Local developer Menachem Kranz bought out a condo building along the water in Bay Harbor Islands to redevelop the property with a luxury condo building.
    

Kranz said the building owners were motivated to sell following the collapse of a condo in Surfside in June 2021, as they realized it would be extremely difficult to maintain their condo up to code. Kranz, through 9525 BH LLC, bought all 10 units from the individual owners at 9110 W. Bay Harbor Drive from the individual owners for a combined $6.5 million. The Bay Harbor Apartments Condominium was built on the 0.35-acre site in 1953. The units were valued in the $200,000s, according to the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser website, so Kranz paid significantly more than that to purchase them. MidFirst Bank provided the buyer with a $3.9 million loan for the deal. Kranz likes the site because it has 95 feet of waterfront along Biscayne Bay, with a direct view of Indian Creek Village, an island town that is famously the home of many billionaires and a private country club. “It’s one of the nicest views I’ve seen in Miami and I’ve lived here for 25 years,” he said.

The condo at 9110 W. Bay Harbor Drive, Bay Harbor Islands, was bought out and could be redeveloped.

Kranz said he’ll seek site plan approval to replace the building with a 10-unit condo of large units, which he described as "elevated luxury mansions." They would range from 3,000 square feet with three bedrooms to over 5,000 square feet with six bedrooms. He anticipates prices will be around $5 million to $10 million.

There would be seven stories of condos above the lobby and parking garage. Amenities would include a fitness center and a rooftop pool. Each condo would have a terrace large enough for a dining table, he added. The first condo will be about 10 feet above sea level to account for sea level rise, he added.

While Kranz could have asked for more residential density on the site, he felt a product with fewer units and larger condo sizes is in higher demand from the many families relocating from the Northeast.

“There’s very little available for families relocating from the Northeast looking for a four- or five-bedroom house on the water. A new home on the water is like $20 million,” Kranz said. “This project would create houses in the sky on the bay.”

He hired Miami-based Kobi Karp Architecture to design the project. Attorney Neisen Kasdin of Akerman in Miami represents the developer in the application. Kranz has yet to select a brokerage to sell the condos.

Kranz said he hopes to launch condo presales in late 2022.

This would be Kranz’s first condo project. He’s previously completed single-family homes in the Miami Beach area.

Many condo owners in South Florida are considering terminating their homeowners associations and selling out to developers because required repairs are too expensive, especially as Miami-Dade cracks down on older structures in the wake of the Surfside tragedy.