An HSBC Bank USA entity has taken ownership of 870 units with one million square feet of livable space and three expansive commercial spaces in two 57-story towers in the three-building ICON Brickell complex in Greater Downtown Miami, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

ICON Brickell LLC, an HSBC holding company created on March 29, took title to the new luxury condo units and commercial space as part of a $342 million deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure transfer from the developer, the Related Group, recorded on May 13, according to the report based on Miami-Dade County records.

The transfer of the condos was recorded at an average price of $341 per square foot for the designer-ready units that need flooring and other improvements, according to report based on the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To Miami™.

"For buyers, ICON Brickell is the most popular project in Greater Downtown Miami right now,"  said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC. "A significant number of those buyers who are closing are original preconstruction contract holders who were offered discounts off of their original pricing and the ability to salvage their deposits.

"The industry will be watching to see how deep the market is for new buyers who are willing to spend north of $400 per square foot in a project with 72 percent of its inventory remaining." 

HSBC's Florida holding company took back 402 units with nearly 400,000 square feet in the North Tower, and 468 units with more than 600,000 square feet in the South Tower, according to a recent Condo Vultures® White Paper™.

To date, more than 400 units in HSBC's North and South Towers have closed at an average price of $473 per square foot, according to the report.

As part of the Related Group's deed transfer, HSBC's holding company also took ownership of three commercial spaces within the ICON Brickell complex at a price of nearly $7.4 million, according to one of the three deeds recorded for this transaction.

The ICON Brickell complex's West Tower, where the Viceroy Hotel is located, is still owned by the Related Group under a syndicated loan led by Bank of America.

The West Tower just surpassed 100 sales at an average of $316 per square foot, leaving 417 available units with nearly 353,000 square feet of saleable space, according to the report.

Overall, the project has sold more than 500 units out of nearly 1,800 units in the complex, generating nearly $235 million in sales.

Pricing had been the biggest challenge stopping buyers from purchasing the units as the original preconstruction contracts were written up in 2006 at amounts greater than $600 per square foot, according to the licensed Florida brokerage Condo Vultures® Realty.

Deep discounts of 30 percent introduced in January generated a surge in sales this year but not to the extent to stave off the HSBC takeover of the two towers. 

The ICON Brickell is comprised of a north, south, and west tower with a combined 164 stories of residential condos, restaurants, bars, retail, a hotel, spa, and an enormous amenities deck. Considered by many to be the most unique project in Greater Downtown Miami, the ICON Brickell has developed a strong following of prospective buyers and tenants who want to invest or rent in the one-of-a-kind project.   

Greater Downtown Miami is a 60-block stretch from the Rickenbacker Causeway north to the Julia Tuttle Causeway, Interstate 95 east to Biscayne Bay. Greater Downtown Miami is comprised of the Brickell Avenue Area, the Downtown Area, and the Biscayne Boulevard Corridor.

Between 1963 and 2002, developers constructed 11,500 units in the Greater Downtown Miami market. The boom years of 2003 to 2010 nearly tripled the total inventory that exists in the submarket. The overall inventory could have been greater if not for several proposed projects being ultimately cancelled or delayed.

Despite the apparent oversupply, buyers are purchasing units in Greater Downtown Miami a strong pace. In the first quarter of 2010, buyers - 83 percent were all cash - purchased more than 700 units at an average price of $326 per square foot, according to a recent Condo Vultures® White Paper™.

The strong buying activity in Greater Downtown Miami in the first quarter of this year has pushed the overall closed sales ratio for the epicenter of Florida's condo crash to more than 70 percent, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report.

A year ago, buyers purchased units at half that pace, acquiring only 370 new condos between January and March of 2009. At that time, only 59 percent of the 22,250 new condo units constructed in Greater Downtown Miami since 2003 had been sold, according to the report based on the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To Miami™.

Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures® can be reached at 800-750-0517 or by email at peter@condovultures.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Don't forget to sign up for our weekly Market Intelligence Report™ for detailed condo reports. Looking for a property at a deep discount? You are encouraged to take a peek at the Vultures Database™ or view our Video Gallery. Looking for bulk projects direct from developers or lenders? Visit the Condo Vultures® Bulk Deals Database™. Our new books, the Official Condo Buyers Guide to Miami™ , Official Condo Buyers Guide To South Beach™, Official Condo Buyers Guide to Sunny Isles Beach™, Miami's Great Condo Crash: A Chronicle of the Boom and Bust™ , and the First-Time Home Buyers Guide To South Florida™ are now available. Want to see every foreclosure filed in South Florida since 2007? Check out our Foreclosure Database™.

Copyright © 2010, Condo Vultures® LLC