Transactions are underway at the 37th new condo tower to be completed in coastal South Florida since this current real estate cycle began in 2011.
Deeds started to be recorded on Aug. 10 for units in the newly constructed Mansions at Acqualina oceanfront project — officially known as the 17749 Collins Avenue condominium — in the barrier island city of Sunny Isles Beach in Northeast Miami-Dade County, according to Miami-Dade County records.
To date, three new units in the 47-story Mansions at Acqualina project with 86 condos have transacted for a combined price of nearly $16.2 million as of Monday, according to government records. Fourteen of the units are to designated to be “utilized as a single facility.”
It is impossible at this time to determine the average price per square foot for the developer sales, as the square footages for the newly sold units have not been recorded in the project’s Declaration of Condominium or posted as of yet on the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser website.
Currently, two units in the Mansions at Acqualina project are listed for sale on the Southeast Florida MLXchange at an average asking price of $1,915 per square foot as of Tuesday.
An additional seven units in the Mansions at Acqualina project are currently under contract at an average asking price of $2,327 per square foot, according to the data.
Developed by a Delaware corporation led by brothers Jules and Eddie Trump, the Mansions at Acqualina tower garnered national headlines in February 2013 when the project secured $160 million in construction financing in what, at the time, marked the largest loan for a new condo project in the tri-county region since the South Florida real estate crash of 2007.
More than a year later in April 2014, the project made additional headlines when news was announced that the project’s developer had “found a buyer” for a penthouse unit that was being marketed with an asking price of $55 million.
The Mansions at Acqualina is the second of three contiguous oceanfront condo projects marketed under the brand name of Acqualina to be developed or announced by the Trump family — no relation to Donald — in the 17800 block vicinity of Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach.
In 2006, the 50-story Acqualina Ocean Residences & Resort with a combined 247 condo and hotel units was developed at 17885 Collins Avenue, according to government records.
Earlier this year in February, presales began for the planned Estates at Acqualina project that is slated to feature a pair of 50-story condo towers with a combined 250 units at 17901 Collins Avenue.
In Sunny Isles Beach, developers have announced 20 new condo towers with nearly 2,650 units since this current real estate cycle began, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)
A pair of new condo projects — the Mansions at Acqualina and the 44-story Regalia with 39 units — have been completed and eight more towers with a combined 1,023 units are currently under construction in Sunny Isles Beach as of Monday.
An additional 10 new towers with 1,500 units are currently in the planning or presale phase of development in Sunny Isles Beach.
Based on new units announced, Sunny Isles Beach is the fourth most active area east of I-95 in the tri-county South Florida region behind the markets of Greater Downtown Miami, Hollywood/Hallandale Beach, and Downtown Fort Lauderdale and Beach, according to CraneSpotters.com.
Overall in South Florida, developers have now completed 37 new condo buildings — including the Mansions At Acqualina project — with more than 3,325 units located east of I-95. The new South Florida condos completed to date represent nearly 8 percent of the more than 43,750 units announced for the tri-county region during this cycle.
At least 114 new condo buildings with nearly 11,250 units — about 26 percent of the overall South Florida total – are currently under construction.
An additional 218 new condo buildings with nearly 29,200 units — nearly 67 percent of the overall total announced this cycle — are currently in the planning or presale phase of development in South Florida, according to the data.
The unanswered question going forward is whether the city of Sunny Isles Beach, with an estimated population of less than 22,000 people, can attract enough buyers in this time of a strengthening U.S. dollar and rising South Florida real estate in to absorb all of the preconstruction units as well as the more than 900 existing units that are currently being marketed for purchase.
Peter Zalewski is a real estate columnist for The Real Deal who founded Condo Vultures LLC, a consultancy and publishing company, as well as Condo Vultures Realty LLC and CVR Realty brokerages and the Condo Ratings Agency, an analytics firm. The Condo Ratings Agency operates CraneSpotters.com, a preconstruction condo projects website, in conjunction with the Miami Association of Realtors.