First new Wynwood condo project completed this cycle

The first of what boosters envision will ultimately be a series of new condo towers in the rapidly emerging Wynwood Arts District neighborhood of Greater Downtown Miami has been completed since this South Florida real estate cycle began in 2011.

Developed by Wynwood 250 LLC with David Polinsky and Bradley Carlson, the new 250 Wynwood condo project is a six-story building with 11 residential units located in the 200 block of Northwest 24th Street in the Biscayne Boulevard Corridor of Greater Downtown Miami, according to Miami-Dade County and Florida Division of Corporations records.   

Buyers have purchased two units in the 250 Wynwood project for nearly a combined $1.8 million, or an average price of $535 per square foot, since the first transaction was recorded on Oct. 7, according to government records.

The individual sales have been recorded at $680,000 for an average of $461 per square foot for unit 2C and nearly $1.1 million for an average of $595 per square foot for unit PH B, according to government records.

As of Monday, no condo units in the new 250 Wynwood project are on the resale market, according to data from the Southeast Florida MLXchange.

The 250 Wynwood project is one of 71 new condo towers with more than 21,400 units announced for Greater Downtown Miami during this real estate cycle, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)

In Greater Downtown Miami, developers have now completed eight new condo buildings with more than 1,900 units and are currently constructing 22 more condo towers with nearly 6,200 units as of Monday.

An additional 41 new condo towers with nearly 13,400 units are currently in the planning or presale phase of development in Greater Downtown Miami, according to the data.

Overall in South Florida, developers have now completed 44 new condo buildings — including the 250 Wynwood project — with more than 3,675 units located east of I-95 in the tri-county region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. The new South Florida condos completed to date represent more than 8 percent of the nearly 45,250 units announced for the tri-county region during this cycle.

At least 117 new condo buildings with more than 11,525 units — nearly 26 percent of the overall South Florida total — are currently under construction.  

An additional 213 new condo buildings with more than 30,000 units — about 66 percent of the overall total announced for this cycle — are currently in the planning or presale phase of development in South Florida, according to the data.

In the Greater Downtown Miami, the 250 Wynwood project is considered by some industry watchers to be the first of what could be a wave of new residential projects in an area that is rapidly transitioning from a center for “manufacturing and logistics companies” to an international destination for “art, fashion, innovation, and creative enterprise.”

To bolster an environment for artists, startup tech companies and independent businesses that cater to the area’s creative side, the Miami Planning and Zoning Department is working with the Wynwood Business Improvement District community association to create the city’s first Neighborhood Revitalization District within an area that generally stretches from North 29th Street south to 20th Street, and the FEC rail corridor west to Interstate 95.

The creation of such a designation would “establish a series of protective regulations to guide the transition from an industrial district into a diverse, mixed-use area to include industrial, retail and residential components,” according to the city of Miami website.

In addition to promoting open spaces, public parks and civic spaces, zoning plans call for encouraging developers to build mixed-use projects that promote “small studio apartments” that are smaller than 650 square feet in size and utilize centralized parking in hopes of creating an environment to “enhance” the “pedestrian experience.”

As part of the initiative, the development density in the Wynwood Arts District could jump to as much as 150 units per acre of developable land from as little as 36 units today. Added to this, developers would have an option to pay a fee into a “fund” to build “centralized parking” instead of constructing reserved parking spaces for each unit in a project, according to the city website.  

To date, the Wynwood Arts District is an area with few condo units available for purchase.

Currently, only one condo unit is on the resale market at an asking price of $420 per square foot in the Wynwood Arts District, according to the Southeast Florida MLXchange.

In the first nine months of this year, three condo units have sold on the resale market in the Wynwood Arts District for an average price of $267 per square foot, according to the data.  

The unanswered question going forward is whether the current South Florida real estate cycle that began four years ago will last long enough for developers in the Wynwood Arts District to capitalize on the anticipated zoning changes in the immediately future.  

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.