A New York City investor is the new owner of the Caribbean Miami Beach condominium.
The buyer, an affiliate of New York City-based Melohn Properties, bought the mortgage from ailing Corus Bank.
The Chicago-based bank (NASDAQ: CORS) had given Caribbean Group Owners a $127.7 million mortgage to renovate the hotel into a 103-unit oceanfront condominium at 3737 Collins Ave., in Miami Beach. The developer, a partnership between Christa Development and Bluerock Real Estate, had sold just 13 units since July 2008.
Corus Bank, which faces a risk of failure under the weight of delinquent condo construction loans, sold its mortgage on Aug. 19 to 3737 Caribbean Partners. A source familiar with the deal said that Corus Bank had previously offered the note for sale at between $50 million and $55 million.
Christa Development VP Frank Christa said the developers have voluntarily turned over the Caribbean Miami Beach to the new lender.
“The new lender is in charge of it,” said Christa, who noted that no foreclosure lawsuit was filed.
Marcela Catapano Criscito, a real estate agent hired by the owner of the Caribbean Miami Beach to sell units, concurred.
The Caribbean Miami Beach was designed by architect Kobi Karp, with interiors designed by Christopher Ciccone, the brother of pop star Madonna. It has a heated infinity-edge swimming pool, spa, sun deck, billiard lounge, fitness center, wine vault, cigar humidor and 24-hour concierge service.
Units were priced from $500,000 to $8 million. They are divided between the renovated six-story building, with 35 units, and a new 19-story tower, with 68 units.
Condo VulturesCEO Peter Zalewski called the Caribbean Miami Beach the crown jewel of Corus Bank’s loan portfolio. With its strong location and quality design, it can probably have its units sell for between $450 and $550 a square foot, he said. He added that the 13 sales that were closed at Caribbean Miami Beach by the developer went for an average of $848 per square foot. Those sales generated $21.4 million in revenue.
For more information check the website http://www.buymiami.net/
“The owner will flip these units immediately,” Zalewski said. “They probably have the ability to burn through most of them during the tourism season.”
Zalewski, who has looked at the project on behalf of potential buyers, said Corus Bank could not have made this deal without the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. signing off on it. At least six groups were competing to take it over, he said.
“The Caribbean was the most desirable bulk play in South Beach because so few projects there were in distress,” Zalewski said.
A Melohn Properties official was not immediately available for comment.
For more information check the website http://www.buymiami.net/
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2009/08/31/daily66.html
Brian Bandell
Labels: condominiums, houses, miami beach, south beach
The Criscitos has been selling South Florida luxury and commercial real estate for over a decade and has sold over $1 billion dollars of property. They work as a multi-lingual team speaking english, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. They carved out a niche as a leading boutique real estate company with two distinct divisions -residential and commercial- both personally overseeing by Marcela and Anthony Criscito.
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