Start of a condo trend - tear older buildings and built taller?

[DCReid]

57-year-old condo could be demolished, rebuilt taller in Miami Beach -
I don't have access to the entire article, but wonder if this will start to be the trend given the Surfside tower collapse -

https://www.bizjournals.com/southflo...Pos=2#cxrecs_s

[M II A II R II K]

Or preserve old buildings and build tall condos on the same lot integrating the original old building into it.

[M II A II R II K]

.

.....

Mast Capital and Starwood Capital have filed plans to demolish and redevelop a Miami Beach condo after purchasing the majority of the units in the beachfront building.

The city’s Design Review Board will hear plans for the 2.43-acre site at 5333 Collins Ave. on Sept. 10. The La Costa, a 15-story condo with 120 units that was built in 1964, is currently on the property. The building was deemed unsafe following a recent inspection.

For years, there has been a trend of older condos in coastal areas being bought out and redeveloped with more expensive units under modern building codes. The collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside in June has accelerated this trend, as cities have cracked down on delayed repairs in older buildings.

Starting in May, a joint venture between Miami-based Mast Capital and Miami Beach-based Starwood, 5333 Collins Acquisitions LP, began acquiring 104 condos in La Costa from the individual owners. That gave it control of the condo association and the ability to terminate it, converting all units back to a single piece of property. There are no residents living there now, a spokesperson for Mast Capital has confirmed.

The developers otherwise wouldn’t comment on their project.

Their application says the new condo would total 317,918 square feet in 19 stories, with 100 units, 183 parking spaces, a pool deck, a clubhouse, and a private restaurant. It was designed by Hollywood-based ODP Architects and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture led by Rem Koolhaas in the Netherlands. Akerman attorney Neisen Kasdin represents the developers.

The developer described the building design in the application as follows:

“Rather than conceiving the building as a monolithic slab or filling the site to block the distinctive water-to-water location, a series of slender ‘towers’ are rotated to orient views away from neighbors towards the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. These “towers” are then merged and lifted into one simple and timeless form, shaped by the specifics of site. This multi-tower design and its 45-degree articulation to the water on two sides allows residents to experience unique open views of sunrise, sunset, the Miami skyline and the ocean while enjoying multiple corner exposures.”

Units would range from 711 to 4,815 square feet. There would be 10 studios, 12 one-bedroom units, 49 two-bedroom units, three three-bedroom units, and 26 four-bedroom units.

In July, 5333 Collins Acquisitions obtained a $75 million mortgage on its property from ACRC Lender LLC, in care of Ares Commercial Real Management in New York.

.....

[MonkeyRonin]

I don't know about structural issues, but where it does happen frequently it tends to be the result of zoning regulations. ie, if limited areas are zoned for high-rise and demand is sufficient, it becomes economically viable to tear down smaller towers for larger ones.

We're seeing this a lot in Toronto lately, as the high-density zoned lands have basically filled up, and it's easier to tear down an existing high-rise than it is to expand into low-density zones. Which is dumb, because that's just about the most backwards, inefficient way possible to build a city.

[Pedestrian]

San Francisco has a pretty radical example of this that has been proposed. In the city's Western Addition neighborhood there is a multi-block grouping of 2-story co-op townhomes called "Freedom West" built in the 1960s mainly for African-American residents of a huge "slum clearance" project typical of that era. It is outlined in this aerial photo:



Now the co-op owners of those homes want to build taller and denser and not, I imagine, accidentally, make a little money:

Here is what's proposed:

[dave8721]

Originally Posted by DCReid

57-year-old condo could be demolished, rebuilt taller in Miami Beach -
I don't have access to the entire article, but wonder if this will start to be the trend given the Surfside tower collapse -

https://www.bizjournals.com/southflo...Pos=2#cxrecs_s

That trend started like 10 years ago.

[mhays]

Do they need 100% yes votes by condo owners, or is there an easier metric?

If saltwater-related deterioration is a big thing, this might be a major trend.

[SFBruin]

I forgot about the density of San Francisco.

The density of that place is pretty insane.

[galleyfox]

Originally Posted by mhays

Do they need 100% yes votes by condo owners, or is there an easier metric?

If saltwater-related deterioration is a big thing, this might be a major trend.

Depends on who has enough votes to control the HOA, and municipalities will often set a required percentage to agree. It’s 85% in Chicago.

In Chicago, investors will usually purchase units in a building until they have enough that banks refuse to issue mortgages for the rest for fear of the single investor’s default. At that point, forced negotiations and buyouts begin with the remaining owners until 85% agreement is reached for a deconversion into an apartment building and sale to the investor.

Sometimes, when the condo building is in real bad shape, an HOA will vote to search for an investor to sell to. A high-rise condo is still valuable enough as apartments that an investor can repair the property and make a profit (even paying above market rates for individual units) without demolition.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.c...-investors.amp

[dave8721]

In the case of the collapsed Surfside building the land itself is expected to fetch $130+ million. And that is with all the baggage attached. Any older condo building in South Florida that is in a desirable location is probably sitting on land that is worth far more than the combined value of the units in the building. When repair bills start to add up it makes sense for the unit owners to band to together and sell. They can usually get more per unit than if they just put their one unit up for sale under normal circumstances.
This isn't really anything new though. Many smaller condos in Miami's Edgewater neighborhood have come down in the last decade to make way for modern behemoths.
This old building in southern Brickell sold their units to the developers of "Una Residences" for upwards of a million per unit. Those were probably just 400-500k units on the open market. But the bay front land they were sitting on was a gold mine. Now a super luxury tower is going up on it.

Old building:
https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7493...7i13312!8i6656

Now (soon to be this: https://www.unaresidences.com/vision#building ):
https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7493...7i16384!8i8192

[SIGSEGV]

Please please Dearborn Park, please...