21st new SoFla condo tower completed this cycle

The 21st new condo tower to be developed in this current South Florida real estate cycle, in the area east of I-95, in the tri-county region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, has been completed.

The Related Group’s 1100 Millecento Residences, with 382 units, located in the 1100 block of South Miami Avenue in the Brickell Avenue area of Greater Downtown Miami, recorded its first transaction in the 43-story condo tower on Feb. 10, according to Miami-Dade County records.

In the first two weeks of unit closings, buyers have recorded 27 purchases for $11.8 million, equating to an average price of $459 per square foot as of Monday, according to government records.

The individual unit sales ranged in price from nearly $251,000 to more than $608,000 per unit. The price-per-square-foot range in the project varies from $367 to $565, according to the government records.

Currently, five units in the 1100 Millecento Residences are listed for sale at an average asking price of $586,000 — or $558 per square foot — as of Monday, according to the Southeast Florida MLXchange.

By comparison, more than 2,400 condo units in Greater Downtown Miami are on the resale market, at an average asking price of nearly $667,200 per unit — or $497 per square foot — as of Monday, according to the data.

In 2014, buyers purchased less than 2,000 condo units in Greater Downtown Miami, at an average transaction price of nearly $501,200 — or $403 per square foot — in an area that stretches from the Rickenbacker Causeway north to the Julia Tuttle Causeway, and Biscayne Bay west to I-95.

Based on the 2014 sales pace average of 166 transactions monthly, the Greater Downtown Miami condo market currently has about 14.5 months of inventory available for purchase from the Brickell Avenue area through the Central Business District to the Biscayne Boulevard corridor.

A balanced market is considered to have about six months of resale supply. More months of supply indicates a buyer’s market and less months suggests a seller’s market.

For the Related Group, the 1100 Millecento Residences tower is one of eight new condo towers scheduled to be completed east of I-95 in South Florida this year, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)

Besides the 1100 Millecento Residences, the Related Group plans to deliver in 2015 the:

• Baltus House with 167 units near Miami’s Morningside neighborhood;
• BeachWalk with 300 units in Hallandale Beach;
• ICON Bay with 299 units in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood;
• Marea South Beach with two towers and a combined 30 units in Miami Beach;
• One Ocean with two towers and a combined 50 units in Miami Beach.

Related’s Carlos Rosso and 1100 Millecento

Prior to the 1100 Millecento Residences project, the Related Group had already completed the Apogee Beach with 49 units in Hollywood in 2013 and the MyBrickell project with 192 units in Greater Downtown Miami in 2014.

Overall, the Related Group has announced plans to develop 40 condo towers east of I-95 from Greater Downtown Miami north to West Palm Beach during this cycle.

The Related Group’s projects represent about 21 percent of the more than 42,100 new condo units announced for South Florida during this cycle.

The unanswered question going forward is whether the South Florida condo market has enough buyers to justify the construction of all of the new high-priced towers that have been announced for the region during this real estate cycle.

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.