Construction Halted At North Bay Village Condo Project After Contractors Push For Payment

Stalled construction of North Bay Village’s first new condo tower in a decade has left a concrete shell looming over the island enclave. 

Construction of the 21-story, 54-unit building at 7918 West Drive has been halted since December, The Real Deal reports. More than a dozen liens have been placed against the developer, Pacific & Orient Properties, including one for nearly $7M from the project’s general contractor, Thornton Residential. 

The future of the project remains uncertain, with the site currently frozen as a 14-story concrete block with a crane hovering over the site, according to TRD.

North Bay Village staff told the village commission in January that construction stopped just before the holidays and “they hope to start things up again sometime in January, but that timeframe is flexible,” TRD reported. 

Mayor Brent Latham told TRD he hadn't had any direct contact with the developer, a subsidiary of the Malaysia-based Pacific & Orient Group, but that he was confident the project would get finished, even if it meant the site was taken over by another developer. 

“There are multiple parties who have expressed interest in purchasing the site,” Latham told TRD. He also said the developer was up to date on payments owed to the village. 

The luxury condo project is slated to have units ranging from 1,700 SF to 7K SF with prices from $2M to more than $17M. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty was tapped in August to handle sales. 

MTTR MGMT, an architecture firm with offices in Miami, Austin and Los Angeles, designed the project, which is slated to include a zen garden, yoga spaces and a communal chef’s kitchen along with a 148-space parking garage. 

Pacific & Orient, a conglomerate with offices in Kuala Lumpur, London and Bangkok, paid $8.3M for the 0.8-acre site in 2015, according to TRD. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2018 but the project didn’t break ground until last year. 

A public relations firm for the developer told the publication that its “services have been paused.” 

North Bay Village includes three islands between Miami Beach and the mainland. The entire village spans 0.37 square miles and had 8,157 residents as of the 2020 census. 

The stalled project is on one of two slivers of land that jut out from the north of the central Harbor Island. To the east of the project site on the other outcrop of land, New York developer Harry Macklowe has been assembling a development site.

Macklowe brought in Miami-based Related Group in November to help close on the buyout of a co-op community at 8000 East Drive after navigating a series of lawsuits in an attempt to acquire the property, TRD reported.    

The assemblage totals 3 acres and sources told TRD the developers were likely planning to build hundreds of luxury condos.