North Miami’s Condo Catastrophe

In 2002 the city of North Miami struck a deal with developer Michael Swerdlow to build a grand city-within-a-city called Biscayne Landing. Set on the largest available tract of waterfront property in South Florida, Biscayne Landing would feature 6,000 condos, many overlooking Biscayne Bay, along with shops, restaurants, nature trails, and a $10 million Olympic training facility. It would rival Aventura, North Miami’s elite neighbor just a few miles north, one of the wealthiest cities in Florida. Rents, taxes, and fees from Biscayne Bay would add $13 million a year to the city’s coffers.

Eight years after groundbreaking, Biscayne Landing represents some of the worst excesses of the housing bust—grandiose development plans, easy financing, and municipal overreach. The project consists of little more than two condo towers looming over a landfill. The sales office is closed, upkeep is sporadic. Sylvia Londono, a real estate agent and mother of two, says her condo, which she bought for $450,000 in 2007, is now worth $150,000. She has never moved in, she says, put off by the stench that rises from the site and a nearby sewage treatment plant on rainy days. “It has been the worst experience ever,” says Londono, who has organized a group of 60 fellow owners to petition lawmakers and the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Dept. to investigate the project. The department has declined.