Fisher Island’s completed Palazzo Del Sol, where the luxurious 47 unit building is the first new residential building to be completed on the ultra-private island in ten years. Designed by Kobi Karp, with interiors by Antrobus & Ramirez, and landscaping by Enzo Enea,  Del Sol takes Fisher Island’s traditional Mediterranean Revival architecture and modernizes it as much as possible. Lines are straighter, walls are glassier, and many of the interior spaces are just massive.

In a trend reflected in many of its amenities, like the spa facilities and the residents’ lounge and aperitivo bar, Del Sol is offering in-building services that residents previously had to travel to the island’s club to take advantage of. Whereas Fisher Island has always been very secure, Del Sol is the first building on Fisher with interior lobbies and door men. You can now chose to have your workout in the fitness center downstairs from your unit, or take your golf cart to do it at the Fisher Island Club. You can have your morning coffee at the aperitivo bar, or again, take that golf cart to the club. Other amenities include private massage rooms, a beauty salon, a children’s playroom, poolside cabanas for purchase, a business center, and a movie theater.

Largely completed, Del Sol is currently fitting out two model units which are expected to be completed by August. Next door, the building’s twin, construction of Palazzo Del Luna is underway. The foundation, with an underground garage like Del Sol’s, is complete, and vertical construction is beginning. The first crane to be put in place is easily visible from the MacArthur Causeway.

Palazzo Del Sol is being exclusively sold by broker Dora Puig’s Luxe Living Realty, which Miami Condo Investments is affiliated with.

The Design District’s Jeanne Gang Condo Tower Likely to be Replaced With Shops by Oslo Firm

Sweetbird South design by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter.

The Next Miami noticed a recent submittal to the Urban Development Review Board for a new row of shops and retail at 99 NE 39th Street in the Design District, replacing the planned condominium tower designed by starchitect Jeanne Gang. The new design, by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter of Oslo, is a two-story retail structure with just under 30,000 square feet of commercial space, and is going before the UDRB because the design will encroach into public space. Just like the old Gang project, which sadly appears to be no more, the Design District Associates (the developer) is calling the project Sweetbird South.

In Miami Transit Debate, BRT Gets The Bum Rap

BRT in Cleveland. Photo via Flickr/Wyliepoon

Trying to unsnarl hellish traffic in South Miami-Dade, as well as the rest of the county, almost nobody wants buses, reports the Miami Herald. Yet, according to its advocates Bus Rapid Transit is a viable and much less expensive alternative if done right. And the South Dade Busway, which is the closest Dade County gets to Bus Rapid Transit, is seriously not done right. The New Tropic has a nice summary of what constitutes good BRT, but think of things like dedicated bus lanes, right of way for buses so they don’t have to stop at traffic lights, raised ‘stations’ for quicker embarking and debarking, prepaid fares, and other ways to make the bus experience more efficient, and well, more ‘rail-like.’

County transit planners are trying to upgrade the South Dade Busway to true BRT, but encountering major opposition from practically everyone down there, a population that feels burned by broken promises for rail. “Unless you’re talking about light rail, don’t bother coming to South Dade talking about bigger buses,” said Kionne McGhee, the state representative who led the charge against the county bus improvements. “There’s not a single pastor, a single mayor, a single city council member who is asking for bus. They’re all asking for rail.” And they don’t want a single thing built for BRT that cannot be reused for light rail in the future.

Have you taken true BRT somewhere? What did you think of it? Would it work for Miami? Leave your replies in the comments below.

AirBnB is Killing it in Miami Despite Patchy Legal Landscape

A Miami AirBnB

Miami is AirBnB’s fifth largest market in the U.S. The short-term home rental app is killing it down here, where hundreds, possibly thousands of small South Beach apartments are rented out on a nightly basis to tourists from across the world. It’s not just the beach that’s raking in the dollars though. “Miami is one of our largest U.S. markets and certainly a broader part of our strategy,” Christopher Nully, a spokesperson for Airbnb, told The Real Deal, which took a deeper look into the future of the company’s presence in Miami. “We really see increased growth in the market, but not just along the beach.” And this is all happening despite a patchy legal landscape, where short term rentals are allowed to varying degrees in various South Florida municipalities, and enforcement is highly uneven.

So, is the AirBnB landscape really as much like the Wild West as it sounds? Well, kind of yeah. It’s a system so unstreamlined that “I’m not sure anyone knows how to deal with it,” said Joe Hernandez, head of the real estate group at Weiss Serota also told Real Deal. Meanwhile, the hotel industry feels “under attack,” as Russell Galbut, partner in hotels such as the Gale, and the Shelborne, said while at a panel recently.

Babylon Apartments Demolition Blocked… For Now

Babylon Apartments. Photo by Phillip Pessar.

