Sunny Isles Beach Homes and Condos

Sunny Isles Beach Real Estate

"Florida's Riviera" aka "Billionaire's Beach"

Sunny Isles Beach offers the best of both worlds. It's a small town with all the traditional conveniences and friendliness, but it also has the sophistication of Miami and the sun & the fun of being on the beach. Those who visit hate to leave, and those who live here wouldn't leave for anything. Sunny Isles Beach has finally come into its own by making itself over into a premier location & destination. Residents now own one of Miami's most affluent communities.

Visitors returning to Sunny Isles Beach after many years’ absence have one refrain: “I don’t recognize the place!”

Gone are the kitschy motels and small hotels that once defined the seaside resort as a middle-class playground. The past decade's $3 billion renaissance has brought new residential communities, including luxury condominiums, rental buildings, and world-class condominium-hotel towers.

Sunny Isles Beach has been reinvented and transformed upwards — both physically and economically — into a younger, more affluent, and family-friendly community, as well as a beach resort attracting a million visitors annually. In 2008, TripAdvisor’s Travelcast ranked Sunny Isles Beach first on its list of “Top Ten Destinations in the USA.”

But along with a more sophisticated image, Sunny Isles Beach remains a friendly, tropically tranquil, small town where residents and visitors enjoy bountiful shopping and recreational amenities. A feature article in The New York Times noted, “Despite the new gloss, Sunny Isles (Beach) hasn’t lost its eclectic character.”

The Location of Sunny Isles

Sunny Isles Beach occupies an area 2.5 miles long and three blocks wide on a barrier island in the northeast corner of Miami-Dade County. Stretching from the Atlantic Ocean on the east to the Intracoastal Waterway on the west, it is at the center of three of the most highly valued cities in South Florida: Bal Harbour, Golden Beach, and Aventura.

Sunny Isles’ superb location puts it midway between the downtown business areas of Miami and Fort Lauderdale and within easy reach of Miami Beach to the south and Hollywood to the north. This neighborhood is just a 15 to 20-minute drive to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Port Everglades, and 25 minutes from Miami International Airport (MIA) and the Port of Miami-Dade.

Collins Avenue (State Road A1A), the main thoroughfare in Sunny Isles Beach, connects to mainland Miami at 163rd Street, which takes traffic west to the Golden Glades Interchange of Florida's Turnpike, Interstate 95, Route 441, and the Palmetto Expressway (State Road 836). Further north at 191st Street, A1A meets the Lehman Causeway, the main route into Aventura, with many shopping and dining options. Sunny Isles Beach shares its 33160 zip code with the southern part of Aventura.

Population

The population of Sunny Isles Beach in July 2007 was 16,177, substantially more than the nearly 12,000 people living there when the city was incorporated in 1997. Many retirees are still calling Sunny Isles Beach home, but the number of year-round residents, especially families, is increasing annually. The median age of residents has dropped to 50.4, and 1,150 children were enrolled in the new Sunny Isles Beach Community School in 2008.

Sunny Isles Government, Police & City Amenities

Incorporated in 1997, the city of Sunny Isles Beach is governed by a mayor, vice mayor, and four commissioners. Its law enforcement team has 44 officers (equal to 1 per 340 residents), emphasizing community policing and high visibility on land and water. The marine unit includes a new 25-foot police vessel for Intracoastal patrols. Sunny Isles Beach is served by its fire rescue service based in a new, two-story fire station at 172nd Street and Collins. The architecturally applauded Sunny Isles Beach Government Center on Collins Avenue houses city departments, a library, a visitor information center, and a “History Hall” that preserves images of the city’s past.

With growing real estate, taxable revenue, and assistance from state and federal grants, the city enhanced its infrastructure, reinvesting in projects such as roads, stormwater system upgrades, schools, public parks, and the city of Sunny Isles Towne Center. A beautification program added palm trees and flower-filled medians, new lighting, uniform news racks, pedestrian rest stops, crosswalks, and specially designed waste receptacles to the city’s streets.

