“It’s the Market” Says Carlos Rosso on Auberge Miami Delay Until at Least Late 2018

August 17, 2016

Scene from the Auberge Miami Launch Party at the the project’s sales center. Sean McCaughan.

Auberge Miami is being delayed until at least late 2018, and they have offered lease extensions to at least one tenant of the existing structure on the site until the middle of that year. According to  Related’s condo division president Carlos Rosso, who spoke to Miami Condo Investments, “it’s the market.” Surprised? Probably not.

“We are selling, and as soon as we get to our (desired) presales we will start construction. The sales center is open” Rosso said. In April the Related Group reported that reservations at the first of the three planned towers at Auberge Miami were at 20 percent, while the more recent ISG second quarter market report placed sales at a more modest 15 percent, with both presale numbers reflecting the significantly slumping real estate market. As ISG Principal Craig Studnicky, whose firm has a partnership with Related, told the Real Deal, “It’s not terribly surprising” that Related would chose to delay the gargantuan condo project by a year, or more. (The first tower is planned to have 290 units, while the while the whole thing was designed with a whopping 1400) “Related will keep pushing” until they hit the right sales number, Studnicky said.

And, as Rosso basically confirmed, it looks like that’s exactly what Related is doing, according to leasing emails leaked to The Real Deal for some of the existing commercial space on the site, offering an extension to a current tenant until late August 2018. This means that instead of the originally planned 2017 groundbreaking, they likely don’t plan on building a thing there until at least late 2018. Of course, that also depends on how sales go from here.