Condo Boom, East Edgewater Style
East Edgewater—Biscayne Boulevard eastward—is an up-and-coming area for condos, according to Sakor Development principals Barbara Salk and Stephen Kornfeld. (All the hip condos that wear tight jeans and listen to Arcarde Fire want to live there.) The duo recently unveiled plans for the 330-unit ION East Edgewater condo development there. Here's why.
1) Prices. Condo prices have accelerated as the boom has gathered momentum (you could hardly call it a boom otherwise), but as far as many Latin Americans and Europeans are concerned, Miami’s still a bargain, Barbara says. (They love to get a good price and spend their oddly colored money at it.) And that goes even more for relatively new condo submarkets such as East Edgewater. Units at ION are going to start in the $300ks, a price point a little hard to find Downtown.
2) Familiarity. Those same Latin Americans and Europeans vacation here regularly, Stephen notes, and when you visit a place often enough—especially if you’re in the market to buy a piece of it—you familiarize yourself with some of the alternatives to the higher-ticket markets. (We've been to Disney World enough times to know that if you're sneaky enough you can sleep next to the animatronic band in the It's a Small World ride for free.) ION, a JV between Sakor and Encore Housing Opportunity Fund, will rise at 2701 Biscayne Blvd, so while it’s an alternative to Downtown, it really isn’t that far away.
3) Good ol’ cash. East Edgewater properties are going to continue to benefit from all-cash buyers, just as the rest of the Miami condo market has. It’s a spigot that hasn’t slowed down, according to the duo. (Now that's a spigot we want to stand under, pockets open, then stand under a Purell spigot because cash is filthy.) International buyers are buying in cash, without the need for financing, and although there are also domestic buyers with the means to use cash, financing still plays a large role among domestic buyers. As domestic financing has recovered, so has the pace of North Americans buying in Miami. Completion of ION is slated for 2016.