The two-mile-long beach in Sunny Isles has been re-nourished and extended to a 170-foot-wide expanse of fine white sand on the Atlantic Ocean. Twenty entrance points from Collins Avenue make the beach easily accessible. The city’s free community shuttle service provides transportation around Sunny Isles Beach and to nearby shopping centers.

Sunny Isles Beach Recreation

Sunny Isles presents special events such as Family Fun Day, Jazz Fest, Boogie by the Beach, and a series of open-air “Sunny Serenade” concerts in the oceanfront park. Various parks within the city limits include Pier Park, Samson Oceanfront Park, Town Center Park, Senator Gwen Margolis Park (with a dog park), Golden Shores Community Park and Pelican Community Park.

The parks range from passive, calming places to relax and enjoy the sun's warmth amid tropical landscaping to active parks where children play and energetic, athletic types indulge in various sports on pitches, courts, and fields. All Sunny Isles parks feature free Internet connectivity, wireless and commercial-free. Two more parks, Bella Vista Bay and Heritage Park, are in the planning stages.

The two-acre Pelican Community Park, which opened in August 2008, features a Little League baseball field, a playground area for 2- to 5-year-olds and 5- to 12- year-olds, picnic tables, a gymnasium, full-size basketball court (or two half- courts) and a volleyball court. The Sunny Isles Community Center has a recreation area, arts and crafts open space, multi-use classrooms, offices, and a catering kitchen for various activities for all ages.

The 1,032-acre Oleta State Park, just across the Sunny Isles Causeway Bridge, is a haven for nature lovers, with various vegetation and vibrant bird and animal life. It’s also a scenic playground for hiking, biking, picnicking, and kayaking on the Intracoastal.

The southern border of Sunny Isles Beach meets Miami-Dade County’s Haulover Park, located along both sides of Collins Avenue. On the Intracoastal side, Haulover features a marina and boat storage area, sport-fishing boats to rent, tennis courts, and a nine-hole golf course. Across the road are secluded yet easily accessible oceanfront beaches, including a clothing-optional beach and picnic areas.

Luxury hotels in Sunny Isles Beach feature famous-name spas and health clubs open to the public, including the Aquanox Spa at Trump International Beach Resort, Le Spa at Le Méridien and ESPA at Acqualina. Nearby in Aventura is the Willow Stream Spa at the Fairmont Turnberry Resort.

Area cinemas include the Intracoastal Sunrise on 163rd Street and the 24-screen AMC in Aventura Mall. Sunny Isles Beach cultural destinations such as The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater, and the BankAtlantic Center are easily accessible. Sports venues such as Dolphin Stadium and the American Airlines Arena are nearby. Museums, other cultural and entertainment venues, and South Beach and Miami nightclubs, are a short drive away.

Sunny Isles Beach Shopping

Sunny Isles Beach’s shopping centers on the west side of Collins Avenue are home to most of the city’s commercial activity, including storefront-style professional offices. There are branches of eight major banks, a small freestanding medical building, plus a post office and library in the civic center. Stores in the city’s retail centers are pleasingly decorated in theme shades of ochre and brown enhanced by striped awnings. For shoppers, parking is free in dedicated lots. The lots are definitely off-limits for beach-goers; non-shoppers’ vehicles are towed immediately.

On Collins Avenue, south of the flyover to 163rd Street, a couple of mini shopping centers feature a food market, restaurants, hairdresser, etc. North of 163rd Street, there is shopping at RK Town Center North and South, RK Beach Place, RK Village Plaza, and Millennium Plaza. The north side of Sunny Isles Boulevard is lined with small neighborhood stores like the RK Beach Shops. The Sunny Isles Towne Center is on the drawing board for the south side of the street. More stores are located in the open-air Intracoastal Mall, which is just across the Intracoastal bridge in the city of North Miami Beach.

