Developers launch Elle-branded condo tower in Miami’s Edgewater

Vertical Developments and Urban Network Capital Group are teaming up with Elle, the luxury fashion and media company, to brand a planned condo-hotel tower in Miami’s Edgewater. 

Elle Residences Miami would be built on the half-acre site at 3618 Northeast Fifth Avenue, which also fronts Northeast 36th Street and I-195. Urban Network is led by CEO Robert Thorne and Vertical is led by CEO Fernando de Nuñez y Lugones, a former development sales executive at One Sotheby’s International Realty and Fortune International Group. 

The 25-story, 180-unit tower will mark the first residential building for Elle, according to a press release. Elle has previously expanded into cafes, beauty salons, spas and hotels. 

The Edgewater development is joining dozens of other branded condo projects in the pipeline in South Florida. The project will also allow owners to rent their units out on a short-term basis — another trend that developers are seizing in Miami. 

The developers have a licensing agreement with Lagardère News, which is part of the French company Lagardère Group. Units will be priced from about $525,000, and the units will range from 450 square feet to 845 square feet, with one to two bedrooms. The building will also have a penthouse collection. Edgardo Defortuna’s Fortune Development sales is leading sales and marketing of the condos. 

In the fall, Miami-based Urban Network and Coral Gables-based Vertical Developments paid $13.5 million for the assemblage, which includes the parcels at 445 and 455 Northeast 36th Street and 3620, 3630, 3632 Northeast Fifth Avenue. 

The planned tower will include two floors of amenities with a pool, cabanas, summer kitchen and outdoor movie theater; a gym and spa; rooftop pool and lounge, according to the release. 

Behar Font & Partners is the architect, and The One Atelier is designing the interiors. 

Developers are planning more than 10,000 short-term rental-friendly condos across 31 buildings from Miami’s Coconut Grove to Hillsboro Beach in Broward County, according to ISG World’s first quarter report. That represents more than half of the total 20,613 condos that are in the works. 

The lower prices for those units, compared to traditional condo projects, is more appealing to investors who want the rental flexibility, brokers and developers say. Branded residences have even started to spread to West Palm Beach, though most developments are concentrated in Miami-Dade County.

In Edgewater, other branded projects include the planned Edition Residences, which Two Roads Development is pre-selling. That project could be in limbo due to an appeals court ruling in a lawsuit over Two Roads’ condo termination of the waterfront building where the developer acquired the majority of units. 

South Florida developers have primarily partnered with hospitality brands and luxury automakers for their condo projects, including Aston Martin, Four Seasons, Porsche Design, Mr. C, Casa Tua and others. 

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