A new Sunny Isles Beach condo project could to be in the works for an oceanfront site where an existing two-building condominium complex was just terminated.
At a time when 14 new condo towers have been announced for Sunny Isles, the president of the Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort Condominium Association signed paperwork terminating the 32-year-old timeshare condo project at 17901 Collins Avenue effective as of June 16, according to Miami-Dade County records. The termination clears the way for the existing Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort condo complex, comprised of a pair of mid-rise buildings with 152 residential units, five commercial units and a parking lot on the west side of Collins Avenue, to be sold at an auction to a winning bidder.
With the recovery of the South Florida real estate market, the new owner of the Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort project will almost assuredly consider replacing the existing five and six-story buildings on the site with at least one new high-rise condo tower.
Under the “Plan Of Termination” filed with the county, a Delaware-based entity called GSF Acquisition LLC and its affiliates, which collectively own at least 80 percent of the voting interests in the Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort, “executed” the legal process to formally disband the association.
As part of the termination process, GSF Acquisition entered into an “agreement of sale and purchase” with the Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort Association to acquire the complex for an unannounced price “immediately after the termination of the condominium.”
GSF Acquisition is reportedly an entity managed by attorney Brian T. Degnan of the Aventura-based condo development company Trump Group, which purchased 134 units in the Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort for $28.3 million in January, according to the South Florida Business Journal. The Trump Group – founded by brothers Jules and Edmond – developed many of the condo towers on Williams Island in Aventura across the Intracoastal Waterway to the west of Sunny Isles Beach.
In Sunny Isles, the Trump Group developed the 50-story Acqualina Ocean Residences & Resort condo tower with 247 units at 17885 Collins Avenue in 2006. The project sold out for more than $290 million, according to government records.
The Acqualina condo tower is located immediately south of the Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort.
A second Trump Group condo project – the 46-story Mansions at Acqualina condo tower with 79 units – is under construction at 17749 Collins Avenue, just two lots south of the Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure purposes, my firm operates the website.)
A seven-bedroom penthouse with nearly 17,500 square feet in the new Mansions at Acqualina condo tower is currently on the market with an asking price of $50 million, or about $2,860 per square foot, according to the Southeast Florida MLXchange.
In terminating the Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort, the association’s board of directors has been “designated to act as the termination trustee” to sell off the project. The net proceeds from the project’s sale are to be “divided among all unit owners in proportion of their respective interests” in the resort.
To maximize the sale price for the project, the Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort condo association intends to hold an auction to determine the “prevailing bidder.”
Prospective buyers will be required to wire a $10 million deposit into an escrow account in order to bid on the project.
“The GSF [Acquisition] purchase agreement establishes a minimum sale price which will serve as the ‘reserve price’ at the auction,” according to government records.
If GSF Acquisition is the winning bidder, the existing purchase agreement would remain in place but could be “increased” to reflect the group’s final bid at the auction. If GSF Acquisition fails to win the auction, the group’s “purchase agreement shall be superseded by the purchase agreement between the association and the prevailing bidder,” according to government records.
An auction date was not set in the condo termination plan.
A Trump Group representative declined comment.
As of Monday, more than 1,800 units are proposed, planned, under construction or recently completed in this market during the latest South Florida condo construction boom, according to CraneSpotters.com.
Overall, one project was completed and six more towers are under construction in Sunny Isles. An additional three towers are planned with clearance to build and four towers are seeking approval to build in this market.
The Sunny Isles market has the fourth largest number of new units announced of any markets east of I- 95 in the tri-county South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
The unanswered question going forward is how much of a premium will the auction’s winning bidder pay for the site of the terminated Golden Strand Ocean Villa Resort, given the amount of new condo towers that are currently proposed for Sunny Isles.
Peter Zalewski is 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.