Stores in the Sunny Isles Miami Beach neighborhood offer everything needed for daily living. Grocery stores include Publix, Milam’s Markets, and several boutique food shops. Delicatessens such as St. Petersburg Deli and Kalinka Delicatessen cater to the city’s large Russian population with home-style treats that include smoked sturgeon, borscht, and dozens of Russian beers. You can get Russian newspapers there, too.

Gone is the famed Rascal House, where for half a century, patrons noshed on mile-high corned beef sandwiches and towering slabs of cheesecake. In its place, Epicure’s sophisticated gourmet store features every kind of cheese and meat and a decadent array of cakes and pastries. Epicure also features ready-to-go-meals and a casual restaurant with an expansive outdoor plaza offering al fresco dining and prime people watching.

Drugstores include a CVS pharmacy, a 24-hour Walgreens, and discount destination Navarro Drugs. Budget shoppers head for bargains at Marshall's and T.J. Maxx in the Intracoastal Mall, while many shops and boutiques feature clothing, accessories, and jewelry. Dry cleaners, beauty salons, and florists add to the Sunny Isles Beach neighborhood conveniences. There’s a vast choice of other shopping options within a few minutes’ drive, including two of the nation’s top-rated, upscale retail centers — Bal Harbour Shops and Aventura Mall.

Sunny Isles Beach Dining

Restaurants in Sunny Isles range from fine to casual dining, with cuisines that include American, Chinese, Cuban, Italian, Japanese, Latin American, Mexican, Russian, kosher, continental, and seafood. Upscale restaurants include Il Mulino New York at Acqualina for fine old-fashioned Italian cuisine with mammoth portions and prices to match. Neomi’s Grill in the Trump International Beach Resort (formerly a Sonesta) offers a tantalizing menu of contemporary American cuisine inspired by South Florida’s culture — rich in flavor and bold in taste.

Kitchen 305, a bistro located in the Newport Beachside Hotel & Resort, offers a variety of cuisines in a trendy atmosphere. Timo is housed in a modest storefront on Collins Avenue and features chef-owner Tim Andriola’s light hand with Mediterranean-inspired textured tastes. Acqualina’s Aaria Bar & Lounge features a 20-foot bar, and a separate lounge area and ocean-view veranda perfect for sipping the resort’s signature cocktails. Azzuro at the Golden Strand Hotel offers more low-key dining on Italian classics.

Ethnic-influenced restaurants in Collins Avenue shopping centers include Lula Kebab House, New York Deli, Bissaleh kosher dairy foods, and Lul Grill Café, featuring kosher Mediterranean meat dishes. Emerald Coast offers two Asian cuisines on one large buffet. Sumo Sushi Bar & Thai has an extensive menu that includes Japanese dishes, a sushi and sashimi selection and Thai cuisine. The Diner restaurant and bar is a typical neighborhood eatery.

Other casual gathering places include Einstein’s, Starbucks, Miami Juice and Manhattan Bakery. Nearby dining delights in the Intracoastal Mall include Hiro Argentinean Steak House. La Romanza, a warm and inviting Italian eatery, is located in the Sunny Isles Beach RK Town Center on 163rd Street. Across the Lehman Causeway in Aventura, a wealth of dining options includes highly rated Chef Allen’s. Christine Lee, a former Sunny Isles Beach restaurant fixture, is now located at the Gulfstream Race Track in Hallandale.

Sunny Isles Beach Schools & Houses of Worship

The Sunny Isles Beach Community School, the first Miami-Dade public school in the city, opened in 2008 with space for 1,624 students. The kindergarten to 8th-grade school features seaside views and high-tech touches like a cyber café, where students can work or surf the Internet after lunch. Teachers wear microphones that pipe their voices through ceiling-embedded speakers. Smaller classes offer a variety of courses and academic concentrations. Older children residing in the 33160 zip code attend Highland Oaks Middle School for grades 6 through 8. Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High is for grades 9 through 12. A number of private schools are in close proximity to Sunny Isles Beach.

