Ten Museum Park Penthouse Sells for $250 Per Square Foot
A 5 bedroom + den/6.5 bath, three-story penthouse sold for $250 per square foot at Ten Museum Park on November 6, 2009. The penthouse, with 20-foot ceilings, has 5,394 square feet of interior, 1,779 square feet of terrace and a private dipping pool on the roof. Prices have come down considerably at Ten Museum Park within the past 18 months. About a year and a half ago, a 3 bedroom/4.5 bath penthouse at Ten Museum Park sold for $622 per square foot. Although it was one of the first to be completed during this past condo boom, unsold developer inventory at Ten Museum Park still remains. I recently received an email stating the developer was looking to let all remaining lofts go for $300 per square foot. It’s going to be difficult to justify that amount when a penthouse just sold for $250 per square foot.
Drive Down Brickell Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard – Video
I must say that I’m very impressed with how far video technology has come along over the past year. Gone are the days of YouTube’s grainy video quality. YouTube now allows people to upload and view HD videos. Don’t expect the HD quality that you see on your HD TV but it’s still a big leap for Internet video.
Here are a couple of videos that I shot Friday night while driving down Brickell Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard. (It may take a while to load if you’re using a slow Internet connection). You’ll notice Icon Brickell, Epic and One Miami in the video below:
Downtown Miami has changed tremendously within the past 4-5 years. I just wanted to share a few pictures that I took earlier this week. As you can see, the construction cranes are gone from the Downtown Miami skyline.
New Downtown Miami condo developments 50 Biscayne, Vizcayne, Marina Blue, 900 Biscayne Bay, Ten Museum Park and Marquis can be seen in the pictures above and directly below. The American Airlines Arena, Bayside Marketplace and Bayfront Park appear in the picture above as well.
(Below) A look south down Biscayne Boulevard.
(Below) The view east from a Downtown Miami condo high-rise.
New Miami Condos – Closing Rates for February 2009
It’s been a few months since my last Miami condo closing rate update. The percentage of closed units for 25 major condo developments are provided below, starting with the first development to begin closings. Four condo developments have been added: Icon Brickell, Everglades on the Bay, Infinity at Brickell and Epic. You’ll find these towards the bottom of this post.
Below, you will find the date that each condo development began closings followed by the number of closed units in each condo development:
With the exception of Onyx on the Bay and 50 Biscayne, the first group above has remained unchanged. Onyx on the Bay was able to close one additional condo while 50 Biscayne was able to close two.
Quantum on the Bay and Plaza on Brickell once again were able to show a decent improvement in their closing rate. Quantum on the Bay closed an additional 14 condos while Plaza on Brickell was able to close 21. 1800 Club did not have any new closings but I did find another deed that had been recorded twice. This is the reason why the total number of closed condos in this update is one less than the total stated in the December 2008 post for 1800 Club. It needs just 7 more closed condos to hit the all-important 70 percent mark.
As a result of the 60-unit bulk sale, Marina Blue showed the most improvement of the above five condo developments since the last update. I did, however, find re-recorded deeds for Marina Blue that I had previously missed. The developer of Marina Blue has now closed around 82% of the total number of units.
In my opinion, the five condo developments above are all likely candidates for some sort of bulk deal taking place in the future. Met 1 was able to close 7 additional units, Asia 2, 900 Biscayne Bay 13, 500 Brickell 17 and Axis 8. As a result of the new Fannie Mae guidelines, it is not likely that we’ll see significant improvement in any of the condo developments that haven’t thus far reached the 70 percent mark.
Above, you’ll find the four newly added condo developments which began closings within the past 3 months. Timing could not have been worse for these four. They’re going to need to find a plethora of cash buyers who are willing to pay dated prices. Ivy at Riverfront, which began closings back in June 2008, was able to close 14 additional condos since the December 2008 update.
The bright side is that the condo construction cranes of Miami are gone. The cranes that remain are for commercial developments. Marquis and Paramount Bay, which should begin closings within the next 3 months, will be the last of the newly constructed condos to hit the market in Miami. It does appear, however, that Met 3 has begun to lay its foundation. Hopefully, the condo market will reach some sort of equilibrium by the time that development has been completed.
Disclaimer: The above closing rate information was derived from public County records. There can be a 2-3 week delay from the time that a closing occurs and the time that the closing is recorded. The information above is not deemed 100 percent accurate as a result of delays in the recording of deeds and deeds being re-recorded.
Clinique La Prairie Spa at Ten Museum Park
I had a chance on Friday to visit the long-awaited Clinique La Prairie Spa at Ten Museum Park. Clinique La Prairie is a world-renowned spa based out of Montreux, Switzerland.
Currently, the spa is doing a soft opening but I was told that it will open to the public on February 26, 2009. Here are a few pictures that I took:
The steam room
The ice room with snow falling from the ceiling.
