Sixth new condo tower of this cycle completed in Greater Downtown Miami

The sixth new condo tower of this current South Florida real estate cycle that began in 2011 has been completed in Greater Downtown Miami.

Construction of the new 35-story Nine at Mary Brickell Village with 390 condos was completed earlier this month, clearing the way for the deeds of the first unit transactions to start being recorded beginning last Thursday, according to Miami-Dade County records. The development is located above the Publix Super Market in the 900 block of Southwest First Avenue in the Brickell Avenue Area.

To date, five new Nine at Mary Brickell Village units have transacted for a combined $3.1 million — an average price of less than $500 per square foot, according to county records.

Originally planned as the 369-unit Sky Palace at Mary Brickell Village during the last South Florida real estate cycle, the development rights for the tower were sold for $27.8 million in September 2012 by the original developer Evangeline Gouletas of Skyline Equities Realty to a Delaware corporation called MBV Owner LLC led by the San Antonio-based Lynd Co., according to Miami-Dade records.

After acquiring the site, the new development group began construction on the project that was initially announced as a rental tower to be called EnV Brickell. The new tower was to feature 21 additional units than the former Sky Palace plans for a total of 390 residences.

Nearly a year later in August 2013, the MBV Owner LLC development group dropped the rental strategy, renamed the project Nine At Mary Brickell Village, and launched presales for what would ultimately end up being the new condo tower that was completed earlier this month.

Shortly after launching presales, the Nine At Mary Brickell Village condo tower ran into a public relations issue in January 2014 when an “erroneous” social media post — that was published in several real estate blogs — claimed the project was “struggling“ to sell units and “reverting” back to being a rental tower.

In the end, the Nine at Mary Brickell Village project is one of 17 new condo towers with more than 5,300 units announced to be developed on a stretch of South Miami Avenue from 14th Street north to Fourth Street. Many of the new condo projects are attempting to capitalize on the investor enthusiasm to own near the planned $1.05 billion mixed-use Brickell City Centre project being constructed at 8th Street and South Miami Avenue, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)

Based on the latest statistics, the condo development along the South Miami Avenue corridor accounts for some 27 percent of the nearly 19,700 new units — to be located in 72 towers — slated to be developed in Greater Downtown Miami during this cycle, according to the data.

Overall, the Greater Downtown Miami market represents nearly 46 percent of the nearly 43,000 new condo units announced to be developed east of Interstate 95 in the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach since 2011, according to CraneSpotters.com.

The Nine at Mary Brickell Village is the second new condo tower to be completed in Greater Downtown Miami this year. In February, the 43-story 1100 Millecento Residences project with 382 units was completed in the 1100 block of South Miami Avenue.

Currently, 22 more new condo towers with a combined 5,700 units are under construction in Greater Downtown Miami. An additional 44 towers with nearly 12,500 units are in the development pipeline for the Greater Downtown Miami area that extends from the Julia Tuttle Causeway south to the Rickenbacker Causeway, and Biscayne Bay west to I-95.

During the last South Florida real estate cycle from 2003 to 2010, developers created more than 22,200 new condo units in Greater Downtown Miami, according to an analysis of government records.

The unanswered question going forward is whether Greater Downtown Miami — already saddled with about 15 months of condo resale supply currently on the market — has enough buyers to absorb all of the new and existing units that are available for purchase in the area during this cycle.

Peter Zalewski is a real estate columnist for The Real Deal who founded Condo Vultures LLC, a consultancy and publishing company, as well as Condo Vultures Realty LLC and CVR Realty brokerages and the Condo Ratings Agency, an analytics firm. The Condo Ratings Agency operates CraneSpotters.com, a preconstruction condo projects website, in conjunction with the Miami Association of Realtors.