With more than 40 condo bulk deals transacted in Greater Miami in the last two years, institutional funds and private equity groups are increasing looking at neighboring Florida counties for attractive product at deeply discounted prices. 

It is against this backdrop that a bulk buyer has paid $263 per square foot for 146 new condo units in the struggling 2700 North Ocean project on the barrier island in the Palm Beach County city of Riviera Beach, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

The buyer, 2700 North Ocean LLC in care of Elliott Associates LP in New York City, paid $117.3 million for 445,650 square feet, or 62 percent, of the saleable space in the two oceanfront towers, according to the report based on Palm Beach County records.

"As the class A bulk inventory is depleted in Greater Miami, bulk buyers are recalibrating their criteria in pursuit of great deals throughout South Florida," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC. "For the last two financial quarters, there has been a noticeable willingness by institutional investors and private equity groups to look at projects that are not located in Greater Downtown Miami or Miami Beach.

"This trend is being prompted more by pricing than the desire to acquire troubled condo projects outside of Greater Miami." 

There have been more than 45 condo bulk transactions in South Florida since July 2008 with four out of every five deals occurring in Greater Miami, according to the Condo Vultures® Bulk Deals Database™.

These four dozen deals account for more than 3,800 new condo units with 4.5 million square feet of saleable space, generating more than $1.1 billion in sales.

In the first two weeks of June, two bulks - one an private equity group and the other a City of Miami Beach agency - paid more than $435 per square foot for troubled condo projects in the South Beach neighborhood, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report.  

By comparison in Palm Beach County, bulk buyers have transacted six deals with the 2700 North Ocean transaction for nearly 820 new condo units with more than 1.2 million square feet of space. The combined purchase price is nearly $295 million, or about $245 per square foot, according to the report.

In the 2700 North Ocean bulk deal, the purchase price works out to an average of $803,500 per unit, which is a 45 percent discount off of the average sales price in the project.

Prior to the bulk deal, individual buyers had purchased 96 units with 271,200 square feet of saleable space in the condo project for $140.9 million, or $520 per square foot. The pre-bulk sales price works out to an average of $1.47 million per unit, according to the report.  

The 2700 North Ocean's developer,  the Singer Island Condominiums Limited with Daniel S. Catalfumo as principal, sold the remaining units on June 7, according to government records.

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™.

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