Sunny Isles' Oldest Oceanfront Condos Are Being Priced as Land. Here's How That Works.

A buyer who closes on a unit in an aging oceanfront low-rise in Sunny Isles Beach gets a home. They also get a vote that may one day decide whether the building stands at all. Under Florida's condominium termination statute, an optional termination of a residential condo needs at least 80% approval, and the plan fails if 5% or more of the voting interests reject it. At a building where a developer is assembling units, that vote and the land under the building can carry more of the unit's value than its kitchen, its view or its square footage.

Sunny Isles now has a closed example. The process ran for more than a decade and produced numbers anyone can follow from purchase to tower.

The Vote Comes With the Deed

The statute has a provision written for the moment a developer gets close. If a bulk owner holds at least 80% of the voting interests when a termination plan is recorded, every other owner must receive at least 100% of fair market value. An independent appraiser sets that value as of a date no earlier than 90 days before recording. An owner whose unit has homestead-exemption status when the plan is recorded, and who is current on assessments and other monetary obligations, must receive at least their original purchase price. A former owner who held a homestead exemption is owed relocation pay equal to 1% of the proceeds allocated to the unit. Qualifying occupants whose former units are offered for public lease may stay for 12 months on terms offered for similar units.

These protections sit in section 718.117. That section's history cites HB 913, which the governor signed on June 23, 2025, as Chapter 2025-175. For the owner of an older unit, the statute sets a floor under one particular kind of exit. For a buyer weighing that unit, it means part of the price is a bet on whether that exit ever comes, and on what an appraiser would say the unit is worth when it does.

What $131.8 Million Bought on Two Acres

The Miami Beach Club at 19051 Collins Avenue is an H-shaped, two-story building from 1951. It sits on a 2-acre site directly north of Residences by Armani/Casa. The Real Deal reported in July 2025 that Related Group, Dezer Development and BH Group had closed on the remaining 100 units of the 108-unit complex for $131.8 million. Related already owned eight units, and the same report said nearly every major developer had tried to buy the property at one point.

1. Price per acquired unit. $131.8 million across 100 units works out to about $1.318 million each. The owners were selling shares of a 2-acre oceanfront parcel, and the price reflects that, not the condition of 1951 units.
2. Assembly time. The Real Deal reported that the buyout was in the works for more than a decade. Related held units through executives, who bought them from investor Richard Meruelo or an entity he previously managed, and it created a company named after the property's address in 2013.
3. Leverage. Berkadia arranged an $87.5 million acquisition loan from J.P. Morgan. A lender lent against the site's future, which works out to about two-thirds of the purchase price.
4. Mechanism. The reporting describes a bulk purchase. None of the sources reviewed document a recorded termination plan, so the statute's bulk-owner floor explains the legal structure around deals like this without showing how this one closed.

TRD's January 2024 report had put the contract at $145 million. The July 2025 closing figure of $131.8 million replaced it.

Running the Math Forward

In February 2026, Sunny Isles Beach commissioners voted 4-1 to approve a 62-story, 145-unit tower on the site. The Miami Herald reported that at 820 feet it will be the tallest building in the city. The developers asked for no variances. They relied on bonuses and transferable development rights, which let a developer buy the right to more floor area or units than the code would otherwise allow, and they agreed to pay the city more than $26 million. A letter from the developers' land use attorneys put construction at about $294 million.

Spread those three published figures across the approved units, and a cost structure appears that any future buyer of the tower will be paying into:

This is a floor, not a budget. It leaves out the eight units Related already owned, financing costs, design, marketing, sales commissions and developer profit, and none of those figures have been published. The city lists about 524,212 square feet of floor area for the project, including a private restaurant. Against that area, the three known costs come to roughly $862 per square foot. Floor area includes common space, so the cost per sellable square foot is higher.

A 1951 unit that sold as land for about $1.3 million becomes, once the site is entitled and the rights are paid for, about $3.1 million per new unit in known costs before the tower earns anything. Old units in Sunny Isles are priced off the last line of that table, not off their own condition.

Five Years Between a Deposit and a Key

The approval started a long clock. Related managing director Eric Fordin told the Herald that sales are expected to begin in early 2027. Projects like this typically break ground about 18 months after sales begin, which points to construction starting around mid-2028. The attorneys' letter gives an anticipated completion of December 2031. It also asks for up to five years from approval to obtain a building permit, and up to five more from permit to completion.

