Searching for land: Bruce Eichner, Two Roads vie to buy out aging Bal Harbour condo for over $100M

Carlton Terrace is an 88-unit oceanfront condo building built in 1956

10245 Collins Avenue and (clockwise from top left) Taylor Collins, Bruce Eichner, Phil Gutman and Louis Birdman (Google Maps)
10245 Collins Avenue and (clockwise from top left) Taylor Collins, Bruce Eichner, Phil Gutman and Louis Birdman (Google Maps)

Amid a scarcity of oceanfront development sites, prominent developers are vying to buy out unit owners of an aging condo building in Bal Harbour to build a luxury tower, The Real Deal has learned.

Continuum South Beach developer Bruce Eichner and Two Roads Development are each offering to buy out the owners of Carlton Terrace at 10245 Collins Avenue, with a third offer expected to come from developer Louis Birdman. Other developers, including Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group, have presented offers in the past that fell apart.

The offers for the 88-unit building built in 1956 are all expected to exceed $100 million, sources said. Zoning for the nearly 3-acre property would allow for a new residential building 275 feet tall or about 28 stories.

Eichner, founder of the New York-based Continuum Company, and Phil Gutman, president of Brown Harris Stevens Miami, have sent out contracts to the unit owners of Carlton Terrace, Gutman confirmed. West Palm Beach-based Two Roads Development is also a bidder, according to a spokesperson for the company.

Birdman, a co-developer of the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum, is expected to make an offer next week, according to Carlton Terrace’s property manager, Lynne O’Halpin. Birdman could not immediately be reached for comment.

The condo board will make a recommendation after meeting with each developer, which could happen in mid-July, O’Halpin said. Eighty percent of the unit owners would have to sign off on a buyout.

Current listings at Carlton Terrace include a three-bedroom, 1,605-square-foot condo on the market for $1.28 million; and a three-bedroom penthouse with 2,538-square-feet, asking $2.9 million.

It’s not the first time Carlton Terrace has been faced with an offer. Gutman said this marks at least the ninth takeover attempt for the building. Sources said OKO Group is among them, but the company declined to comment through a spokesperson.

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Gutman said Eichner has secured funding in case the unit owners select their offer. “I think it’s important that it should be the final go-around … because I really don’t want to see the owners go through this again,” he added.

Taylor Collins, managing partner of Two Roads, said in a statement that Carlton Terrace is “a unique property with a ton of potential.”

The property is two buildings north of Oceana Bal Harbour, a 28-story condo tower which was previously the site of the Bal Harbour Beach Club. Oceana Bal Harbour, completed in late 2016, is the newest luxury condo building to be completed in the Bal Harbour.

Each of the developers with their eyes on Carlton Terrace have a history of condo development in South Florida.

Eichner’s last project in the Miami area was Continuum, a two-tower luxury condo in South Beach, completed in 2003. Eichner said last year that he was considering working with a starchitect to develop a new Continuum condo project in Miami. Gutman worked for the Continuum Group on the Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

In Miami, Two Roads Development built Biscayne Beach and is developing Elysee Miami, both luxury condo towers in the city’s Edgewater neighborhood. Earlier this year, it launched sales of Forté, a 41-unit condo planned for West Palm Beach.

Birdman, in addition to being a co-developer of One Thousand Museum, is part of a joint venture building a mixed-use project on a 31-acre site in Hollywood.