After 12 years without a new high-rise apartment building, the Brickell neighborhood will welcome its first in November, Solitair Brickell.
Multifamily developer Zom just launched preleasing for Solitair Brickell, a 50-story, 438-unit building at 86 Southwest Eighth Street, said Greg West, president of Zom. Residents will begin to move into the first 20 floors of the building in November, and the remaining floors will be delivered by February.
Because Solitair will still be under construction when the first phase is completed later this year, Zom is offering a discount on rents. Studio apartments will start at $1,600, one-bedrooms at $1,850 and two-bedrooms at $2,500.
When the second phase opens early next year, monthly asking rents will increase by about 16 percent for studios and one-bedrooms, up to $1,900 and $2,200, respectively. The preconstruction incentive is higher for two-bedroom apartments, with monthly rents increasing by 19 percent to $3,100. Zom just opened an off-site sales center at Mary Brickell Village.
Stantec is designing the building, which will include a pool and amenity area on the 50th floor rooftop and retail on the ground floor. The Orlando-based developer paid $16.8 million for the site in 2014 and broke ground on the project last year with a $108 million loan from JP Morgan.
Solitair is a joint venture between Zom and AIG Global Real Estate, an affiliate of the insurance provider AIG that both develops and invests in real estate. It’s one of three rental projects Zom has underway in Greater Downtown Miami, including Maizon, Avant at Met Square and Luma at Miami Worldcenter.
A number of rental projects are in the pipeline in a market that’s been dominated by condo development. “There’s more viability for rental housing than there has been before,” West said. “Regardless of their age, [renters will be] people who value pedestrian proximity to the things they do in their life.”
Solitair is across the street from Brickell City Centre, and surrounded by new development like SLS Lux and Brickell Heights.
Panorama Tower will open soon after Solitair in January, a spokesperson said, adding another 821 luxury apartments to the Brickell market. The 85-story mixed-use tower will also become the tallest residential building south of Manhattan in the U.S. Apartment rents at Panorama will start at about $2,420 a month, and to encourage residents to ditch their cars, developer Florida East Coast Realty will offer a $1,000 bonus for renters who do not require a parking space.
This year alone, nearly 13,500 new apartments will be delivered in South Florida, marking the fifth most active U.S. metro for multifamily construction, according to a recent report. During the first half of this year, the supply of new inventory outpaced demand with rents increasing at a slower pace, Berkadia reported. Landlords are also expanding average concessions on rent by 10 basis points to 0.6 percent of asking rent.