The Bond Aims to Shake Up (Not Stir) the Miami Condo Scene
Rilea Group and MDR Toledo have topped off a building that created "living blocks" within the community.
By Jeffrey Steele, Contributing Writer
Miami—Downtown Miami’s resurgent residential market has reached another milestone with the topping off of The Bond on Brickell. The development is the work of Rilea Group and MDR Toledo.
The first condominium project planned for Brickell Avenue since the 2007-09 recession, The Bond on Brickell is a 328-unit, 44-story luxury tower at 1080 Brickell Avenue, in the center of the Brickell Financial District. Slated for completion in the first quarter of 2016, The Bond on Brickell has experienced demand from buyers worldwide, who have propelled the building to nearly sold-out status. Some 97 percent of the condo residences have been purchased.
“The Bond is set to become the first new luxury condo to rise directly on Brickell Avenue in years,” Diego Ojeda, Rilea Group vice president, told MHN.
“[It] will be perfectly located between Brickell Avenue and South Miami Avenue in the heart of the Brickell Financial District and within walking distance of public transit, upscale shopping and dining,” he said. “The Bond offers an opportunity to own luxury real estate at one of the few remaining developable sites with direct Brickell Avenue access. The project’s prestigious Brickell address, combined with its central location near restaurants and shopping and the developer’s pedigree, is a magnet for sales, as is the building’s access to alternative transportation options such as the nearby Metromover and trolley service.”
The Bond on Brickell features one-, two- and three-bedroom condos as well as exclusive loft residences and penthouses, with floor plans up to 2,350 square feet. Preconstruction prices range from the $500,000s to more than $1.5 million. Prices for units average about $550 per square foot, Ojeda said.
Rilea planned to build a condominium on the site in 2007 but shelved preparations until the market returned. The firm sold the land to MDR Toledo, a unit of Madrid, Spain-based MDR Americana, a private equity firm, which also has offices at 1450 Brickell and is an equity partner in the project.
The current financing model for preconstruction condos, which requires unit buyers to pay 50 percent of the price during the construction process and the balance at closing, is helping buffer the market from overheating, Ojeda said.
Miami-based architectural firm Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates (NBWW) designed The Bond to conform to its site’s mid-block characteristics, filling in the void in the sky and creating “living blocks” within the building’s mass.
Sophisticated interior and exterior spaces designed by Mexico’s Loguer Design will include hand-stitched leather and suede walls and classic tufted sofas. Pinstriped granite floors and custom-designed water features add their own distinctive flair, allowing The Bond to blend upscale amenities, fashion-forward art and design, sleek interiors and a peerless Brickell Avenue location.
The Bond represents the most recent collaboration between Rilea Group, Coastal Construction and NBWW. Earlier, the three blended their talents in the creation of the nearby 1450 Brickell office tower and the International Finance Bank headquarters near Coral Gables.
Miami is not a place for people who want to retire and spend the rest of their days playing golf, according to Ojeda. “The city is filled with youth, with life, with music,” he said. “The main difference now is that the foreign buyers are not just parking their assets here, they’re parking their families as well.”