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.
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