The Little Havana area of Miami

Ever get that sinking feeling? The residents of the Havana Palms complex in Little Havana know it all too well. Residents of the condominium development say their homes are sinking into the ground — and the city’s Department of Construction agrees.

A cave-in on Jan. 10 sent the Garcia family to a nearby rental, the Miami Herald reported. [more]

Fort Lauderdale-based Berger Commercial Realty has closed on the sale of a $1.45 million note for Waterfall Victoria Mortgage Trust, the firm announced. The mortgage was secured by 72 multi-family units in six buildings across the Little Havana section of Miami. Berger’s Judy Dolan and Steve Hyatt handled the transaction. Berger also announced the sale of a retail building at 2381-2387 NW 54th Street in Miami to Ibrahim Investment Group. — Alexander Britell

The Tower Hotel in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood has been purchased by the Miami-based Barlington Group for $1.7 million. The 50-room hotel, which hosted musicians from Billie Holiday to Louis Armstrong in its heyday, is located at 1450 SW 7th Street. “Barlington Group has been doing business in Little Havana for more than 10 years, and all along, we have had our eyes on the Tower Hotel,” said Bill Fuller, managing partner of Barlington Group. The deal was brokered by Greg Celentano of Union Street Partners, who represented Barlington and seller Loujen Realty. The company plans to redevelop the property into a boutique hotel. — Alexander Britell

Little Havana skyline

Judges are siding with landlords as Little Havana residents withhold rent in protest of poor living conditions, the Miami Herald reported. Despite holes in the walls, mold, a lack of hot water and broken stoves, tenants are being ordered to pay up or get out by Miami courts.

Under Florida law renters must either pay their landlord or a court-maintained escrow fund no matter how bad the living conditions. [more]

Marlins Park

Residents near the new Marlins stadium are furious, the Miami Herald said, because of Little Havana’s new gameday parking plan that prohibits residents from parking on some streets during the 81 times a year Miami’s Major League Baseball team steps to the plate.

People who live on those blocks will have to find parking elsewhere to accommodate baseball fans coming to watch the game. [more]

The Latin Quarter Apartments

Lloyd Berger has been appointed the receiver of a 4,000-square-foot property at 1730 SW 7th Street in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, according to Berger Commercial Realty’s Berger Special Assets division. The Latin Quarter Apartmetns property, which was built in 1950, has a total of 11 units across two buildings. “Our aim is to restore this property’s value through cost-efficient management and by maintaining its occupancy level,” Berger said. — Alexander Britell

After years of sluggish sales, Miami developer Urban All Development Group sold 65 remaining units in the San Lorenzo condominium at auction last weekend. One-bedrooms fetched a minimum of $80,000; two-bedrooms went for at least $141,750, according to Real Estate Disposition, which conducted the auction. As real estate consultancy Condo Vultures previously reported, the 10-story, 90-unit condo in the Little Havana section of Miami was completed in 2007, having sold 22 residential units for an average price of $224,000, or $329 per square foot, prior to the auction. All sales took place between August 2007 and February 2008, before stalling. The auction, with a minimum asking price of $50,500 per unit, or $63 per square foot, drew a crowd of 375 to the live auction at the Hyatt Regency Miami, in addition to those bidders who put in their offers online. All units sold in less than three hours. TRD

Beta Credit Management, the developer of the San Lorenzo condo in
Little Havana, will auction 62 units on April 10 — at a starting price
of $63 per square foot. Just three blocks from the site of the future
Florida Marlins stadium, the building’s units will have an average
asking price of $50,000. This is a steep reduction from typical closing
prices in the building, which have hovered around $220,000. Up until
now, 24 percent of the building’s units have closed. According to
research by Bal Harbour-based Condo Vultures, the average closing price
in 40 deals for more than 3,200 condos in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and
Broward counties in the last year and a half has been $242 per square
foot. TRD

Colliers Abood Wood-Fay, along with North Miami-based AmeriBid, will auction off two commercial properties March 16 at the Marriott Marquis. The FDIC Insured Bank Foreclosure Auction will put two properties on the block: the 14,000-square-foot former ‘Art Temple’ at 7141 Indian Creek Drive in Miami Beach,and a vacant land parcel at 435 SW 12th Avenue, near Little Havana. The minimum bid is $900,000 for the Miami Beach property and $350,000 for the Miami property. Colliers announced it would combine operations with FirstService in January. Colliers is set to become Colliers International April 21. TRD

New Miami mayor Tomas Regalado has called out the proponents of the new Miami Marlins retractable-roof stadium, saying the project isn’t creating the local jobs its backers promised. He asked the Miami-Dade County’s inspector general to look at the hiring practices of Sunshine Coast Management and Cove Construction, claiming they had failed to hire locally for this part of the largely publicly funded project. Regalado said September payroll records for the subcontractors indicate only 73 of their 259 workers, only 28 percent, live in Miami-Dade County. The $565 million project is intended to revitalize the Little Havana neighborhood. [Miami Today]