Distressed Condos Report – New Condo Developments
The spreadsheet below reveals 13 distressed condos currently listed in the MLS which reside in developments in Miami completed within the past two years. I expect this list to grow in coming months. I plan to provide future updates with new listings as well as track the outcome of condos previously listed. 12 of the 13 condos listed below are short-sales. The foreclosure process can be quite lengthy so I don’t expect to see many distressed condos in new developments become bank owned until at least the second half of the year.
Earlier this afternoon, I confirmed with the management office of Ten Museum Park that a significant increase in the monthly homeowners association fee was approved towards the end of December. The new monthly HOA fee, which is now in effect, increased from approximately 55 cents per square foot to approximately 75 cents per square foot. This represents about a 36% increase in monthly dues for condos owners of Ten Museum Park. This is something that potential buyers need to be aware of since I found only one or two listings in the MLS that stated the correct monthly HOA fee.
With the exception of Jade, Solaris at Brickell Bay and Emerald at Brickell, which have each been burdened with a high number of foreclosures, I can’t think of another major condo development in Miami built within the past decade that has such a high HOA fee. Ten Museum Park is a boutique condo development with only 200 units, which may be where the problem lies. Most of the new condo developments in Miami have over 400 units and can divide their monthly expenses among more condo owners. While the overall monthly expenses for larger condo developments may be greater, my assumption is that the costs for condo expenses such as staff salaries, building insurance and maintenance of the condo building and amenities is proportionally much smaller.
New Miami Condos – Closing Rates for December 2008
It’s been almost three months since my last Miami condo closing rate update. The last one was published on September 22, 2008. Unfortunately, there has not been a lot of progress in closings for most of the condo developments below since that time.
Below, you will find the date that each condo development began closings followed by the number of closed units in each condo development:
Latitude on the River had three new closings since the last update, Onyx on the Bay had three new closed condos and 50 Biscayne had two. Ten Museum Park and Loft Downtown 2 were both unchanged since the last update.
Quantum on the Bay and Plaza on Brickell each had an impressive number of closings, since the last update, considering how long ago closings began. Quantum on the Bay had 28 new condo closings while Plaza on Brickell was able to close 46.
On Friday, the Miami Herald reported that the developer of 1060 Brickell is looking to sell around 60 percent of its condos in bulk. Closings at 1060 Brickell recently reached the 40 percent mark meaning that this represents the developer’s remaining inventory.
900 Biscayne Bay and Ivy have now each reached the 40 percent mark. I’m actually quite surprised that not one of the condo developments in this last group has been able to hit the 50 percent mark. Enough time has certainly gone by. To rev up sales, 500 Brickell recently held a 4-day promotion offering a free Mini Cooper with any condo purchase from the developer’s inventory.
The next update will include Icon Brickell, Everglades on the Bay (now known as Vizcayne) and Infinity at Brickell which recently began closings.
Disclaimer: The above closing rate information was derived from public County records. There can be a 2-3 week delay from the time that a closing occurs and the time that the closing is recorded.
New Miami Condos – Closing Rates for September 2008
It’s been a little over two months since my last condo closing rate update. The last one was published on July 8, 2008.
Below, you will find the date that each condo development began closings followed by the number of closed units in each condo development:
You’ll notice with this first batch that I dropped Star Lofts from the list. I noticed a lot of double entries which made it difficult to gauge the true number of closed condos. Additionally, Star Lofts on the Bay hasn’t shown much progress in a very long time. Ten Museum Park closed 11 units since the last update while 50 Biscayne’s vast improvement reflects the bulk sale that took place. The rest of the condo developments showed very little progress.
Plaza on Brickell once again showed the most improvement within this group. Its closing rate jumped about 14 points since the July update revealing a total of 660 closed condos of the overall 1,000 in the two towers. Apogee South Beach once again inched closer to hitting the 100 percent mark, with only 2 additional condos to close before reaching it. Quantum on the Bay moves into second place in this group and has now closed around 75 percent of its condos.
The big story in this group is Midtown 4. It jumped from a 19.10 percent closing rate to an 84.92 percent closing rate. A large bulk sale of over 250 condos seems to have taken place to a buyer with a second party name of “D M MIDTOWN MIA OWNER LLC”. The same buyer also closed on slightly over 50 condos at Midtown 2 on the same day. Was this simply the developer transferring units to one of its other entities or was this an outside buyer with no association to the developer? Marina Blue jumped about 10 points, settling at around 70 percent of its condos closed. Wind and Asia showed nice improvements this update with Wind increasing around 17 points and Asia about 18 points.
These last four condo developments all showed good progress since the July update. The biggest surprise to me was Ivy which closed 125 new condos since that time. I would have guessed that 500 Brickell and Axis would each have more closed sales than Ivy.
Disclaimer: The above closing rate information was derived from public County records. There can be a 2-3 week delay from the time that a closing occurs and the time that the closing is recorded.
