Girlboss: Miami Buildings Developed By Female Developers
In honor of #WCW (Woman Crush Wednesday), let’s take a look at the buildings in our area that were brought to us by women. Many people know the story of how Miami was founded by two women (Julia Tuttle and Mary Brickell), and everyone knows about the magic that Zaha Hadid is bringing to Downtown Miami with One Thousand Museum, which she designed but did not develop. What about the women who are behind the reins? Real estate development is an especially male-dominated field, so bravo to these trailblazers! Girlboss!
Lissette Calderon
Ms Calderon was born into a real estate family. Her father was a developer of small projects while she was growing up and piqued her interest after his passing when she was a teenager. While in college at the Wharton School of Business, she took a few real estate classes for fun, but didn’t plan on entering the field until later. When she ultimately returned to Miami, she landed a job under the Condo King himself, Jorge Perez.
After two years of learning the development ropes, she branched off on her own in 1999 and formed NEO. Her first building was Neo Lofts, which we don’t have featured on our website because it is west of our core service area, but is a great start to a great career. It was completed in 2004 and has 20 stories with 200 units. It is still a popular choice for those who enjoy high-rise living but don’t necessarily want to be in the densest part of the city.
Following the success of Neo Lofts, she expanded into Brickell to bring us Neo Vertika in 2006. This was an interesting addition to the neighborhood as it is the only choice for residents who enjoy living in New York style lofts. I consider New York style lofts to be those with exposed ductwork and concrete floors/ceilings. Neo Vertika has 36 floors and 443 lofts that are studios up to three bedrooms. The prices today range from $225,000 for a studio-sized one bedroom up to $375,000 for a 2 bedroom penthouse. The average sales price of closed sales this year is $317/square foot. For rentals, you could find a studio-sized one bedroom for just under $1,700/month, a duplex one bedroom for $1,850, and two bedrooms starting at $2,250/month. Another draw to this development is the popular restaurant/lounge in the waterfront retail space, American Social.
Next, Ms Calderon moved to the north side of the river and brought us Wind by Neo in 2008. Due to the unfortunate timing of the building’s opening in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis, there were financial hardships and many foreclosures associated with Wind, but it has rebounded nicely and remains a popular building today. Wind has 41 stories and 481 Miami-style lofts with a dramatic all-white-everything lobby. There are currently 57 units for sale in the building with one bedrooms starting at $245,000 and two bedrooms starting at $305,000. The average sale price per square foot is $317/square foot for sales that occurred in the first quarter of 2017. Rental prices start at $1,650 for a studio-sized one bedroom, $1,800 for a full sized one bedroom, and $2,300month for a two bedroom.
For her fourth project, Lissette had intended to build a 52 story tower with 507 units on the lot directly in between Wind and the river. The tower was named Cima, but with the market conditions the way they were, she moved on from the project. The lot was later sold to KAR Properties and will soon be developed into the ultra-luxury One River Point, which held the grand opening of their lavish sales center last month.
Lissette was also known for being a working mom. After preschool, he children would usually be found in her office, so that she could interact with them while she was working and also to teach them work ethic. A woman after my own heart! Today, she has taken her talents back to the Related Group, where she has been named the first ever female President at the company.
Evangeline Gouletas
A former First Lady of New York State, Evangeline Gouletas is just as much grand dame as she is girl boss. Hailing from Athens, Greece, she studied mathematics at Johns Hopkins and vector analysis at the Illinois Institute of Technology. While most of her development success has been in Chicago, she has made a lasting mark in Brickell as well.
In 2004, Evangeline brought us Skyline on Brickell, a 35 story waterfront tower with 360 condo units. The one bedrooms today start at $309,900, two bedrooms start at $500,000 and three bedrooms are just under $1 million. The closed sales have averaged $395/square foot over the last 4 months. For the renters out there, one bedroom units are starting at $1,900/month, two bedrooms at $2,650/month and there is one three bedroom available for $4,100/month.
While she did not follow through with developing it, I still consider her the mother of NINE at Mary Brickell Village, which was completed in 2015. She was the visionary who had the idea to purchase the air rights of Mary Brickell Village and build a tower over the shopping center. Initially, the project was to be named “Skyline at Mary Brickell Village”, but the construction lenders were having a hard time differentiating the two Skyline buildings, so she renamed it “Sky Palace at Mary Brickell Village.” Sky Palace was initially going to be a condo development and she did all of the presales before the 2008 market change. She then planned to turn the building into a rental community, but ultimately sold the air rights to the developers, who constructed the building and renamed it Nine at Mary Brickell Village due to the address being 999 SW 1st Avenue.
Today, Evangeline is in the acquisition phase of several new projects, working on the board of several nonprofits and traveling. She also participates in horseback riding, dressage, loves to go skiing and dance the tango. I have always admired her ability to combine glamorous Elizabeth Taylor-esque drama with real estate development grit.
