Two new condo projects proposed for North Bay Village

North Bay Village is suddenly emerging as a popular market for preconstruction condo developments in the current South Florida real estate cycle.

Five new condo towers in the island community of less than 7,500 residents, located in the middle of Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County, have already been announced since 2011, and two more preconstruction developments have recently been proposed, according to North Bay Village records.

For the first new project, a Greater Downtown Miami developer headquartered on Biscayne Boulevard is proposing a 22-story mixed-use tower with 75 condo units and more than 6,100 square feet of office, restaurant and retail space on the previous site of the Trio On The Bay restaurant in the 1600 block of the Kennedy Causeway on Treasure Island, according to government records. The proposed tower – slated to be developed by a Florida corporation managed by Leonidas Lima De Macedo – is designed to feature 45 two-bedroom and 30 three-bedroom condos featuring views of Biscayne Bay.

The North Bay Village Planning & Zoning Board is scheduled to hear the application for this project at Tuesday’s 7.30 p.m. meeting at Village Hall.

Less than a mile to the west, another developer from Greater Downtown Miami (this builder is headquartered on Brickell Avenue) plans to construct a 15-story tower with 54 units – dubbed the 7940 West Avenue At North Bay Village project – on a 0.8-acre waterfront site in the 7900 block of West Drive on Harbor Island, records show. The proposed condo tower, which would be developed next to the 285-unit MODA At North Bay Village rental project currently under construction, is slated to feature 16 two-bedroom, 30 three-bedroom and eight four-bedroom condos featuring views of Biscayne Bay.

The North Bay Village Planning & Zoning Board approved the 7940 West Avenue At North Bay Village project at its Oct. 21 meeting, a city official said.

North Bay Village now ranks as the No. 10 most active preconstruction condo market in South Florida out of a pool of 27 markets east of I-95 in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Overall, the preconstruction condo units proposed for North Bay Village represent about 1.8 percent of the nearly 40,000 condo units announced east of I-95 in South Florida as of Tuesday.

The unanswered question going forward is whether the North Bay Village condo market has a deep enough pool of buyers to purchase the nearly 725 new units proposed to date for this island community.

Peter Zalewski is a real estate columnist for The Real Deal who founded Condo Vultures LLC, a consultancy and publishing company, as well as Condo Vultures Realty LLC and CVR Realty brokerages and the Condo Ratings Agency, an analytics firm. The Condo Ratings Agency operates CraneSpotters.com, a preconstruction condo projects website, in conjunction with the Miami Association of Realtors.