South Florida's Top 10 Foreclosure Buildings Include Marquee Projects

If 2007 was the year of the foreclosure in South Florida, the Club at Brickell Bay condominium in Miami’s financial district and the nearby Jade luxury condominium are the towers that deserve the most recognition for contributing to the problem.

The Club at Brickell Bay condominium in Miami’s financial district earned the distinction of having the highest number of foreclosure actions filed in a single South Florida complex in 2007 with 80 actions totaling $42 million.

The Jade, a luxury bayfront condominium two blocks away from the Club, grabbed the distinction of having the largest combined amount of problem mortgages for a single complex in South Florida in 2007 with $60.7 million based on 56 actions.

Both the Club and the Jade are located in Miami-Dade County.

In Broward County where Fort Lauderdale is located, the Palm Aire Country Club in Pompano Beach had the greatest number of foreclosure actions with 56 totaling $5 million. The Palm Aire's foreclosure actions ties it for the No. 5 position in the rankings.

From a dollar perspective, the newly completed Beach Club in Hallandale Beach earned the top spot in Broward for the total amount of problem mortgages with $13.6 million based on 23 foreclosure actions.

Miami-Dade County is home to the top five foreclosure condo complexes in South Florida, and seven of the top 10 buildings. Broward County has the three remaining top 10 foreclosure condo complexes with the rankings of No. 5 (tied with Miami-Dade), No. 7, and No. 10, according to circuit court records in Miami-Dade and Broward counties processed by Condo Vultures® LLC.

Overall, there were more than 24,000 actions representing more than $6 billion filed in Miami-Dade and Broward counties in 2007. Miami-Dade and Broward each accounted for about half of the actions filed, but 55 percent of the overall nonperforming loan amount was secured by property in Miami-Dade, according to the data.

From a condominium perspective, Miami-Dade County’s top 10 foreclosure buildings accounted for 410 foreclosure actions totaling $202.9 million. Broward County’s three top 10 foreclosure buildings accounted for 138 actions valued at $12.3 million.

All told, the top 10 foreclosure buildings in Miami-Dade and Broward counties account for 548 foreclosure actions valued at $215 million. This works out to an average of nearly 55 foreclosures valued at $393,000 each for every foreclosure action in the top 10 buildings.

Miami’s financial district known as Brickell Avenue is the epicenter of the foreclosure problem in South Florida, and that's before about 10 new condominium towers are completed in the upcoming months.

The Brickell Avenue area is home to three of the top five foreclosure buildings based on total actions filed. After the Club at Brickell Bay, which is in the top spot, there is the Vue at Brickell condo conversion that ranks No. 3 with 65 actions totaling $32.8 million and the Jade at No. 5.

The nearby bayfront Mark on Brickell tower (just north of the Jade) ranks No. 11 with 31 foreclosure actions worth $17.2 million, and the Four Ambassadors (a bayfront complex to the north of the Mark on Brickell) is tied for the No. 12 slot based on its 30 actions totaling $7.2 million.

Aventura, a wealthy enclave in Northeast Miami-Dade County that is home to a popular mall, ended up with the complex with the second highest foreclosure rate in South Florida.

The Parc Central Aventura had 70 actions totaling $25.5 million filed in 2007. Across the causeway in Sunny Isles Beach is a condominium conversion project that ranks No. 4. The Oceanview condominium had 58 actions totaling $17.2 million.

Broward County’s situation is slightly better both in terms of actions filed and the total loan amount that is nonperforming.

The Palm Aire Country Club in Pompano Beach has the greatest number of foreclosure actions filed in a single project in Broward with 56 actions. Evergreen Lakes in Coconut Creek ranked seventh with 49 actions totaling $5.2 million. Sailboat Pointe in Oakland Park ranked 10th with 33 actions totaling nearly $2.1 million.

Broward’s top 10 foreclosure complexes in the county range from Cypress Bend in Pompano Beach with 25 actions valued at $4.2 million in the No. 4 position to Missionwood at Miramar with 22 foreclosure actions totaling $1.6 million.

Probably the most well known of the foreclosure complexes in Broward County is the Beach Club, an oceanfront complex in Hallandale Beach.

The newly constructed complex had 23 foreclosure actions totaling $13.6 million. The problem loans make the Beach Club the complex with the single greatest amount of nonperforming debt of any foreclosure building in the county.

The Beach Club came in No. 17 in the top 20 rankings based on total foreclosure actions filed.

Peter Zalewski is a principal with the consulting company Condo Vultures® LLC and a licensed real estate broker with Condo Vultures® Realty LLC. Peter can be reached at 305-865-5629 or by email at peter@condovultures.com. Be sure to sign up for Peter’s weekly Market Intelligence Report.