A two-story retail building has been proposed in Miami’s Upper Eastside neighborhood near the Design District.
MacArthur Properties III’s rezoning proposal will go before the Miami Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board on Sept. 2. It concerns a 0.8-acre site at 3701 and 3737 Biscayne Blvd. and 306 and 316 N.E. 38th Street. It’s just off the Interstate 195 exit ramp that spills onto Biscayne Boulevard.
The Miami Design District, a luxury retail and arts area, is just to the west. This project hopes to capitalize on the retail success in the neighborhood that has seen rapid property value appreciation and rental rate increases.
Miami attorney Melissa Tapanes Llahues, who represents the developer, said the new zoning would allow a 40,000-square-foot retail building. The developer would renovate the 61-year-old building of 9,123 square feet. A small multifamily building would be demolished and about 30,877 square feet of new retail and structured parking would be constructed.
“MacArthur is seeking the rezoning due a provision in Miami 21 [city zoning code] that limits office and commercial uses to less than 25 percent of the building floor area total,” Tapanes Llahues said. “Accordingly, two stories of commercial uses would only be permitted within an eight story building, and MacArthur is proposing less.”
New York-based MacArthur Properties is owned by Anthony Contomichalos, Samuel Andrews Benner, Allia Rae Benner, Paul C. Contomichalos, and Nathalie Contomichalos.
It acquired the property in two transactions for a combined $7.25 million in 2014. Art By God, a retail gallery of animal and nature decorations, previously owned the building and got $4.25 million for it from MacArthur Properties. It moved its gallery to Wynwood.
Brian Bandell Senior ReporterSouth Florida Business Journal
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — Known for years as little more than a retirement community with a racetrack and a few pastel-hued motels that had seen better days, this small oceanfront town is not the first place that comes to mind when wealthy Brazilians and Russians seek out expensive condominiums.
But the construction boom of recent years south of here, in Miami Beach and its neighboring areas, has used up almost all the best lots. So developers are migrating north to Broward County locales like Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale that do not have as much cachet but which, because of their beachfront locations, are seen as having great upside potential. The land is cheaper, too, which makes for relatively good deals — at least for now.
“It’s very, very exciting,” said Joy F. Cooper, the mayor of Hallandale Beach, who views the luxurious residential projects here as a transformative shot in the arm. When she was elected a decade ago, Ms. Cooper said, development was “stagnant” and the median age of the city’s residents was in the 70s. Now, it’s 47.
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The Melia Costa Hollywood Beach Resort shown during construction in Hollywood.Credit Oscar Hidalgo for The New York Times
“We’ve seen a total gentrification of our community,” she said. “We took the playbook right out of Miami Beach.”
The development along this stretch of the coast includes not only residential complexes, but hotels and retail space that promise to change the face of this region.
Even as the post-recession boom in South Florida shows signs of cooling — evidently because the strong American dollar is eroding the purchasing power of foreign investors — prices in coastal Miami-Dade County remain largely stratospheric, prompting prospective buyers with somewhat less disposable income to cast their nets elsewhere.
“People who are financially comfortable should be able to get something fantastic, and it gets harder and harder in Miami,” said Ryan Weisfisch, the developer of the Oceanbleau tower in Hollywood, scheduled to open in early 2017 with 48 units starting at $1.6 million. “They’re coming here not because of the allure, but because people are priced out of Miami Beach.”
On Broward County’s 24-mile coastal strip, 83 new residential towers, with 7,901 units, have been announced or are under construction — 37 of them in the last year, according to Peter Zalewski, a real estate consultant who tracks local trends on the website CraneSpotters.com. In Fort Lauderdale alone, he said, 44 such projects are in the works, 29 more than last year.
Adding to the appeal of the new Broward developments are prices per square foot that are often half or less of what similar condominiums have been fetching in Miami Beach, Sunny Isles, Bal Harbour and other coastal communities in Miami-Dade County. Value for money, Mr. Zalewski said, is especially important for cost-conscious foreign investors who plan to rent out their units.