When asked about what it is like to be a female developer in a male-dominated market, Evangeline said, “Gender does not matter in the Condominium Industry. In fact, it helps to be a female.” She continued to add that, “Men of Quality do not feel intimidated by women of equality.”
That is a wonderful outlook! We are very proud of both Lissette and Evangeline! Thank you for your contribution to our skyline!
Miami Riverfront Market Update
As promised, we’re back with another market update of one of the submarkets in Miami’s Greater Downtown area! Today, we’re going to check in at the Miami Riverfront. This is a gated enclave of 3 condo towers, Mint at Riverfront, Ivy at Riverfront and Wind by Neo. Some people also consider Neo Vertika and Latitude on the River as a part of the Riverfront since they are technically on the river, but since they are outside of the gated enclave, I’m considering them a part of West Brickell for today. The gated enclave currently has 1,517 condo units. Mint has 530 units, Ivy has 498 and Wind has 489.
Let’s start with the scary part of the update and get that out of the way. This year has brought 18 closed sales between the three buildings. While some may think that is ok for the first quarter, there are also 189 active sales listings. That is a whopping 31 month supply!
Now that we have that cat out of the bag, let’s talk about some more positive aspects of my findings. The average list price of those 189 available units was $380/square foot. The average sold price of the 18 that did find buyers was $323/square foot. Also, there are 15 units that have found buyers but are awaiting closing. The average asking price of the pending sales was $365/square foot, and we’ll learn the sold price as soon as the closings are logged.
The highest price listing in the area was Ivy’s Penthouse 5, listed for $1.8 million. While I love to look at photos of this 3 bedroom triplex with an amazing rooftop terrace, we can’t really consider it in our statistics since it is such an outlier. Aside from the penthouse, the most expensive offering in the area was Ivy at Riverfront #4009. This one is a furnished 3 bedroom that is offered for $785,000, or $472/square foot. The seller is offering seller financing and the furniture is beautiful but I imagine we’ll see this one on the market for awhile still.
The lowest priced listing is also at the Ivy. Unit 1812 is am 816 square foot 1 bedroom corner unit. It is priced at $240,000, or $295/square foot. Looking at the history of the listing, it seems the seller is playing pricing see-saw. The price has been going up and down and the listing has been on and off the market several times in the last year. I feel like that if the seller can be reasonable, this one will not stay on the market for too long (I’m not sure what’s going on with that little pricing dance they’re doing though).
For buyers looking for two bedroom plans, the lowest prices are found at Wind. Unit 2114 is listed for $305,000 ($326/square foot), but despite being officially a two bedroom, I really consider this a one bedroom plus den. The second bedroom is very small and many times is open to the living area. For a full-on two bedroom with two enclosed bedrooms, the prices start at $325,000 for Wind #2606.
Is there better news in the rental market?
Yes! Despite the press that Miami has recently received, I’m finding that the rental market is still relatively healthy. Case in point: There are currently 84 rental listings in the Miami Riverfront and the last 3 months have brought us 71 closed rentals. That gives us a very healthy rental market.
Also, I have noticed that while the prices have fallen in the area, the landlords have less need to negotiate below their asking price in order to secure a tenant. The average asking price of the 71 rented condos last quarter was $2.36/square foot. They closed at an average of $2.30/square foot. That’s not a lot of wiggle room for an opportunistic tenant who wants to take advantage of a desperate landlord. The rentals are moving and they’re moving close to the listing price.
The highest price rental was that same Ivy penthouse with the amazing terrace. They have secured a tenant for $9,000/month after listing the property for $10,000/month. Outside of penthouses and townhouses (which I also consider outliers), studios are starting at $1,650/month at Wind, one bedrooms are starting at $1,750 at Ivy and you could get a three bedroom for as much as $4,300/month at Mint. Two bedrooms start at $2,400-$2,500 in all three buildings currently. To be fair, the $1,650 studio I mentioned is listed as a one bedroom, but has no separation between the bedroom and the common area so lives more like a studio.
Overall, I am pleasantly surprised to see how the market is holding up in the Riverfront area, just as I was pleasantly surprised by how well IconBrickell is doing during their massive renovation. How do you think the trend will continue? Are there any additional metrics that you would like to see?
Wind by Neo and Latitude on the River Sue Manufacturers for Faulty Fire Sprinkler Systems – What Does This Mean?
As reported by the Miami Herald, at least two condo towers in the Brickell area have been discovered to have faulty plastic pipes in fire sprinkler systems that protect the high rise towers. Lawyers for the condominium associations at Wind by Neo and Latitude on the River (pictured above) have filed a federal lawsuit against Lubrizol, the Ohio-based sprinkler system company that installed the systems during the development phase of the buildings.
