Disney Fund Plans New Waterfront Condo Project In Miami Beach

A development group with ties to the Disney family is proposing a new waterfront condo project in Miami Beach, and in the process has boosted the total number of planned towers to 79 in South Florida since the region's real estate crash began in 2007, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com. 

With the newly announced 115-unit Peloro Miami Beach project, more than 11,250 condo units have now been proposed for the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties as of Oct. 24, 2012, according to the Preconstruction Condo Projects list compiled by the licensed Florida brokerage CVR Realty™.

Some five years after the South Florida condo market began to stall, one new tower has already been completed in the tricounty region and 12 other highrises - Aventura's Bellini At Williams Island; Greater Downtown Miami's 1100 Millecento Residences, Brickell Citicentre (two towers), BrickellHouse, and MyBrickell projects; Hollywood's Apogee Beach; Key Biscayne's Oceana (two towers); Palm Beach County's 4001 North Ocean project; and Sunny Isles Beach's Mansions At Acqualina and Regalia - are under construction as the post-crash development era gains momentum, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report. 

CondoVultures.com is scheduled to profile condo trends in the third quarter of 2012 in the seven largest coastal condo markets in South Florida.   

Beginning the week of Oct. 15, 2012, the Condo Vultures® Market Intelligence Report™ plans to publish a seven-part series analyzing new condo sales trends in Greater Downtown Miami, South Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, Hollywood / Hallandale Beach, Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Beach, Boca Raton / Deerfield Beach, and Downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island.  

In Miami Beach, the proposed seven-story Peloro project is slated to be developed on vacant site - originally designed to be the Regatta 2 during the last South Florida condo boom - fronting the Intracoastal Waterway in the 6600 block of Indian Creek Drive in the neighborhood of North Beach, according to marketing materials. 

Plans call for the units to range in size from less than 650 square feet to nearly 2,300 square feet with initial prices starting at $410 per square foot, according to marketing materials obtained by CVR Realty™.   

The developer - SMG - is comprised of partners that include an "investment vehicle for the Roy E. Disney Family," according to marketing materials. 

As is the plan with the Peloro Miami Beach, a majority of the newly proposed South Florida condo units are not expected to be completed until 2014 when the unsold developer inventory from South Florida's last real estate boom and bust is projected to be sold. 

Fueled by investors primarily from overseas, less than 3,400 new condo units remain unsold from a supply of nearly 49,000 units created since 2003 in South Florida’s seven largest coastal markets of Greater Downtown Miami, South Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, Hollywood / Hallandale Beach, Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Beach, Boca Raton / Deerfield Beach, and Downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island as of June 30, 2012, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report.  

It is unclear how many of the other proposed towers could get built in the short term as construction financing is challenging - and expensive - to secure, industry watchers said.  

To overcome the obvious financing hurdle, most of the newly proposed projects are requiring prospective buyers to commit to deposits - to be paid in phases - of as much as 80 percent of the preconstruction contract price, industry watchers said.

During the most recent South Florida condo boom, preconstruction buyers were generally asked for deposits of about 20 percent, industry watchers said.