The City of Miami’s historic preservation board voted Tuesday evening to block demolition of the iconic Babylon Apartments on Brickell Bay Drive, which is one of architecture firm Arquitectonica’s very first buildings and one of its most iconic. Although the owner, Francisco “Paco” Martinez, who once stared in old spaghetti western movies under the name George Martin, was able to get the City of Miami to condemn the structure, the preservation board unanimously voted to consider preservation a day before Paco was to get his demolition permit. This places a 120 day moratorium on demolition, giving city staff time to further consider the historic importance of the building.

Since its age falls significantly short of the standard 50-year cutoff for historic preservation, the structure must meet a higher bar of “exceptional importance” to warrant historic designation. (It was designed in 1979 and completed in 1982) Preservationists, however, argue that is exactly what it is. “Few dispute the architectural originality of the small Brickell apartment building, distinguished by its vivid red, ziggurat-shaped face, its key role in shaping the redevelopment of Brickell as an urban residential district in the 1980s, or its role in gaining a worldwide rep for the young Arquitectonica.” writes Andres Viglucci in the Miami Herald. Meanwhile, prominent historian Arva Moore Parks calls the Babylon “truly an iconic building.” The Babylon stands among the Atlantis, the Pink House, and the Palace Condominium, as Arquitectonica’s most iconic early buildings, which themselves set the stylistic tone for Miami in the ’80s.

Did a Kaleidoscope Explode in This Modernist Condo?

Santa Maria condominiums, one of Brickell’s most stalwart high-end condo towers, is where you would be likely to find somewhat predictable interior design choices, liked overstuffed club chairs and wainscoting set off by a Dale Chihuly chandelier. Unit 1643, priced at $5.5 million, has none of those things. Instead it’s a white box condo with bold, solid colors, and geometric designs selectively streaked over walls, ceilings, and floors. The dining room comes in a black & white diamond pattern. There are yellow checkerboard-ish walls in a bathroom. The kids’ rooms are colorful, as kids’ rooms tend to be, and the kitchen is triangular. Out in the living room,  a giant circular black rug and three-piece yellow couch dominate the space, while on the balcony the ottomans are made of grass.

UberPOOL Prices Lowered Again for Urbanite Miamians

UberPOOL, the least expensive and most egalitarian version of Uber, is now up to 80% off for rides in Downtown Miami, Brickell, Miami Beach, Coconut Grove, Key Biscayne, Coral Gables, and every location within the Miami Request Zone. That means that if you live in Brickell but want to make it over to to South Beach but don’t mind sharing a car with a stranger or two you’r paying a fraction off what you had to pay before. Checking earlier today, UberPOOL was offering a ride from South Beach to Downtown for just over $2. A more recent check showed the price had risen slightly to $3-something, while an estimate for UberX (the second-least expensive version) came in at just over $7. This could be what travel pricing looks like in the brave new world, heavily based on distance and economy. When an Uber ride costs about the same as the bus, nevermind parking, is when Miami transportation rules really start to change.

UPDATE: Uber and competitor Lyft are now legal in Miami.

Map via Uber

Michael Dezer’s New Car Warehouse Says a Lot About the Relationship Between Men and Their Cars

Photo via Google Street View

They say men who buy big cars have small… feet, but how about men who have dozens and dozens? Developer Michael Dezer has purchased a warehouse at 5320 Powerline Road in Fort Lauderdale where he intends to hold some of his-ever expanding car collection. That is, after Dezer gets out the building’s current occupants, a place called ‘Dirt Cheap‘ with a picture of a chicken, out front. ‘Dirt Cheap’ is a chain of highly discounted retailers, not a chicken processing plant, so the chicken doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. However, if Dezer could (or would) leave the sign up with his fleet of cars parked around around, the self-effacing euphemism of it all would be great. Let’s hope his sense of humor is bigger than some men’s feet. The warehouse cost him $3.6 million.

Closings at Centro Begin Last Week of May/First Week of June

Centro is done. Well technically, it’s almost done. According to representatives from the sales office, the Newgard Development Group’s latest condo tower Centro, at the corner of SE 1st Street and 2nd Avenue, is expecting to begin closings the last week of May/first week of June. Presumably that will be when the project receives its Temporary Certificate of Occupancy as well. At the moment construction fencing and scaffolding are still up, but the construction cranes have been removed.

Centro was one of the earliest to herald the resurgence of Downtown Miami in this real estate cycle (after the apocalypse of 2008 that is) and was even a little controversial in the beginning because it was built without a garage. And you know how Miamians love their cars. Then during site excavation, some nincompoops saw the unearthed foundations of a hotel formerly on the site and thought they had found Roman ruins. Hopefully the project, will be as entertaining when it’s done as it was watching it get built. We’re looking forward to seeing those Yves Behar-designed interiors too.