Though it overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and offers high-end amenities like a wine vault and a cigar humidor, the Caribbean condominium complex in Miami Beach seemed by last summer to be just another casualty of the glutted South Florida housing market.

There were buyers for all 103 units in the complex, which includes a small renovated Art Deco building and a new glass tower, but only 14 had been willing to close. The rest had simply walked away from their deposits.

The Caribbean, at 37th Street and Collins Avenue, resulted in heavy losses for its developers, a partnership of Christa Development of Victor, N.Y., and Bluerock Real Estate of New York City, and its lender, the now-defunct Corus Bankshares of Chicago.

But it has reaped a nice profit for another real estate investor, Melohn Properties, also of New York City, which assumed control of the property after buying the $127.7 million mortgage from Corus last August. Melohn paid less than half the face value of the loan, according to the building’s broker, Diane Lieberman, the owner of SBI Realty in Miami Beach.

There are now just 15 units left at the Caribbean, Ms. Lieberman said. Originally priced around $1,100 a square foot, the condos are selling for an average of $600 a square foot, with those on a high floor with wraparound terraces selling at $750 a square foot. Most of the buyers paid cash, and all plan to use the condos themselves, she said.

Peter Zalewski, the owner of Condo Vultures, a brokerage firm that specializes in selling units in bulk, said a dozen other investors had taken a look at the Caribbean loan and passed. “Now they’re all having remorse,” he said.

Though the Miami market remains deeply troubled, it is no longer moribund, real estate specialists say. Activity is picking up, though buyers who intend to live in their units are primarily interested in top properties in the best locations, said Robert Kaplan, a principal of Olympian Capital Group, a real estate investment bank in Miami. Even though the Caribbean is opposite a stalled project and is north of South Beach, its ocean views and solid construction are attractive, he said. (Read full article here)

By TERRY PRISTIN
Published: April 20, 2010

Tags: miami condos, miami investments