Houses of worship include St. Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church, Temple B’nai Zion, Young Israel of Sunny Isles, Adat Achim, Temple Benarroch, Lubavitch of Sunny Isles Beach and Chabad Russian Center of South Florida.

Sunny Isles History

Sunny Isles dates back to 1918, when Harvey Baker Graves bought 1,900 wilderness and waterfront acres between the ocean and bay from the Model Land Company with the dream of developing a tourist resort, "The Venice of America."

In 1925, the first Haulover bridge connected the area to the sandy trail leading to Miami Beach. Graves and other developers began creating canals, islands, and peninsulas suitable for waterfront properties. The 1926 hurricane destroyed investors’ plans for an international auto-racing center in the area when the million-dollar wooden racetrack with stands for 12,000 spectators was blown away after just one race. Ten years later, the half-mile-long Sunny Isles Pier jutting into the ocean in front of a casino and bathhouse became a major tourist attraction. The “Newport Pier” was designated a historic site in 1982 and remained a fishermen’s favorite until storm damage forced its closure a few years ago. Restoration plans for the landmark pier are underway.

Development remained slow in Sunny Isles Beach until the late 1940s and ‘50s. A Howard Johnson restaurant arrived in 1946, the same year the Golden Sands took Sunny Isles beachfront hotels to a new height: four stories. Motels appeared in the following years, preceded by the Ocean Palm, the first two-story “motor hotel” or motel in the U.S. The first single-family homes, built in the Golden Shores area in the ‘50s, marked another milestone for Sunny Isles Beach.

During the ‘50s and ‘60s, honeymooners and family vacationers crowded some 30 kitschy, neon-lit motels along Collins Avenue. With names like Desert Inn, Driftwood, Tahiti, and Surfcomber, the motels expressed themes to match; you can still see the Sahara’s concrete camels tended by the figure of an Arab in full flowing robes. The Thunderbird still shows a southwestern motif on its Mid-century Modern exterior. The concrete horses and a wagon that once stood guard at the now-demolished Colonial Inn occupy a corner of a city park. The Beatles were among the noted visitors to Sunny Isles Beach, cavorting at the Castaways Motel's famed Wreck Bar in 1964. The Castaways’ Polynesian paradise was demolished in the 1970s.

Mid-rise and high-rise condominium towers arrived to Sunny Isles Beach in the 1970s, bringing several thousand new residents (both year-round and seasonal) to the community. Through the 1980s, tourists from Europe and North America continued to flock to Sunny Isles hotels and motels, attracted by favorable exchange rates and value-for-money accommodations. In 1991, plans to develop a $22 million Wet ’n Wild water theme park in Sunny Isles were abandoned. Later, plans for an artificial underwater reef with a fully equipped concrete house for divers to swim through also sank.

As tourists in the early 1990s shifted their focus to South Beach and elsewhere in Miami Beach, Sunny Isles slumped. Motel Row had become a run-down haven for bargain-hunting visitors. Some motel owners began converting their properties to condos, selling off oceanfront units for under $40,000 each. This further depressed the Sunny Isles Beach real estate market. The only bright note was Oceania, a luxury condominium development of five planned towers on the Castaways’ site that raised the bar for luxury living in Sunny Isles Beach. The first Oceania towers sold out quickly, attracting buyers from Europe, Latin America, and the U.S.

Still, development stagnated until 1995, when the 29-story, 212-unit Sands Pointe sold out quickly. A majestically scaled spine of outlandishly futuristic condominium towers followed, triggering a flood of new development and a new look and expanded profile for Sunny Isles Beach. Discussions were held about connecting the oceanfront community with neighboring Aventura and changing its name to Aventura Beach. Instead, residents voted to incorporate Sunny Isles Beach as an independent municipality. Since then, major redevelopment has transformed the city with luxury high-rise condominiums, elegant hotels, and many amenities.