The billionaire Ansin family’s Sunbeam Properties paid $8 million to complete a bulk purchase of an aging condo complex in North Bay Village.
Sunbeam acquired the 24-unit, six-building Treasure Island Cove property at 1631 North Treasure Drive, said Andy Ansin, president and CEO. The acquisition equates to about $333,000 per condo. Treasure Island Cove was built in 1952 on a non-waterfront site.
Sunbeam plans a massive, phased mixed-use project with residential, office and hotel components on land it previously acquired. The Treasure Island Cove property could be used for a commercial component of the project, including retail or office, Ansin said.
With the condo complex, Sunbeam now owns nearly 14 acres north and south of the 79th Street Causeway, which bifurcates North Bay Village.
Samuel Heskiel and Marilina Apfelbaum of Beachfront Realty arranged the bulk condo deal with attorney Howard Friedberg. Heskiel said it took about two years to secure buy-in from all the owners and complete the sale, which closed this week. Ansin and other Sunbeam executives took over the association on Tuesday, state records show.
More developers are eyeing condo buyouts because of a lack of undeveloped land. Unit owners in older buildings are also increasingly looking to sell their condos to developers because the cost of maintaining, repairing and insuring their properties has become unsustainable. Deadlines stemming from new condo safety laws enacted after the deadly Surfside condo collapse will go into effect at the end of this year, and are expected to accelerate that trend.
Treasure Island Cove had an upcoming 70-year recertification, Ansin said. The deal marked his first condo termination, which he said was more challenging than he expected. He waited to close on the property until all the owners and tenants had moved out.
“I wanted 100 percent of the sellers to agree to the sale,” Ansin said. “I didn’t want to be pushing anyone out of their home.”
Sunbeam’s holdings include the Presidente Supermarket-anchored retail center just north of Treasure Island Cove. The firm paid $14 million for the property in late 2021 in a deal also brokered by Heskiel and Apfelbaum.
In 2022, the village commission approved a height increase that allows up to 650 feet on the north side of the causeway, where heights were previously capped at 340 feet; and up to 450 feet on the south side, where heights were previously capped at 240 feet. A zoning code overhaul two years earlier has attracted other developers to the two-island town in Biscayne Bay.
Sunbeam’s parent company, Sunbeam Television, owns WSVN-Channel 7, which will relocate to Miramar from North Bay Village.
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The first phase of Sunbeam’s project is a 250-unit condominium building with restaurants and retail space, on the waterfront across from WSVN’s property. Construction could begin next year.
Ansin has acquired a handful of homes nearby in Miami Beach’s Normandy Shores, one island away from North Bay Village. He has said he could redevelop the residential properties for executives and owners of companies that relocate or expand their firms to his North Bay Village project.