Echo Brickell Another Upcoming Project in Miami

Community: Brickell Downtown Miami

Estimated Groundbreaking: First quarter of 2014

Echo condo developer: PMG Property Markets Group

Architect: Carlos Ott

Estimated building height: 789 feet

Number of stories: 60

Number of condo units: up to 250 units

Number of Bedrooms: more information coming soon

Condominium views: Biscayne Bay Brickell and City of Miami

Estimated Completion date: 2016

Estimated Price Range: $475,00 to 8'000.000 

Estimated Residence Size: 760 to 4,000 Sqf

The building itself is flanked by twin glass atriums housing the works of contemporary artists. The impressive Grand Lobby is modeled by a critically acclaimed design house in a limited collaboration with Carlos Ott. ECHO Brickell's most notable exterior feature is the awe-inspiring "Open Space". This futuristic gap in the building's facade spans the entire width of the tower, rising three stories in height. The Open Space will house the full-floor pool deck, allowing residents to swim from one side of the property to another in the astounding infinity-edge pool.

Suspended above the pool deck, fitness center and spa offers breathtaking panoramic views of Biscayne Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, Downtown Miami's full cityscape, and the surrounding islands. The 166-unit mix is comprised of one and two bedroom units on the lower floors, two and thee bedroom units on the middle floors directly above the Open Space and 16 exclusive penthouse units residing in the building's pinnacle.

THE ECHO BRICKELL CONDO UNIT TYPES

1 Bedrooms/1.5 Baths

2 Bedrooms/2 Baths

2 Bedrooms/2.5 Baths

2 Bedrooms/2.5 Baths + Den

3 Bedrooms/3 Baths

3 Bedroom/3.5 Baths

3 Bedroom/3.5 Baths + Den

Echo Lower Penthouses : 3 Bedroom / 3.5 Baths + Den + Maid’s Quarters

Echo Upper Penthouses: 4 Bedrooms/4.5 Baths + Den + Maid’s Quarters

Building Amenities

1.            Robotic & Valet Parking

2.            Full Floor Infinity Edge Pool

3.            4000 Square Foot Gym & Spa

4.            Custom High Level Building Security System

5.            Four Elevators for 175 Residences

6.            Complimentary Pet Walking Service

7.            Resort Style Poolside Service

8.            Full Service Concierge Service

Residence Features

•   Custom interiors inspired by Carlos Ott

•   Delivered furniture ready

•   Residences feature panoramic water and city views

•   Minimum ten (10) foot ceilings with floor-to-ceiling windows

•   Apple-based home technology

•   Side-by-side paneled SubZero/Wolf appliances

•   Oversized gas stoves and custom hood

•   SubZero Dual Temperature Wine Storage

•   Built-in coffee and espresso machine

•   Oversized soaking tub

•   Semi-private elevator lobby

•   AppleR home technology included in all residences

•   Eight (8) foot deep terraces with summer kitchens & outdoor barbeque area

•   Ten (10) to twelve (12) foor ceilings clear with floor to ceiling windows

 Echo Brickell Payment Plan
  20 % of the purchase price at contract signing
10 % is due at groundbreaking
10 % at pool level is reached
10  % percent when the building is topped off
50 % balance is due at closing

For reservation and final information in regard to the The Echo Condo in Brickell Miami call me at 954.254.6085.

To Buy, Sell or Rent Properties in Miami go to http://www.JuanSolerRealtor.com  

Miami Beach A Fast Pace Cinderella Story of Urban Transformation Part III

Mr. Kramer was not a developer by trade, and after starting work on the Portofino Tower, he ran into financing problems. In 1995 he turned to Jorge Pérez of the Related Group, a developer who had been focusing on building affordable living units. Mr. Pérez eventually bought 22.5 acres in the South Pointe area from Mr. Kramer for $125 million, re-branding it South of Fifth. The one parcel Mr. Pérez missed out on was where a Coast Guard station had been. Mr. Kramer sold that to Bruce Eichner, the New York developer, and it became the site of Continuum Towers.

Back then there were no height restrictions. When Mr. Kramer and developers like Donald J. Trump — who in the mid-1990s proposed a 100-story hotel-casino with residences where the Continuum now stands — announced plans to fill the area with large condo towers, residents began to react. A “Save Miami Beach” campaign resulted in a referendum to rein in uncontrolled development.

While Mr. Kramer saw the older buildings as a slum not worth saving, city officials created a historic district in 1996 to protect the low-rise Art Deco structures at a remove from the beach. The referendum passed in 1997 and put in place height restrictions for future developments.