According to the lawsuit, the plastic pipes were made of CPVC and contain a resin that breaks down when combined with other common building materials. This causes leaks, cracks and a loss of pressure. Just a few months ago, residents of the Wind by Neo woke up to water pouring into their apartments, damaging several floors of the 41 story tower. More dangerous still, the subpar materials could cause the fire safety systems to not function properly in the event of a fire. According to the lawsuit, an engineer for Lubrizol warned the company of the issue after seeing damaged pipes from buildings across the country. The company officials decided at that point to not disclose the defects. Officials at Lubrizol have not yet commented on the issue.
So what happens now?
Attorneys for the building are estimating the cost of repair to be in excess of $50 million – $70 million at each building, and the issue could spread to other developments built around the same time as well. The issue could grow as large (if not larger than) the Chinese drywall issue of recent years. Remediation is lengthy, costly and complicated.
While the attorneys, condominium associations and manufacturers sort the issue out, what happens to the residents of the 943 apartments in the two towers? The Wind (located at 350 South Miami Avenue) has 489 apartments across 41 floors while Latitude on the River (located at 185 SW 7th Street) has 454 apartments across 44 floors. It has not been announced yet whether the residents will be able to remain in their homes during the remediation period, but we imagine that insurance companies would take issue with the risk.
Until the issue is resolved, lenders will not issue mortgages for apartments in the affected buildings, driving the prices down as cash-only purchases will be required. The extent of this adjustment is to be seen, since many of the resales in the area are already cash-only purchases.
At Latitude on the River, over the last 90 days, there have been 5 total closed sales with 1 being financed. The financed purchase was for a 1 bedroom apartment (Unit 1908) at $332/square foot. The average of the 4 cash purchases was $328/foot.
At Wind by Neo, there were 7 total closed sales in the same time period with only 1 being financed. The financed purchase was a 2 bedroom at $375,000 or $349/foot. It was Unit 2803. The average for the 6 other purchases that were cash came in at $341/foot.
Right now, it seems that only a small discount is rewarded to those who are buying without mortgages, but we are curious to see what will come in the future as the remediation gets underway.
Back in 2012, Latitude on the River was faced with a similar class action suit when Chinese drywall was discovered in a handful of the apartments. During that time, the market was on a steady increase after the crisis of 2008 and the building continued to increase in value along with the other properties in the neighborhood, albeit at a lower price than properties with similar layouts, views and amenities. Given that the average price per foot of resale properties over the last 3 months in Brickell is $432/foot, it seems that the trend continues.
We will continue to watch the affected buildings as more details come and will be available for anyone who would like to speak about individual scenarios.
Downtown Miami Rental Market
Below, is a spreadsheet I compiled earlier this afternoon that shows various statistics regarding the Downtown Miami condos rental market. Click on the link below the spreadsheet to view it in its entirety. I calculated the months of inventory figure by dividing total units available by the average units rented over a three month period from December 1, 2010 to February 28, 2011. You will see that Downtown Miami currently has 2.55 months of rental inventory.
Downtown Miami Rental Market as of March 15, 2011
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.
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.
New Miami Condos – Closings Rates for July 2008
The last closing rate update was published on May 28, 2008. I collected the data for this month’s update this past Sunday, July 6, 2008. This month, I also included the number of closed units below each graph in parentheses.
Below you will find the date that each condo development began closings followed by the number of closed units in each condo development:
Not much has changed with this first group of condo developments since the May update except with 50 Biscayne. It went from having around a 67% closing rate to about a 75% closing rate since the last update. However, I took a close look at the numbers and noticed that 26 of the 43 newly closed condos were deeded to TRG 50 Bisc Suites LLC. All 26 units were suite units. It appears as though The Related Group transferred these 26 units to another one of its own entities. I’m not exactly sure though. Even without these 26 units, 50 Biscayne would have had 17 newly closed units. Onyx on the Bay had 5 newly closed units.
Plaza on Brickell saw the most improvement in the group of condo developments above since the last update with a 13 point increase in closings. It now shows that 52% of the overall 1,000 units have closed. You’ll also find slight to moderate improvements in the other condo developments in this group. According to public records, Apogee South Beach now only needs 6 more condo units to close in order to reach 100%.
Marina Blue continued to show good improvement in this update with around a 14 point increase in closings. Marina Blue now has nearly 60 percent of its condos closed. Wind had an increase of around 11 points, Asia around 10 points and Avenue at Brickell slightly over 7 points.
Above is the newest batch of condo developments that recently began closings. I must say that I’m pretty impressed with 900 Biscayne Bay having 79 closed units within the past 2 months. It probably actually has 100 or more closed units by now since there can be a 2-3 week delay in the time that a condo closes and the time that the deed is recorded. It’s still too early to judge the other three condo developments in this group. The next update should shed a little more light. I did have a chance to tour Axis today for the first time. I’ll try to share some pictures with everyone towards the end of the week. By the way, I wasn’t able to find Met 1 which is why it wasn’t included in this update.
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.
