Michael Stern Plans Miami Beach Tower on Condo Buyout Site

Michael Stern’s JDS Development Group plans to develop a luxury condo tower next to its Monad Terrace project, The Real Deal has learned.

An affiliate of JDS plans a buyout of the 238-unit Bay Garden Manor condo building at 1250 West Avenue, according to a source. The firm has started closing on units, and so far six sales have been recorded since June, ranging from $215,000 to $310,000 per unit, property records show.

The 15-story Bay Garden Manor was built in 1964 on a 1.9-acre lot, which makes it 60 years old.

Stern has secured a buy-in from nearly all of the unit owners, according to the source. Closings of the remaining units are expected next year. He plans to terminate the condo and build a new project on the bayfront property.

Stern is proposing to rezone the property to allow for more than 400 feet of height, up from the 150 feet currently allowed, as well as an increase in the floor area ratio. Both require city approvals.

Plans filed with the city show the JDS affiliate is proposing a 29-story, 100-unit luxury condo with a 180-seat restaurant. The developer would build and pay for the garage that would rise on the parcels at the southwest corner of 13th Street and West Avenue: 1247 and 1255 West Avenue, as well as 1234 13th Street.

JDS is seeking approval of legislative changes to the city’s future land use map to create an overlay district that includes the proposed garage properties in exchange for bonuses in floor area ratio and height. The bonuses would allow 7.75 FAR, which comes out to about 643,900 square feet of floor area and a building of up to 435 feet tall.

The Miami Beach Planning Board will take up the proposed plan and code amendments at its meeting on Tuesday.

JDS is working with Italian investor Gianluca Vacchi’s GV Development Group on the project.

Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design designed plans for the new project.

Condo buyouts are notoriously challenging because they typically require just over 95 percent of the unit owners’ approval. Still, developers have increasingly attempted to purchase older buildings in the three-plus years since the deadly Surfside condo collapse.

New state laws require buildings that are 25 and 30 years old, depending on the proximity to the coast, to be recertified. The condo safety laws passed after the collapse require condo buildings to fully fund their reserves and keep their buildings up to code.

Next door to Bay Garden Manor, JDS and its partners completed the Jean Nouvel-designed Monad Terrace project at 1300 Monad Terrace in 2020. The 59-unit luxury condo was also designed by Karp’s firm. JDS spent more than $50 million assembling that site, which covers the block between West Avenue and the bay.

In Brickell, JDS is working on two major condo projects: Mercedes-Benz Places and the Dolce & Gabbana-branded 888 Brickell Avenue. In April, a JDS affiliate closed on the latter development site for $61.2 million. It was previously going to be a Major Food Group tower.