A Broker’s View: ‘In 50 Years Of Miami Real Estate, I’ve Seen These Five Big Changes’

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For nearly five decades, Master Brokers Forum board member Donna Bloom, an agent with Douglas Elliman, had the privilege of helping people buy and sell their homes all over Miami; particularly in Miami Beach.

She witnessed extraordinary changes to the real estate market and industry during that time, often in step with the transformations of the community itself.  She describes it as a wild and fun ride.

The following are her thoughts on the five most remarkable changes she experienced along the way.

1. More Technology (But Fewer Personal Connections)

It is simply impossible to understate the impact technology has had on real estate — in ways both positive, and negative, in my opinion. When I began my career, there were no smart phones, no tablets, no fax machines, and no computers. What we did have were phones, cars, and plenty of hustle! At the time, we had to personally present offers, which meant a lot of literal “back and forth” between buyer and seller — often late at night.

Today, contracts can be completed and signed over smartphones, any time of day or night — a big change from when I made my very first sale of a house on North Bay Road, for the price of $35,000. (Really!) We didn’t have preprinted contracts, only a form that had to be filled in by a typewriter, and you had to insert all the terms yourself. I showed that house, the buyers wanted it and I completed the form — by hand — on the trunk of my car.

Back then, the mantra was “work hard!” Now, it’s “work smart!”, which technology certainly allows one to do. (This does not mean that today’s agents don’t work hard; we all definitely do, in ways that are far different than before.) But very often, that involves dealing more with machines and screens than with real, live human beings.

2. Luxury Condos… Everywhere!

It really is fascinating to see “before” and “after” photos of downtown Miami’s skyline over the past 20 years. When I got started, the only luxury condominiums could be found along a stretch of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, and it was aptly named the “Condo Canyon.” At the time, the prevailing logic was that condo buyers would only trade square footage for beautiful waterfront views. While that is largely still the case, and Miami Beach remains the epicenter of luxury condo development, the landscape for that development has extended considerably. Today, amazing new luxury condos can be found in Sunny Isles Beach, Coconut Grove, Surfside, Edgewater, Coral Gables and everywhere in between.

All these new condos have truly altered the way any successful Miami agent does their business. We have to keep up to speed on all the new projects, which developers make the best buildings, amenities, emerging neighborhoods, and especially where to find the best value for our clients. The “muscles” we agents use for buying and selling condos are very different than the ones used for selling single family homes, and they certainly get stretched and worked like never before.

3. Power Shift: From Agents To Customers

I’ll admit it: Before the internet became mainstream, real estate agents held all the cards. We had access to all the data and information, and the only means by which anyone could buy or sell their home. Good luck trying to sell your home yourself in those days — how could you possibly know how to find comparative pricing, get access to other agents and their customers, or handle the mountain of rules and paperwork involved in the process?

It all seems quaint now as today’s buyers and sellers have a world of listings, data, advice and marketing tools at their fingertips. It has become common to meet with prospective clients who are well-versed on recent “comps” and have good, strong opinions on how and where I should market their home.

Rather than resist this increase in customer savvy, veteran agents like me highlight specialized services that only we can provide: our local experience and expertise. It still means something to sellers when an agent can tell them, “I’ve already sold this house — and ten of your neighbors’ houses — over the years.”

4. More Competition

As Miami has evolved into a true world class-city since the turn of the century, more people earn their real estate license and take their shots at “the game” with each passing year. While real estate is a fantastic and rewarding career choice, the majority of new Miami agents enter the market with (and I choose my words carefully here) vastly unrealistic expectations for what it takes to do the job well, and earn a living doing so. This can make it challenging for customers to filter through the inexperienced or unqualified members of our industry, but it also emphasizes the need for the rest of us to market ourselves well and maintain good reputations. We also face increasing competition from online sources such as Zillow and for-sale-by-owner (or “FSBO”) entities.

5. Dramatic Population Swings

Political and environmental events have significantly shaped and altered Miami’s demographic identity over the past 50 years. From the mass exodus of Cuban exiles to Hurricane Andrew’s wrath to today’s surge of new residents from South America and Russia, agents like me have learned to roll with these changes accordingly. Very often, it has meant working with customers and colleagues whose first language may be different from mine, seeing the identity of an entire neighborhood change in months, and advising clients on the critical importance of insurance and shutters. Without even realizing it, experienced agents can simply get used to the idea of change itself being a constant.