“These are people who previously wouldn’t have considered going to Broward County,” Mr. Zalewski said. “People are getting more comfortable with Broward than they were a few years back.”
Still, it has not necessarily been an easy sell. Crawford Sherman, the regional director for COMO Resorts and Hotels properties in Miami Beach and the Turks and Caicos Islands, and who has worked also in Paris, Hawaii and New York, notes that it usually takes a long time for a place to be known as a hot commodity.
“You can go anywhere in the world and mention Miami, Palm Beach or even Fort Lauderdale and there’s immediate recognition,” Mr. Sherman said. “I don’t think those other places have the cachet,” he went on, referring to Hallandale Beach and Hollywood, “although I’m sure the developers are hoping they do.”
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Balconies at the Regalia in Sunny Isles.Credit Oscar Hidalgo for The New York Times
Jorge Perez, South Florida’s most prolific condominium developer, is one of the optimists. “It’s exploding,” he said of the Broward coastline, which until recently had barely registered with builders who were busy cashing in on the Miami Beach rush.
Mr. Perez’s Related Group is responsible for several projects in Broward County, most of which have sold out quickly. They include the 22-story Apogee Beach in Hollywood, completed in the fall of 2013, after which Mr. Perez himself moved in; Beachwalk Resort, a 32-story condominium-and-hotel tower that opened this year on the Intracoastal Waterway in Hallandale; the Hyde Resort and Residences, which straddles the border between Hallandale and Hollywood and is set to open in late 2016; the Hyde Beach House across the street, recently announced; and, on the site of the old Ireland’s Inn motel in Fort Lauderdale, the 171-unit Auberge Beach Residences and Spa, under construction.
“If that building was in South Beach, it would probably command close to $5,000 a square foot,” said Carlos Rosso, head of the Related Group’s condominium division, referring to the Auberge. “But because it’s Fort Lauderdale, spectacular luxury units with 20-feet-deep terraces are selling for $1,100 a square foot.”
Finding oceanfront sites in South Beach — the most chic part of Miami Beach — “is close to an impossibility these days,” Mr. Rosso said during a tour of the firm’s developments in Broward. “It’s a different scene up here. It’s more quirky — you need to discover it. It’s not like South Beach, where everything is so obvious. The market will get here because there’s nothing left. Up here, you can still get a place for $600 a square foot. Buyers want access to the beach, but at a fraction of the price.”
Driving on Hallandale Beach Boulevard, the town’s main east-west thoroughfare, Mr. Rosso said, “This whole avenue is going to be developed.”
He cited a plan by the Chateau Group to build a mixed-use development on the boulevard that will include more than 140,000 square feet of retail space, almost 100,000 square feet of office space, 280 hotel rooms in a pair of eight-story buildings and 727 residential units in two 53-story residential towers.
The 22 other “major development” projects listed on the Hallandale Beach city government website include not only residential and hotel buildings but office complexes, commercial and medical buildings, a retail plaza, a new fire station and emergency operations center, and an enlarged Bluesten Park, with a new pool, baseball field and community center. In addition, retail stores, speculative office spaces and other “minor development” projects are being planned in the shadows of the larger ones, said Keven Klopp, Hallandale Beach’s director of development services.
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Similar commercial development is in sight for Hollywood, where both the Jimmy Buffett-themed Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort and the Meliá Costa Hollywood Beach Resort are expected to open this fall.
After long battles with an entrenched anti-development movement in Fort Lauderdale, city officials have in recent years managed to approve a number of projects. They include a $1 billion plan for the Galleria Mallthat includes homes, apartments, hotel rooms and a 45-story tower; the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences, a 23-story structure expected to begin construction next year; and two projects set to open in 2017 — the Paramount Fort Lauderdale Beach, a 95-residence tower, and the Gale Boutique Hotel and Residences, with 128 condominiums, 96 hotel rooms and suites and pre-construction prices from the low $400,000s to more than $1.2 million.
