Luxury condos replacing low-income housing in Brickell. Related Group teams with Marriott
Miami’s largest condominium developer, the nation’s largest hotel operator and a Florida private equity investment management and development company are teaming to build two 48-story luxury condo towers on Brickell Avenue at the site of a low-income apartment building for senior citizens.
Related Group, the condo builder, hotelier Marriott International and Integra Investments are banking on wealthy consumers from outside Florida and overseas to continue migrating to South Florida and willing to pay $2 million to $40 million to live at the planned St. Regis Residences at 1809 Brickell Ave.
Marriott agreed to a licensing deal with Related, enabling the developer to put the St. Regis brand name on the condos. After the condo towers are built, Marriott will manage the property. Pending necessary development approvals from city officials, construction could start in 2023 and be completed in three years.
Related and investment firm Integra plan to demolish the 17-story apartment building called George Humphrey Towers. The building houses seniors over age 62 and was managed for years by the US. Department of Housing and Urban Development until 2019. Integra acquired the five-acre tract for $14 million in 2014, according to city property records.
All of the about 200 senior citizen households still living there in the apartments will have the option to move to Integra’s 271-unit affordable housing community under construction, Mosaico in Allapattah, Integra principal Paulo Melo said. Relocations would start during the first quarter of 2022, after the Mosaico project is finished.
The St. Regis condo towers on Brickell would join a growing number of branded residences in Miami that cater to the wealthy consumers moving to South Florida as technology and finance firms flourish.
The development plan includes 354 condo units, from a 1,300-square-foot one-bedroom residence up to a 7,000-square-foot duplex, that Related and Integra anticipate generating $2 billion of total sales. Owners will have access to an indoor lap pool, the St. Regis tea room and an on-site restaurant, among other amenities. The developers declined to reveal how much they are going to spend to build the two towers.
“With migration from outside of the United States and the Northeast,” said Nelson Stabile, a principal at Integra, “Miami is maturing very nicely and deserves a project of this caliber. The location is the best site that we can think of. It is the best residential portion of Brickell Avenue. For us, the project is going to elevate new standards all around.”
Other high-end branded condo residences in the pipeline for construction in the Miami area include Aston Martin Residences in Downtown Miami and Bentley Residences in Sunny Isles Beach.
Marriott owns several nearby branded communities, including the St. Regis Residences, Bal Harbour and the Ritz Carlton Residences, Miami Beach.
The newly planned Brickell project will only have condos, unlike a sister St. Regis in Bal Harbour that has condos and a hotel. Elsewhere in the state, Marriott is also working with Related on the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Tampa.
Each St. Regis tower will come with hotel services to cater to condo buyers, said Dana Jacobsohn, chief development officer, U.S. luxury brands and global mixed-use at Marriott. The twin towers coming to Brickell will have them, too.
“It’s the same services that a consumer would get when they stay at a St. Regis hotel, like a chef coming to their condo to prepare a meal for a dinner party and reservation services,” said Jacobsohn, also noting an owner can request a sommelier come and provide a wine tasting.
Although Miami already has attracted droves of new residents during the pandemic and many condo buildings are underway, the city will gain even more wealthy residents, especially from New York, to sustain the planned St. Regis towers on Brickell, said Ana Bozovic, founder of Analytics Miami, a real estate data provider.
“Miami is emerging as the wealth capital in this post-COVID world,” Bozovic said. “We’re in the early stages and so by 2026 there will be enough wealth.”
Since 2019, she said, South Florida continues to see the largest sales volume in the $1 million-plus condo market. The influx of wealth will benefit the Brickell neighborhood, the city financial center and growing hub of restaurants, bars and art galleries.
“The more people with deep pockets,” she said, “the better it is for all restaurants and businesses.”
Nick Pérez, vice president of Related, called Brickell like a combination of Fifth Avenue and Wall Street in Manhattan. He said the St. Regis Residences will solidify the Brickell community as one of the most sought-after addresses of South Florida.
By January, Pérez said, Related expects to submit its design plans to the City of Miami for approval and launch sales for the condo towers. One Sotheby’s International Realty will oversee sales activity for the development.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated when senior citizens living in an old apartment building on the Brickell development site would leave and didn’t include that each of the households will have the option to move to an affordable housing community Integra is building in Allapattah. Relocations are expected to start by March 2022 after the apartments are finished. Also, the Related Group and Marriott Ritz-Carlton Residences project in Tampa was misidentified.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