With that in mind, I close with the question of what changes Miami real estate will experience over the next 50 years? What will the job of a Miami real estate agent look like in 2068? I’m really not sure, but I’ll be happy to write a follow-up column at that time.

 

Source: Miami Herald

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How Miami Ranks In Sustainability Development

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It’s time America steps up its sustainability measures around the country, and a new report shows which cities are leading the way.

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its second annual report on U.S. city sustainability, which looked at 100 of the most populated metro areas and cities around the nation to record how each city meets the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

According to Fast Company, Senior Adviser for Sustainable Development Solutions Jessica Espey noted that the data from this year’s report cannot be directly compared to last year’s. Instead, she said, this year’s data should be seen as evolving data.

“We did change quite a few indicators either due to data quality concerns, or because we found better data. To the extent that we can, we will use replicable data every year so that we can look at comparisons over time,” said Espey to Fast Company.

The report found that 62 cities are less than 50 percent of the way toward making good on 15 of the 17 SDGs that are applicable to urban areas. The No. 1 metro area, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, was only 68 percent of the way toward meeting those SDGs.

While each city varied on good and bad performances for certain indicators, there were common SDG barriers throughout the nation: poverty, racial inequality, climate interaction and failure to provide residents with healthy food.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan area ranked 58 with an index score of 46.44. The only indicator where Miami metro area had a good performance was responsible consumption and production.

The Miami metro area category did see moderate performance indicators on hunger, life on land and sustainability. The area also saw a moderate performance in gender equality, which they ranked No. 2 in overall.

However, similar to every other city on the list, the Miami metro area had poor performance on climate action. The area also needs improvement on affordable and clean energy and clean water and sanitation. By highlighting a common problem across the country, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network hopes that officials will begin to make changes to improve.

“It is hoped that the report will also enable cities to identify peers struggling with similar challenges, and help facilitate a national dialogue on how to accelerate progress,” the report states. “It also offers hope by highlighting cities that are tackling these challenges and can offer inspiration to others across the country.”

 

Source: Miami Agent Magazine

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VIDEO: Massive Miami Worldcenter Project Finally Rises Downtown

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Source: Miami Herald

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Developer Unveils Plans For $300M Hotel/Condo Tower In Downtown Miami

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Billionaire Turkish developer Bekir Okan is launching plans for a $300 million, 70-story hotel and condo tower in downtown Miami.

Okan Tower will have a 294-room Hilton-branded hotel, 236 condo-hotel units, 153 condos, 64,000 square feet of Class A office space and a restaurant on the 67th floor. Okan Group just unveiled the project at an event at its 3,000-square-foot sales gallery in Istanbul.

“We felt it would be most strategic to start there,” said Daniel de la Vega of One Sotheby’s International Realty.

The developer will officially launch sales in Miami when the sales gallery opens Thursday at 542 North Miami Avenue.

“Construction is expected to begin later this year,” de la Vega said.

One Sotheby’s will handle residential sales of the building planned for 555 North Miami Avenue. Prices will start at $318,500 and range from 447 square feet to 1,245 square feet. Jerry Sanchez is the director of sales.

“The four duplex penthouses will range from 1,872 square feet to 2,142 square feet and from $1.9 million to $2.4 million,” de la Vega said.

Okan is targeting foreign investors for the residential units, and will build the tower with its own equity.

“Despite the slowdown in luxury condo sales, I am confident the units are priced competitively,” de la Vega said

And the developer is hoping that the tower will appeal to international investors “looking for value opportunities” who are out-priced by the glut of luxury condos on the market in Miami, founder Bekir Okan wrote in an email.

Competing projects downtown include YotelPad and Smart Brickell. Aria Development is developing the Yotel-branded tower, a 31-story building planned for 227 Northeast Second Avenue with prices ranging from $260,000 to $450,000 and units averaging 580 square feet. Smart Brickell will have condos priced from the low $300,000s to about $600,000, and sizes from 558 square feet to 1,117 square feet.

Amenities at Okan Tower will include a sky pool on the 70th floor, a Hammam spa, health and fitness center, outdoor lounge, a kids’ playroom, gourmet kitchen, movie theater, wine cellar and a cigar room, according to a press release. Behar Font & Partners designed the tower.