In Sunny Isles, just south of Hallandale Beach and the tiny waterfront community of Golden Beach, Louis R. Montello, a lawyer turned developer, was asking $45 million for the penthouse of Regalia, his newly completed, 39-unit condo tower. Over canapés and croissants at poolside, he was dismissive of all that excitement a few miles south on the shores of Miami-Dade County.
“The people who come here don’t want the chaos of South Beach,” Mr. Montello said. “The parking problems, noise, traffic — all that stuff you get with South Beach.”
304-unit development will be complete this yearFebruary 24, 2015 11:15AM
Developers of the Meliá Costa Hollywood Beach Resort in Hollywood have released new renderings of the oceanfront property now under construction. The 304-unit condo-hotel, developed by Liberty Grande, is opening in 2015 and will range from studios to one to three-bedroom apartments, according to a press release. International hotel operator Meliá Hotels will manage the resort. Units will come equipped with full kitchens and energy efficient appliances, plus flat screen TVs and an automated valet parking system. Amenities include a spa/fitness facility, five restaurants, a business center, a gourmet coffee shop and a rooftop infinity pool (with a bar and grill). The development offers views of the Atlantic Ocean and Intracoastal.— Katherine Kallergis
First-timers can be eager to jump into home ownership. But real estate experts say they see them committing the same mistakes, time and time again. Here are some of the most common ones, as identified by experts in a recent CNBC article:
1. They’re unprepared to compete against all-cash offers. Buyers need to be ready to make a quick decision if they’re housing market is heating up. Buying a home is “really like finding a job – it’s going to take a lot of time to prepare,” says Cara Pierce, a certified housing counselor with ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions. “That way, when the deal comes along, you’re ready to pounce on it.” Housing experts say buyers should have already saved as much as possible for a downpayment, repaired any credit report blemishes, and gotten preapproved for a loan as they start their house hunt to put them in a better position to compete.
2. They place a car ahead of the home.Lenders are going to scrutinize applicants’ debt-to-income ratio when assessing how well they can afford a mortgage payment. Consumers’ debt has gone on average from $40,000 in 2010 to $51,000 today, according to David Norris, president and COO of loanDepot, a non-bank mortgage lender. "It would be much easier to own a home if you can show a history of saving and not have gotten yourself into too much debt," Norris told CNBC.
3. They place too much emphasis on online loan information.Online sites can be good for finding out general information about loan products and estimated costs, but experts recommend visiting with mortgage lenders face-to-face to help demystify some of the process and to take into account your specific situation. Go to different places and talk to loan officers to get a feel for what the differences are between similar types of loans," says Pierce. "Sometimes a company won't charge an origination fee, but then the interest rate is higher … and in some cases you can put many of the upfront costs—closing costs, title insurance—into the loan, which makes your balance larger."
4. They bank too much on online home values. Some real estate websites are giving buyers a false sense of home values, the CNBC article notes. "If a buyer believes that the actual value of the property is $1.1 million [as listed online] when it's really $1.3 million, it's a real disservice to the client,” says John Barrentine, co-founder and CEO of RED Real Estate Group. “You really should [spend time] with someone that understands the market, someone who's there day in and day out." Home buyers can get the best feel of the market by working with a real estate agent and driving around neighborhoods and get a sense of things about homes that may be less valuable or even more valuable than perceived online.
5. They forgo the home inspection.About 10 percent of homes recently purchased weren’t inspected by a home inspector, according to Bill Loden, president of the American Society of Home Inspectors. Some buyers were trying to cut down on the costs of hiring an inspector to investigate a home – which usually averages about $450 — but defects uncovered later could potentially result in the loss of thousands of dollars. "It takes a trained eye to be able to see the problems that can exist in a home," Loden said. "The inspection can also give the first-time buyer a bit of a schooling on the house and how to maintain it." Buyers should also be prepared to ask questions about conditions that are common to specific areas, such as radon in Midwest; sewers in California; and active clay soils in Dallas that can lead to foundation issues, the CNBC article notes. The home may require additional inspection from a specialist to rule out potential problems.
