South Beach Condo Tower OKs $27M Special Assessment

Condo owners at a luxury high-rise in South Beach are on the hook for a $27.2 million special assessment for repairs and renovations, two years after passing a roughly $30 million payment, The Real Deal has learned.

Condo associations across South Florida are grappling with the high cost of repairing and maintaining their communities. Some have doubled their monthly maintenance fees or passed multimillion-dollar assessments.

The Murano at Portofino condo association voted in early December to approve the $27.2 million in costs as part of the second phase of their planned renovations and repairs. Condo board president John Caprio said the assessment received more than 60 percent of the vote from the 135 unit owners who voted.

Murano at Portofino, a 37-story, 189-unit tower at 1000 South Pointe Drive in Miami Beach, was built in 2002 by Thomas Kramer’s Portofino Group and the Pérez family’s Related Group.

Phase two of the special assessments includes a $17.6 million pool deck project, $2.9 million elevator modernization, $2.9 million renovation of the entrance and lobby, and $1.5 million in Structural Integrity Reserve Study funding (SIRS), according to a copy of the December meeting agenda.

The latter, SIRS, is part of the condo safety legislation that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law after the deadly condo collapse in Surfside in 2021. The law requires that condo and co-op associations that existed on or before July 2022 complete a SIRS study by the end of this year for any building that’s three or more stories tall. The study can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the complexity of the property.

Any budget adopted on Jan. 1, 2025 or later must fund the SIRS reserves.

Laws passed in the last two years also require milestone inspections for condo and co-op buildings that are at least 25 to 30 years of age, depending on their proximity to the coast.

Unit owners’ cost for Murano at Portofino’s second phase will range from about $66,000 to $322,000 for a penthouse owner. Four units in the building are for sale, ranging from $2.7 million to $8.9 million, the latter of which is under contract, according to Zillow.

Construction work at Murano at Portofino has been underway for years.

“If you look at our building it looks like every corner is being attacked at the same time,” Caprio said.

In 2022, the association embarked on a large facade restoration and renovation that included work to the stucco, balconies, waterproofing and water intrusion, as well as non-essential upgrades like renovating the beach club.

Caprio said the assessments “are on par with other luxury projects,” in the area, including Portofino Tower and at the Continuum South Beach.

Unit owners are typically held to a schedule of payments. Caprio said the association collected a third of the first assessment up front and amortized the remaining two payments over two years. The association already has some funds to begin the second phase; work could start in the first quarter of next year.

Owners will have to pay a quarter of the second assessment up front. The remainder will be owed over the following 18 months with a balloon payment at the end.

That’s on top of monthly dues. At Murano at Portofino, the owner of a 3,365-square-foot, three-bedroom condo, on the market for $7.5 million, is required to pay regular dues totaling just over $3,400 a month, according to the listing.