New 17-story condo tower approved for Hollywood Beach

A Miami-Dade county developer has obtained planning board approval to build a new 17-story luxury condo tower on a vacant site at the northern entryway to Hollywood Beach in Broward County.

The new project – dubbed the 6085 Ocean Condominium – is slated to feature 48 units ranging in size from 3,000 square feet to 6,000 square feet each with 150 parking spaces. The tower will be developed on a 1.9-acre site on the east side of State Road A1A immediately south of the Dania Beach Boulevard Causeway on the barrier island, according to Hollywood records.

The $85 million project – proposed by an Aventura-based corporation headed by Ryan Weisfisch – successfully obtained a variance from Hollywood at a Dec. 11 meeting that clears the way for the new tower to stand more than 185 feet tall, which represents a 35-foot tall increase from the height permitted under the original zoning, according to government records.

In seeking approval for the height increase, the developer contended the proposed 6085 Ocean Condominium is “consistent” with the height variances provided for the neighboring pair of 18-story Renaissance On The Ocean condo towers with a combined 206 units that each stand about 191 feet tall, according to government records.

“In addition, the variance [for the 6085 Ocean Condominium] will improve the appearance of the city by adding a unique and innovative structure to the city’s skyline,” according to the developer’s application submitted to the Hollywood planning board.

The construction schedule for the project calls for the 6085 Ocean tower to be completed this upcoming December, according to government records.

It is unclear what the minimum presale price per square foot will be for units in the project.

The planned 6085 Ocean Condominium is one of 22 new towers with more than 4,800 units announced for the Hollywood/Hallandale Beach market during this current real estate cycle that began in 2011, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)

Competition for preconstruction buyers at the 6085 Ocean Condominium could be strong given that an unrelated developer is planning a five-building project with 23 units called the Seaside Village across the street on the west side of State Road A1A in Hollywood Beach.

The minimum price for a unit in the Seaside Village is $425 per square foot, according to the CraneSpotters.com Developer Price Survey for December 2014.

The Hollywood/Hallandale Beach market is the second most active area of South Florida for preconstruction condo development east of Interstate 95. The busiest preconstruction market is Greater Downtown Miami, where more than 70 new condo towers with nearly 18,400 units have been announced as of Tuesday, according to CraneSpotters.com.

Overall, developers are planning 312 new condo towers with nearly 40,600 units east of I-95 in the tri-county South Florida region. Some 64 new condo towers with nearly 7,850 units have been proposed for Broward County.

The unanswered question going forward is whether enough buyers are interested in purchasing preconstruction units in the Hollywood/Hallandale Beach market given the growing supply of condos currently on the resale market in the area at an average asking price of about $309 per square foot as of Tuesday, according to the Southeast Florida MLXchange.

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.