After writing yesterday about Drexel Avenue during the 1980’s, just as some of the buildings on that street went through the rehab process yesterday, I found myself on Drexel later that morning. So much has changed, yet it seems still much the same. We have a world-class city that still is driven by the beauty of the 700 buildings that make up the core of the Art Deco District. Champions of the district’s rebirth, such as Barbara Capitman, would be pleased. If it were not for the restorations and historic designation of the 1925 Mediterranean buildings and the 1930s and 40s Deco buildings the Miami Beach that is here today would be perhaps so different.
It's often said that doing a restoration is harder than new construction. I can tell you for a fact that’s true. It’s not easy to bring a project to completion – and to do so in a manner that’s sensitive to the original period and still make a dollar of profit. A great restoration in the 1980s to me was one that had central air. Old plumbing, electric wiring and leaking roofs were common as so many buildings were in free-fall deterioration.
Over the last 20 years I've helped developers convert more than 3 dozen extraordinary buildings; each has been a remarkable experience. Long before developers had budgets for designers, I found that developers were asking me what to do with their buildings. How do you bring back a building that's been on life support? Easy. You have to look at it with both eyes wide open as you consider how the property was used in the past and how we live life today. But those first restorations in the early 1980’s had a lot of Formica! And Mexican tile flooring must have been on someone's radar because so many of the developers loved using it and they used it EVERYWHERE. I think that some of those early restorations now look more dated than some of the buildings that have had nothing done to them and are still in the their original decrepit state, still complete with pink and green tile from the 1930s.
When I started my career in real estate in Miami Beach back in the early ‘80s, condos sold for an average of $35,000. Recently, not far from where I started that career, a condo just sold for $21.5 million. Incredible. One of my agents sold a $9.5 million house on Hisbiscus Island this year which was in the top 5 home sales in this area. That too was amazing.
I mentor a lot of younger agents in my office and it’s clear that to them, the past is something they’ve casually heard about, but can't really relate to.
I love selling million dollar properties, but when I think of the volume of condos that make up my career and the lives that I've been so lucky to be a part of, I’m happy to have so so many – at so many price points – and to have had the luck and privilege of recreating South Beach.
to be continued...
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