The groundwork for sales is already visible. The city's Approved Developments page lists a one-story temporary Miami Beach Club Sales Center at 18325 Collins Avenue, on the same property as the existing Bentley sales center, approved under Resolutions 26-Z-222, 26-Z-223 and 26-Z-224. No brand, pricing, demolition or building permit has been confirmed in the sources available as of October 2026. The tower is designed by Cohen Freedman Encinosa & Associates Architects, with landscape architecture by Enzo Enea's firm. Plans call for a padel court, sculpture garden, lap pool, cabanas and beach access. One approval condition requires the developers to monitor construction vibrations at the site.

The Pipeline Rides on the Same Arithmetic

The Miami Beach Club is the latest of several large approvals on this stretch of Collins Avenue. The city's list includes:

• St. Regis Residences, 18801 Collins Avenue, formerly La Playa Varadero. Two 62-story towers, 361 units, a public restaurant and about 1,228,154 square feet of floor area, with its own temporary sales center at 18590 Collins.
• Bentley Residences, 18401 Collins Avenue. 62 stories, 216 units, about 616,185 square feet.
• Miami Beach Club, 19051 Collins Avenue. 62 stories, 145 units, about 524,212 square feet.

Because each of these sits on a site that once held a smaller, older building, the cost of land and rights is built into every price list in the pipeline. Much of the new construction a buyer is shown in Sunny Isles is priced from the same arithmetic as the table above.

The trend reaches well past Sunny Isles. A May 2026 Real Deal column described developer buyouts speeding up across South Florida, driven in part by stricter reserve requirements, aging waterfront inventory and scarce redevelopment sites. Its examples show how widely per-unit prices vary:

• At Coconut Grove's Bayshore Park, seven owners who held out received an average of $985,700. That was almost $324,000 more than the $661,800 average paid to 32 neighbors who agreed the previous summer.
• At St. Louis on Brickell Key, 80% of owners agreed to negotiate a buyout, which the declaration requires, and the price would likely be close to $1.5 million per unit.
• In West Palm Beach, a proposed $430 million offer for Portofino South and Flagler Yacht Club works out to $2.4 million per unit.

The Bayshore Park gap shows that in a bulk deal, timing and negotiating position can matter as much as the unit. The Brickell Key case shows that a building's own declaration can set its threshold.

Two Price Logics on One Strip of Collins

Countywide, the condo market looks soft. For August 2026, MIAMI REALTORS reported 911 closed condo and townhouse sales in Miami-Dade County, a $408,000 median sale price, 12.1 months of supply and 108 median days to sale. Those are county figures, not Sunny Isles figures, and September results are due October 16, 2026. The most recent city-level figure available, through July 2026, showed Sunny Isles Beach condo and townhouse sales up 3% year to date.

Twelve months of supply describes a market of existing units competing for buyers. An oceanfront parcel on Collins Avenue that can be entitled for a 62-story tower faces a different kind of supply, because the city cannot make more of it. The 2-acre parcel at 19051 Collins is the clearest local case. A resale in an aging low-rise is priced partly on the first logic and partly on the second, and the mix depends on lot size, location on the beach, the age of the building and how much of it a single owner already controls.

Questions Buyers Raise About This

Does buying in an older Sunny Isles building mean a buyout is likely? No. The Miami Beach Club is the only documented Sunny Isles developer bulk buyout found for 2023 through October 2026. A Miami Herald review of recorded condo terminations from 2019 through 2023 named 19 cities, and Sunny Isles Beach was not among them.

Who decides whether a building is terminated? Under section 718.117, optional termination needs at least 80% approval and fails if 5% or more of voting interests reject it. A building's declaration can also set its own thresholds, as at St. Louis on Brickell Key. How those rules apply to a given unit is a question for a Florida real estate attorney.

When can buyers see pricing at the new Miami Beach Club tower? The developers have said sales are expected to begin in early 2027. A temporary sales center at 18325 Collins Avenue has been approved, and no pricing had been published as of October 2026.

If you are weighing an older oceanfront unit against a new-construction allocation on Collins Avenue, Mark Yaffe can run the land, entitlement and timeline math building by building before you commit. Work With Mark.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.