Unit owners of the oceanfront Casablanca condo-hotel in Miami Beach are seeking a bulk buyer who could redevelop the historic structure and expand it.
Colliers was tapped to list the property at 6345 Collins Avenue unpriced, according to the brokerage’s website. The 200,000-square-foot condo building, on a nearly 2-acre site in North Beach, was built in 1948. It has about 350 residential and commercial units, according to property records.
Recognizable by its valet entrance with statues of four men partially wrapped in white towels, the building features 260 feet of ocean frontage. A team led by Colliers’ Gerard Yetming and Ken Krasnow are listing the property. Colliers did not respond to requests for comment.
Condo associations of older properties all along South Florida’s coastline are increasingly seeking to sell their buildings as development sites. That trend has accelerated in the year since the deadly Surfside condo collapse that killed 98 people, as unit owners learn they have to pay for major repairs — or they can cash out in the hot market for land.
The post-war Casablanca, designed by architect Roy France, is a contributing structure in the North Beach Resort Historic District, which protects it from demolition barring a five-sevenths vote of the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board. A buyer would be able to add additional floor area ratio (FAR) totaling about 45,000 square feet and height, pending approval from the historic preservation board, of up to 200 feet in total.
Nearby at 6701 Collins Avenue, billionaire developer and Related Companies Chairman Stephen Ross is proposing a two-tower residential and hotel complex on the oceanfront site of the historic Deauville Beach Resort, which is being demolished due to safety concerns. Because Ross is seeking an increase in FAR in the historic district, a referendum is up for voters Nov. 8.
Owners at the Casablanca include individuals and companies, property records show. Some own multiple units, like the Schecher Group, led by hospitality investor Richard Schecher, with 30 units; AJS Property Group with 14 units; and Patkra Investments, linked to Crescent Heights’ Bruce Menin and Abraham Galbut, with seven units.
Older buildings require expensive maintenance, and building departments across South Florida are keeping a closer eye on aging properties following the June 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside. Though developers have targeted condo terminations for years as a way to acquire prime waterfront real estate, unit owners in these buildings may be more amenable to selling in the wake of the collapse.
New condo legislation may also push more owners to sell. In May, the state passed legislation that eliminates the ability of associations to waive reserve requirements, institutes 30-year inspections of condo buildings three stories or taller — or 25 years if within three miles of the coast — and requires associations to conduct reserve studies with structural components.
The law also opens liability to condo boards and their members if they fail to comply.
Last year, the condo association of the Castle Beach Club at 5445 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach tapped Colliers to list their 4-acre, 570-unit development for sale, also unpriced. The property has 576 feet of beach frontage. The Related Group and 13th Floor Investments made an offer to purchase the property for $500 million, with the goal of ultimately knocking it down and building a new luxury project on the site.
A year after closing on the majority of units at 5333 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, Mast Capital and Starwood Capital Group launched sales of a planned luxury condo development for the site, called The Perigon. An affiliate of Mast Capital bought out the majority of units at the site’s existing La Costa condo building last summer. The city of Miami Beach had declared the building unsafe.