Demolition of the long-vacant Millennium Mall in Hollywood is underway, paving the way for a new Walmart Supercenter slated to open in 2015.
About 80,000 cars travel daily past a growing pile of rubble that holds hope for reviving a desolate section of Hollywood.
The debris used to be the Hollywood Fashion Center, one of Florida's first indoor malls when it opened in 1972 at Hollywood Boulevard and U.S. 441. Most recently, it was The Millennium Hollywood's City Place, an indoor flea market. The property has been vacant for nearly a decade.
Now, Dacar Management, a real estate company based in Dania Beach, is demolishing the landmark mall to make way for a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Wal-Mart, along with TD Bank, Pollo Tropical and Taco Bell, all have agreed to move to the corner partly occupied by a GFS Marketplace.
"For us this is a major redevelopment," said Davon Barbour, director of Hollywood's Department of Community and Economic Development. The vacant mall "has been an eyesore, a plague to the community."
It wasn't always that way.
Hollywood Fashion Center once was a bustling shopping destination and one of the city's largest employers, anchored by retailers such as JCPenney and Burdines. But the mall closed after 21 years when its major tenants packed up to go six miles west to a more attractive, just-built shopping center: Pembroke Lakes Mall.
The flea market was the property's "last hurrah," Barbour said. It closed in 2005 for lack of vendors.
Wal-Mart's arrival heralds a rebirth for an important corridor leading to the heart of Hollywood and the beach, Barbour said. The retailer will bring about 300 jobs and generate an unspecified amount of tax revenue for the city.
Barbour also believes Wal-Mart's presence will bring more businesses.
"It's important to have a global retailer move into our community," Barbour said. "It signals confidence in the marketplace and attracts other national tenants."
The 180,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter and pharmacy will sell groceries, clothes, household items and other general merchandise. Wal-Mart will occupy about half of what will be called "The Place at Hollywood." Other parcels will be built for surrounding stores and restaurants.
Dacar Management bought the property about four years ago for $15.8 million, said Alberto Micha, a firm representative.
"Wal-Mart will bring a lot of life into the area," Micha said, adding that at least 165,000 people live within three miles of the development. "We're sure that this will not only be a good investment but a good service to the community. We'll change the face of that area."
Dacar owns several other retail centers in South Florida, including a shopping center on U.S. 441 across the street from the Wal-Mart site. Micha said Dacar also plans to upgrade that plaza.
Mercedes Ramos, 77, rides the bus for about five minutes to get to a thrift store across the street from the new development. She's happy she will soon have a Wal-Mart nearby as an option. Every now and then, the Hollywood resident takes the bus to a Wal-Mart in Hallandale Beach.
"I hope it lasts," Ramos said of the upcoming shopping center.
The owner of a subs restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard also hopes the new development is successful.
"Look at it now," said Don Drybread, owner of Sub Center, pointing to demolition debris across the street. "It's empty, terrible, ugly. People don't want an area that's depressed. They want an area that's happening.
"Hopefully this will give me exposure, no one wants to be on a block where you are the only business."
WASHINGTON (February 26, 2014) –
The following is a statement by National Association of Realtors® President Steve Brown:
“NAR supports reforms that promote economic growth, but we strongly oppose severely altering the rules that govern ownership and investment in real estate. Real estate powers almost one-fifth of the U.S. economy, employs more than 17 million Americans, and contributes a quarter of all federal and state tax revenue and as much as 70 percent of local taxes.
“We are extremely disappointed with several of the provisions contained in U.S. House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp’s tax reform draft released today, namely proposed limits on the mortgage interest deduction and capital gains, and the repeal of deductions for state and local property taxes. These proposed changes to the taxation of real estate will impact every single American, either directly or indirectly.
“NAR will carefully analyze the details of the Chairman’s plan so we can best educate Congress and the public about how this plan would impact the owners, consumers, and producers of both residential and commercial real estate.”
The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.
