First new Bay Harbor Islands condo project completed

The first of 25 new condo buildings announced for the barrier island town of Bay Harbor Islands — which has a population of less than 5,900 people in Northeast Miami-Dade County — has been completed since this current South Florida real estate cycle began in 2011.

The first transaction at the new Club At Bay Harbor project, which is officially known as the Bay Harbor Club Condominium, with 42 units in the 1000 block of 92nd Street, was recorded at a price of nearly $443,000, or $355 per square foot, on June 25, according to Miami-Dade County records.

The Club At Bay Harbor — developed by BH Developers LLC with Jorge Savloff and Marcelo Tenenbaum — first began construction of the nine-story building in August 2013, according to government records.

More than a year earlier in June 2012, the 0.5-acre development site for the Club At Bay Harbor project was purchased for nearly $1.6 million, according to the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser’s website.

Aside from the Club At Bay Harbor, six more condo buildings with more than 210 units are currently under construction in Bay Harbor Islands. An additional 18 new condo buildings with more than 520 units are currently in the planning or presale phase of development as of Monday, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)

Overall on the barrier island in Miami-Dade, developers have announced plans for more than 100 new condo buildings with more than 6,500 units in the municipalities of Bay Harbor Islands, Bal Harbour, Miami Beach, North Bay Village, Surfside and Sunny Isles Beach, according to the data.

In completing the Club At Bay Harbor project, developers have now constructed 32 new condo buildings with more than 2,750 units east of I-95 in the tri-county South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties since this cycle began in 2011.

An additional 111 new condo buildings with more than 11,200 units are currently under construction in South Florida, according to the data.

The new condo projects that are under construction or recently completed account for 32 percent of the more than 43,000 units announced for South Florida during this latest boom.

Currently in Bay Harbor Islands, more than 75 existing condo units are available for purchase on the resale market at an average asking price of less than $345 per square foot as of Monday, according to the Southeast Florida MLXchange.

In the first five months of 2015, buyers purchased nearly 60 existing condo units on the resale market at an average price of $260 per square foot, according to the data.

Based on the this year’s pace of condo resales, the Bay Harbor Islands area has a supply of more than seven months of existing units on the market.

A balanced market is considered to have about six months of resale supply. More months of resale supply suggests a buyer’s market, and less months of inventory indicates a seller’s market.

The unanswered question going forward is whether the town of Bay Harbor Islands has enough buyers to absorb all of the new and resale condo units that are currently available for purchase during this current South Florida real estate 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.