Mr. Cary gerrymandered the historic district around half a dozen towers that had already been approved, including the Murano, the Apogee and the Icon. Mr. Pérez developed all of them. He also has the last site left for development, on which he plans a 32-residence condo at prices expected to average $3 million.

In the end the towers gave the neighborhood a distinctive character. Some residents gripe that more infrastructure — like grocery stores — is still needed, but the increase in prices is stunning. Consider that in the mid-1990s it was still possible to buy a one-bedroom on Ocean Drive for under $100,000. Today finding something for under $1 million — in a new development, certainly — would be a feat.

Before construction finished in 2002, the Continuum’s south tower was selling apartments for $650 a square foot. Recently units there have been averaging more than $1,500 a square foot, with penthouses selling for over $3,000 a square foot, said Dora Puig, a broker with PuigWerner. Ms. Puig has Mr. Eichner’s penthouse on the market for $39 million.

Even lower-lying developments that once struggled are now luxury properties South of Fifth. Ocean House, expanded from an Art Deco building on Ocean Drive, has become an exclusive enclave that Ms. Puig likened to the Hamptons, with private beach access and cozy sitting rooms. iStar Financial took it over during the downturn when sales were slow.

Ms. Puig is selling the seventh-floor Ocean House penthouse owned by the restaurateur Myles Chefetz for $18.5 million. Mr. Chefetz,  a New Jersey native, has opened several restaurants in the neighborhood, including Prime One Twelve, Big Pink and Prime Italian, as well as the Prime Hotel.

Ocean House is just half a block from two of Mr. Chefetz’s restaurants. He bought the 4,176-square-foot penthouse for $7.2 million in 2009. He said he spent three years and $5 million renovating it. Features include 5,200 square feet of outdoor space with a pool area and an outdoor kitchen with eight Viking refrigerators and wine chillers. Not to mention the $14,000 “bird-suppression” system — a fancy term for a rotating reflective device meant to protect the deck from droppings.

It’s another stunning example of the neighborhood’s turnaround, and a far cry from the Lummus brothers’ original vision. In the Miami Beach of 2013, Mr. Cary concluded, “the proletariat can no longer afford to live” south of Fifth Street.

To Buy, Sell or Rent Properties in Miami go to http://www.JuanSolerRealtor.com  

Miami Beach A Fast Pace Cinderella Story of Urban Transformation Part II

Miami Beach has reached a better and higher purpose thanks to the more ambitious vision of Thomas Krammer which changed the course of the initial planning of the Lummus Brothers.

Dating to 1912, South of Fifth Street was the first subdivision of Miami Beach to be developed. The brothers James and John Lummus set out to create an affordable seaside community for the “proletariat,” Mr. Cary said. They plotted lots 50 feet wide, small enough that even people with modest incomes could afford to buy land and build homes, Mr. Cary said.

The area served as the industrial and transportation hub of the city back then, with railyards and oil tanks.

Buildings of three stories or less continued to be built in an Art Deco style until 1954 when the Fontainebleau Hotel opened farther north. With 1,504 rooms and multiple restaurants, theaters, arcades and coffee shops, it began to “suck all the energy out of South Beach,” Mr. Cary said.

South of Fifth became desolate. Conditions worsened after 1980, when the Mariel boatlift dropped 125,000 Cubans in Florida. South of Fifth was disproportionately affected, city officials said. The area became known for drug dealing, and the streets were considered unsafe at night. It decayed into a zone of abandoned warehouses, seedy efficiency hotels and boarded-up properties. Mr. Cary recalled seeing vagrants living in the then-vacant Brown’s Hotel on Ocean Drive, lighting the rooms with candles.

Then, while on vacation in early 1992, Thomas Kramer, a German businessman, took a helicopter ride over South Beach and had a vision: to create a version of New York’s Battery Park City on the southern tip of Miami Beach.

Before German reunification, Mr. Kramer had started a fund to invest in East German real estate. The fund soon went bankrupt. But he had also married into a wealthy German family.

With a reputation for knowing how to get things done quickly, Mr. Kramer spent more than $100 million to buy real estate in Miami Beach, including 45 acres south of Fifth Street. The area was then called South Pointe; the dilapidated buildings served as chic locations for fashion model shoots.

“Everyone thought he was crazy,” said Saul Gross, the president of Streamline Properties and then a city commissioner. “He wanted to buy whatever he could, and he was willing to pay whatever people were asking; he wasn’t even negotiating.”

Mr. Kramer invited 11 architectural firms to develop plans for the area. After six days of discussions, “Miami Beach’s original city center was ready for its most spectacular facelift,” he said. * Source The New York Times.  

To Buy, Sell or Rent Properties in Miami go to http://www.JuanSolerRealtor.com