New 18-Story Condo Tower Planned For Ocean Drive Site In South Beach

By Michael Braga, Herald-Tribune

/ Friday, July 6, 2012

A private equity group is reviving plans to construct a condo tower on the famous Ocean Drive in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach as the coastal market increasingly shows signs of recovering from the dramatic South Florida real estate crash that began in 2007, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

The proposed 120 Ocean Drive project – originally dubbed the Kallisto – is envisioned to be an 18-story condo tower with 10 units immediately north of the popular steak restaurant Prime One Twelve, according to the Preconstruction Condo Projects list from the licensed Florida brokerage CVR Realty.

The developer – a entity controlled by the Boston-based Congress Group – purchased the three-parcel site with a combined 17,250 square feet of land for $8 million in October 2005, according to Miami-Dade Property Appraiser records.

CondoVultures.com profiled South Florida new unit sales by project in the first quarter of 2012 in the seven largest coastal condo markets in the tricounty region of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

Beginning the week of April 16, 2012, the Condo Vultures Market Intelligence Report published a seven-part weekly series that analyzing new condo sales trends in Greater Downtown Miami, South Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, Hollywood / Hallandale Beach, Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Beach, Boca Raton / Deerfield Beach, and Downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island.

South Beach is a 24-block long neighborhood in the barrier island city of Miami Beach that stretches from South Pointe Drive north to 24th Street, the Atlantic Ocean west to the Venetian Islands, according to the Condo Vultures Official Condo Buyers Guide To South Beach.

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Investors Reselling Condo Units Bought During Housing Collapse

posted by Alex Ferreras

(Source: Paul Owers Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (MCT) — Bulk buyers have resold more than 60 percent of the coastal condominiums snapped up during the housing bust, according to a recent report.

The investment groups have unloaded roughly 3,200 of the 5,100 units that were in or near foreclosure, said CondoVultures.com, a Bal Harbour-based real estate consulting firm.

Many of the bulk sales occurred in Miami-Dade County. But as available properties there became scarce, the investors found deals in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The supply of available condos is shrinking quickly, prompting developers to plan thousands of new units in South Florida over the next few years.

Bulk buyers started by renting the condos but are reselling them for modest profits now that values are increasing, Zalewski said. He added that the groups are likely to keep renting some units, expecting prices to rise even more in the months ahead.

Some of the larger bulk sales involved Trump Hollywood, Las Olas by the River in Fort Lauderdale and 2700 N. Ocean Drive on Singer Island in Riviera Beach.

The 200-unit Trump Hollywood is sold out, Miami-based BH3 announced last month. The group took control of the development in late 2010 after developer Jorge Perez handed the 41-story tower back to the lender. Donald Trump still licenses his name to the building.

Lionheart Capital said last week that 2700 N. Ocean, now known as Ritz-Carlton Residences, has surpassed $100 million in sales.

Lionheart, a Miami-based private equity firm, bought 146 of the 242 oceanfront units in 2010. Prices range from the $700,000s to more than $10 million.

Sales are picking up, and buyers are discovering that they can’t wait indefinitely to decide, said Carolyn Block Ellert, a sales executive at the Ritz-Carlton Residences.

With less than a third of the units still available, “we’re well ahead of our projections,” said Ophir Sternberg, president of Lionheart.

Read full story here: http://www.loansafe.org/investors-reselling-condo-units-bought-during-housing-collapse