Nearly 80% Of Buyers At Reach Purchased As Investment

One year ago, we noticed a shocking yet not unexpected trend at Brickell City Centre’s Reach Tower. At that point, 277 of the building’s 390 residences had closed, and 30% of those had already come back to the market as rentals. We knew that a significant number of buyers had purchased as rental investments, but had not seen the exact figures. It was intriguing, and we have followed the numbers as the building continues to fill up.

And here we are. A year has passed and according to the tax rolls, 351 units have closed. Of those, 34 have come back to the market as resales, 191 as rentals, and 55 owners put their units up for sale and for lease. That leaves only 71 units to be used by the owners. According to the tax rolls, none of the owners had filed for the Homestead Exemption, so it appears that those 71 owners are part-time residents.

Over the coming days, we are going to be calculating the same figures for other buildings that recently opened. Do you think we will see the same trend throughout the marketplace, or is Brickell City Centre an exception?

Fun Fact Friday: Every Building Swire Builds Is Blessed By Monks… Twice

We find ourselves praising Swire Properties regularly. They move trees from their development sites to local parks rather than cutting them down, they donate money to The Underline (Miami’s answer to New York’s High Line), they spend $31 million on a climate ribbon that cools their shopping center, protects shoppers from the elements and looks really nice from every angle. Now, we also learn that each and every building that Swire Properties builds is blessed by monks at least twice.

The Hong Kong based developer has a tradition of flying monks to their build site at groundbreaking for a blessing ceremony. The ceremony is repeated once the project is complete. In 2005, Carbonell was even able to be blessed by the Dalai Lama himself! Brickell City Centre was blessed multiple times. First, there was a blessing ceremony at groundbreaking, then the East Hotel was blessed upon completion. Reach and Rise received their own completion ceremonies with the East Hotel receiving an additional blessing at this time. When the mall opened, the entire project was blessed again. Talk about counting our blessings! Here are the other buildings in the area that were built by Swire Properties:

Brickell Key One (1982)
Brickell Key Two (1991)
One Tequesta Point (1995)
Courvoisier Courts (1997)
Two Tequesta Point (1998)
Three Tequesta Point (2001)
Courts at Brickell Key (2003)
Jade Residences at Brickell Bay (2004)
Carbonell (2005)

Now that’s what we call #Blessed!!

Inside Brickell City Centre’s First Completed Condo Tower, Reach

Brickell City Centre Reach was recently completed and opened to residents, and today Miami Condo Investments got a lookie-loo inside. The building, the first of two condo towers in Phase I of Brickell City Centre, is done up to the nines, with everything super-perfect and tchochkies on every surface. Meanwhile, almost all units have sold in Reach, while there is much more availability in the not-yet-completed Rise, and prices for both are averaging about $650 per square foot. Check out the photo tour below.