Okan Group was founded in 1972 by Bekir Okan, who has a home in Miami, where two of his children attended college, he said. His firm owns the Istanbul-based Okan University, which opened a campus in Dania Beach in 2015, and has invested in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Okan Tower will be the first real estate development in the United States for the company.

Property records show Miami 6th Street LLC, an Okan affiliate paid $18.1 million for the 36,000-square-foot development site in Miami, near the historic Central Baptist Church in 2017.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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82-Story Mixed-Use Tower Proposed For Downtown Miami

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The owner of a downtown Miami Courtyard Marriott is proposing redeveloping the site into an 82-story mixed-use tower.

A proposal filed with the city of Miami’s Urban Development Review Board reveals AVR Realty Co.’s plans to build a 1.5-million-square-foot residential and hotel high-rise at 200 Southeast Second Avenue. The development would include 637 residential units, 266 hotel rooms, about 9,200 square feet of retail space, 553 parking spaces, and 8,600 square feet of green space. Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates is designing the project.

Rendering of 2nd on 2nd

AVR affiliate Miami Convention Hotel Corp. owns the 1.2-acre property where the 13-story, 231-key Courtyard Miami Downtown/Brickell hotel is located. The building, built in 1975, is adjacent to the Miami Tower at 100 Southeast Second Street, which sold in 2016 for $220 million. The Courtyard site is zoned T6-80-O.

Property records show the AVR affiliate refinanced the Courtyard Marriott in 2015, boosting its financing to $52 million. A year before, AVR hired CBRE to market the property as a redevelopment opportunity, but it was later taken off the market.

According to the UDRB application, the existing hotel would be knocked down. The developer is seeking five waivers, including 10 percent increases in lot coverage, maximum floorplates above the eighth story, substituting commercial loading berths for industrial loading berths, and parking on the second story.

The board will review the development on Wed., April 18. If approved, the project would add to a handful of new towers planned for that area of downtown Miami, which includes the Aston Martin Residences at 300 Biscayne Boulevard Way, Grand Station Partners’30-story project at 40 Northwest Third Street and the YotelPad development at 227 Northeast Second Street.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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Moishe Mana’s Plan For A ‘Curbless,’ Pedestrian-Friendly Flagler Street

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The proposal calls for a much more pedestrian-friendly design. The “curbless” cobblestone street would place car traffic and pedestrians at the same level, separated by bollards and landscaping

On-street parking would be mostly removed in favor of wider sidewalks, with more room for restaurant seating and other amenities.

The presentation was obtained by The Next Miami from Miami’s Downtown Development Authority. Directors voted in February to stop ongoing construction work that had been in planning since at least 2011, in order to consider implementing the new plan.

The new plan would cost an additional $6 million and 36-42 months to build. Funding for the current project comes from the city, county, DDA and stakeholders in the area, but county funding may be at risk if the project is delayed, according to Miami Today.

 

 

 

Source: The Next Miami

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Miami’s Global Reputation As A Global City Growing

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Miami has long been marked as the Gateway to Latin America. But with a revitalized urban core and a hot retail market, Miami is increasingly being seen worldwide as a global city.

Miami hit a tipping point, per se, a couple of years ago and the growth has yet to slow. With nearly 6 million residents and an economic output of more than $300 billion, Greater Miami is one of the largest economic regions in the US and the world. In fact, Miami is comparable to Singapore and Hong Kong, according to a study from the FIU-Miami Creative City Initiative.

“We already look at Miami as a major global gateway city,” Peter Muoio, chief economist at Ten-X, tells Globest.com. “It is a nexus for tourism and investment for Latin America owing to its large Hispanic population with cultural and language ties to the region. It also has major attachments to Europe, assisted by its attractive climate and beaches.”

As the study points out, Miami is the hub of the Southern Florida or So-Flo mega-region, extending to Tampa and Orlando, which houses 15 million people and produces more than $750 billion in economic output. That’s roughly the same as the Netherlands, making it one of the 20 largest national economies in the world.

With a coastal location at the southern tip of the eastern seaboard oriented toward Latin America and the Caribbean, Miami is now one of the 25 most important global cities, the report concludes. With its international airport and port, report authors say Miami is the economic and financial hub of Latin America and increasingly a gateway to Europe and the world.

“Southeast Florida’s three major airports have global connectivity, assisting in its gateway status,” Muoio says. “Interestingly, Miami can benefit from economic success in Latin America as wealth creation increases tourism and investment flows, as well as from turmoil in the region, as it offers a safe harbor.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.

