Miami Beach Waterfront Homes Blog

Statistical Source: The Miami Herald 6/19/08

Everyone is well aware of Miami’s downtown building oversupply, but just how bad is it? In the last six years, 22,737 units were built or are now under construction in Miami’s urban core — more than double the number built in the nearly 40 previous years, it’s a large figure, but still less than many predicted. Perhaps no section of Florida has seen more building in recent years than downtown Miami’s urban core.

However, with the housing market turning in 2006, the credit crunch of 2007, and inexperienced developers having to cope with rising construction costs & mismanagement, many proposed projects never went beyond the planning stages. With few new projects starting in the past two years, the real scope and size of Miami’s downtown condo craze is starting to come into focus. Although the downtown market still has a vast surplus of condos- it is not 50,000 or 80,000 new units, it’s estimated that 22,000 new units. The bad news is that it is still 22,000 new units.

Downtown Miami is well known for its many high rises made up of luxury condos like 50 Biscayne, Marquis Miami, 900 Biscayne, Ten Museum Park, and Icon Brickell office buildings and a few company headquarters. While the Four Seasons Miami Hotel may be the most expensive, fanciest and the largest, it could eventually be dethroned by a building that will truly pierce the skyline if certain local developers manage to have their way.

Designed by the renowned Kobi Karp, a pair of 1,022 foot buildings soaring over ninety stories into the Miami skyline to be known as the Empire World Towers are being planned and are notable not only for their incredible height, but also for the three “sky bridges” that connect one building to the other and are likely going to be translucent, suggesting a feeling of walking on air hundreds of feet above the ground.

Although they are expected to function as a high rise condo and/or residential property, many people might look at this and wonder why anyone would find this worthwhile considering that condo sales and Miami and Miami Beach real estate has, overall, slowed.

The Empire World Towers still remain a massive work in progress and the developer doesn’t expect to finish the building at least until 2010, two years from now when most have concluded that real estate should be doing significantly better. Therefore, the Empire World Towers could potentially become a prime building for investors seeking their next residential property investment.

The project is still in its infancy and has yet to be approved by the Miami City Commission. Assuming it manages to clear all the red tape, Empire World Towers could be an integral piece towards reinforcing tourism in Miami. After all, people will definitely want to visit to see for themselves what would become the tallest building in Miami. Already located in one of South Florida’s finest urban communities, Empire World Towers has tons of potential.

Miami Beach High-Rise Luxury Residential Condos:

• Continuum South Beach
• Portofino Tower
• Icon South Beach
• Murano Grande
• Akoya Miami Beach
• Setai South Beach
• Fontainebleau II
• Green Diamond Tower
• Blue Diamond Tower

Most of these residential condos are luxury and located directly on the ocean with direct access to the beach.  Almost all of these condos new and less than ten years old.

A joint venture of New York City-based ING Clarion LLC and locally based Flagstone Property Group plans to begin construction in summer 2008 on Island Gardens. The $600-million, mixed-use project is rising on Watson Island in Biscayne Bay. The project is slated for completion in 2010.

The project, located on 10.5 acres of previously undeveloped land, will feature a 43-story building with the 150-room Shangri-La Hotel and fractional ownership homes, called the Residences at Island Gardens, atop the hotel. It will also feature a 29-story business hotel/resort and the 50-slip Super-Yacht Harbour; CHI, the Spa at Shangri-La; and 221,000 sf of retail and restaurant space. Watson Island is situated between Downtown Miami and South Beach and is accessible by automobile via MacArthur Causeway (Interstate 395, the extension of Interstate 95 to South Beach.)

Flagstone Property Group chairman and CEO Mehmet Bayraktar tells GlobeSt.com that marketing efforts for the fractional units have started with prices ranging from $175,000 to $750,000 for a one-eighth interest. Final discussions are under way with the operator of the hotel/resort in the 29-story tower (announced at Art Basel as the Shangri-La Hotel Group).

Bayraktar adds that the retail space is not within the towers, but in separate structures alongside the retail avenue that runs between the two towers. Marketing efforts for the retail and dining space have recently commenced and several letters of intent have been received from restaurateurs and retailers. The positioning of the retail will be high-end luxury goods.

The project, located within minutes of Downtown Miami and Miami Beach, will feature unobstructed views of Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline. â¬SWith its potential to transform the Miami skyline, we expect the complex to become one of the premiere leisure and hospitality addresses in the city,⬝ says ING Clarion managing director Edward Rotter, in a released statement.

The Super Yacht Harbor will be the only marina in North America to be able to accommodate mega-yachts up to 300 feet in length. A 100-foot, set-back landscaped promenade will extend along the 1,000 foot length of the sea wall. The project is being designed by London-based Eric Kuhne & Associates with interiors by Italy-based Piero Lissoni.