There are many ways to take the pulse of the Miami market, many methods of observing and appreciating and worrying about its real estate. But as developer Gil Dezer says, You haven't really seen Miami until you've seen it by boat.
So, late on a recent Saturday afternoon, obligations are ignored, schedules re-jiggered, and a sunset cruise on Miami jewelry mogul Bobby Yampolsky's 72-foot boat commences. The small group of VIP guests includes Dezer and Francois-Henry Bennahmias, president and CEO of Audemars Piguet North America.
These are men whose fortunes are dependent on selling something nobody really needs: diamond-encrusted bracelets, vacation homes and $20,000 limited-edition timepieces. And, recession or no, they are in a good mood as the boat leaves North Miami Beach. In the background, one can see Dezer's Trump Towers, a three-tower, 813-unit Sunny Isles Beach development that sold more than $150 million of condos in its second tower this year at prices around $450 per square foot, with an average transaction around $880,000. (Tower III sales started a few weeks ago.)
We were just amazed at how many people have the ability to pay cash, Dezer says a couple days after the boat ride, noting that about 80 percent of his recent transactions have been with all-cash buyers. It used to be [developers] would take 20 percent down and wait three years for the rest of the money. Now a guy walks in Monday and can close on Wednesday.
Recent price reductions have no doubt been significant. DezerÕs nearby Trump Royale condo building, which once fetched around $1,000 per square foot, is now trading oceanfront units Ñ with terraces, Miele and Sub-Zero appliances and master-suite Jacuzzi tubs Ñ at around $550 per square foot. (The Royale is where we got stuck, Dezer says, freely admitting that many buyers walked away from deals during the economic downturn. We had 364 units sold out of 384. Only 90 came to close. We have sold about 190 in the last two years.)
The boat passes Bal Harbour, where excitement about the St. Regis Bal Harbour hotel and condos, scheduled for completion in 2011, is growing. But there's already the beachfront One Bal Harbour, where condo resales are around $850 per square foot and the developer might put hotel-condo units on the market at around $1,000 per square foot next year. On the same day as the boat cruise, the hotel hosted a runway show for Kiki Hamann Canine Couture, which sells $500 dog dresses. The spending pattern [in Miami] is finally coming back, says Florent Gateau, general manager at One Bal Harbour. You see it at the Bal Harbour Shops.
By Andy Wang / New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/realestate/residential/take_dip_6isnqcIy2bnFgM0bDqhKaL