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Judge Rules Miami Violated Watson Island Developer’s Lease, Could Owe Millions In Damages

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A judge has rejected the city of Miami’s attempt to evict Flagstone Island Gardens from its development site on Watson Island and declared that the city violated the company’s lease.

Flagstone Island Gardens was approved for hotels, condos, retail and a marina on Watson Island in Miami.

The ruling could allow the mega-yacht and mixed-use project to move forward while leaving the city on the hook for million of dollars in damages and attorney fees. Attorney Eugene Stearns, who represents Flagstone Island Gardens, said the developer has spent over $120 million on the project so far.

“The city’s attempt to confiscate the huge investment this family made in this property has been revoked,” Stearns said.

City Attorney Victoria Méndez said the city is evaluating whether to appeal. That decision will likely be made by the City Commission, which voted 5-0 in May 2017 to declare Flagstone Island Gardens in default on its ground lease.

The judge’s decision followed a seven-day trial that wrapped up earlier this month. Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge William Thomas ruled that Flagstone Development Corp. is in full compliance with its lease for the city-owned property. On the other hand, he said, the city breached the lease by refusing to approve routine building permits and by declaring the developer in default for no valid reason. The city’s notice of default to the developer is invalid, the judge ruled.

“The city’s breaches have directly and proximately caused damage to Flagstone in an amount to be determined after further proceedings,” Judge Thomas said.

Flagstone has continued to operate the marina because it obtained a stay of the eviction, but it was unable to move forward with development plans. The judge noted that city of Miami staff found no grounds for default before the commission acted.

“City staff concluded that Flagstone was in compliance with the agreements and this court concludes that the substantial and competent evidence supports no other conclusion,” Judge Thomas ruled.

Led by Mehmet Bayraktar, Flagstone Island Gardens LLC and Flagstone Development Corp. was selected by the city in 2002 to lease and develop a project on Watson Island, which is along the MacArthur Causeway on the way to Miami Beach. Work on the site stalled during the recession, then again when community activists opposed to the project unsuccessfully pursued lawsuits.

In 2016, Flagstone completed the Island Gardens Deep Harbour mega yacht marina with 5,000 linear feet of boat slips. It opened a restaurant, but was forced to shut it down for permitting reasons. Bayraktar planned to build two hotels, condos, retail, and restaurants, including a fish market and a harbormaster building.

The developer signed a ground lease with the city in 2016 for the retail and parking phases on 24.2 upland and submerged acres. The deadline to start construction was April 30, 2017.

A group of local activists called the Coalition Against Causeway Chaos started a campaign to block the project over traffic and height concerns, filing lawsuits and submitting numerous letters to city officials. Stearns, the attorney from Stearns Weaver Miller, said this group had major influence on both city staff and the city commission in stifling Flagstone Garden’s progress. Building permits that should have been granted were stalled, he said.

“The City Commission took the unprecedented step of stripping the Planning and Zoning Department of all its authority to act on Flagstone’s application,” Judge Thomas ruled. “As a result of CACC’s actions, all formal actions taken by the city related to the project was overly examined and overly inspected beyond the normal approval process.”

In the city’s notice of default, it claimed that Flagstone failed to start construction by the April 30, 2017 deadline. However, Judge Thomas ruled that the developer laid rebar and poured concrete to build the foundation of the fish market and harbormaster building well before that deadline.

Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, a leading opponent of Flagstone, told the Miami Herald commissioners would continue to flight.

“At the end of the day, the commission made the right decision and our case is very strong on appeal – the developer was in default and the contract was broken,” Russell said.

But Stearns said Flagstone fully intends to develop the project and he expects the city to issue a building permit. He will ask the judge to issue a restructured lease to account for the city’s default and provide new time frames for construction.

“I am enormously grateful to have been able to tell his story while having misleading political motives exposed in a forum where truth stands taller than hysterical falsehoods, Bayraktar said. “The vision we have for this project is alive and well and will prove transformational for this great city now that we will have the opportunity to finish it,”

 

Source: SFBJ

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North Miami Beach Dean’s Gold Site Will Become A Massive Mixed-Use Project

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What was once Dean’s Gold, a Miami Vice-era North Miami Beach strip club that the Miami Herald dubbed a “historical landmark,” will one day be the site of a one million-square-foot mixed used development.

CK Privé Group’s Uptown Biscayne project just received City Council approval to build a complex, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The project includes a 16-story residential tower, 35,000 square feet of offices, more than 170,000 square feet of retail spanning a grocery store, restaurant and fitness club, and more than 1,000 parking spaces — along with a pedestrian Main Street and 40,00-square-foot garden.

Arquitectonica is behind the design of the mixed-use center, which will span nearly five acres of highly visible intersections. Construction is expected to kick off this year.

 

Source: Curbed Miami

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Skyscrapers Face The Apocalypse

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On an ordinary day, George Dotzler may deal with wind speeds equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane, torrential rains akin to a monsoon and seismic shifts that feel like an earthquake. Rounding out the day could involve a heat wave and an arctic blast.

Mr. Dotzler, 58, is the director of operations for the Construction Research Laboratory, where builders, developers and architects go to test the durability and stability of glass building facades, called curtain walls. Located at what looks like an abandoned airfield in Miami, the lab has 38 sealed test chambers and all the equipment to replicate the forces of nature.

“It’s like ‘Mad Max’ here,” Dotzler said, referencing the 1979 movie’s dystopian landscape.

A mock-up of a facade at the testing lab.(Photo Credit: Scott McIntyre for The Wall Street Journal)

With skyscrapers sprouting up around the world, demand for structural testing is strong. Big-name architects are increasingly designing towers with quirky shapes, and developers must go to greater lengths to ensure that the unusual curves and crannies can withstand even the harshest conditions. While some testing is required by municipal law, most developers are going the extra mile, since they can’t afford to start mending ruptures and leaks once their buildings are up. Only three or four facilities in the U.S. have experience testing super-tall structures, Mr. Dotzler estimated.

In recent years, the company has been testing 53W53, a 1,050-foot-tall tower designed by architect Jean Nouvel that is under construction adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art in midtown Manhattan. Scheduled for completion in 2019, the 82-story building will have 145 luxury condominiums. The developers—a partnership between Houston-based Hines, Singapore-based Pontiac Land Group and Goldman Sachs —decided on a tapered structure with criss-cross structural framing on the exterior.

“Everything in this curtain wall is bespoke, custom-made for this building,” said David Penick, managing director at Hines. “Every piece of aluminum. Nothing is off the shelf.”

The developers had 6,000 panels of triple-paned glass custom-made by German manufacturer Interpane. Some were incorporated into two mock-ups, which typically include the trickiest, most vulnerable elements of the building, such as the corners, joints and vents, what Mr. Dotzler calls a “Frankenstein arrangement.”

“It’s like a doctor wanting to test a human being by putting together a mock-up with one ear, one nose and one elbow,” Dotzler said.

The mock-up went through a litany of tests. In one of the chambers, both inward and outward pressure was exerted on the glass as part of a water-infiltration test to see how much the design could sustain without cracking or leaking. The pressure was equivalent to about 77.5 mph winds.

Later, a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 aircraft engine with 13-foot propellers was positioned in front of the mock-up. Mr. Dotzler turned on the water spray rack and cranked up the speed of the generator to simulate a dynamic wind load—an effect that’s similar to a hurricane. Researchers then attached a hydraulics system to the structure of the building and shoved segments right and left in an attempt to determine whether they’d be secure in case of an earthquake or wind drift.

“Some of the pressures exerted on these facades far exceed what is likely to occur naturally,” Dotzler said. “If the facade survives these loads, it’s been well-designed and is sufficiently strong. The testing took several weeks and cost about $150,000. No major changes to the facade were made as a result.”

National Certified Testing Laboratories, based in York, Pa., tested a mock-up of an 88-story luxury condo tower scheduled for completion next year in downtown Manhattan. The building, called 125 Greenwich Street, was designed by Rafael Viñoly and features rounded corners.

Steven Della Salla, a managing partner at Bizzi & Partners Development, said his company paid about $210,000 to create the mock-up of 125 Greenwich Street, and another $163,000 for the tests themselves.

Mr. Dotzler said his company also is popular with Hollywood filmmakers, who like to shoot the facility’s post-apocalyptic aesthetic.

“We’ve hosted a couple of episodes of ‘Graceland’ and ‘Burn Notice,’ ” Dotzler said. “But we try to have them only after hours or on weekends.”

 

Source: Wall Street Journal

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