In Light of Recent Hurricanes, New Condo Developments Incorporate Generators
Spanish-style homes alongside golf courses and tree-lined streets in Coral Gables, an affluent Miami suburb, were dark for a full two weeks after Hurricane Wilma struck South Florida last October.
Phillip Yaffa, a local real estate developer, noticed.
Even as power returned to much of Miami-Dade County after the 2005 storm, these expensive homes remained without working AC, refrigerators and other comforts. What if, Yaffa thought, he could design multi-family residences that were both befitting the upscale Coral Gables lifestyle and able to produce power after severe storms?
Enter Casa Majorca, a 36-unit development of multi-family homes, which the developer terms “city homes,” featuring a large electrical generator that provides ample juice to each unit — enough to power a refrigerator, microwave oven, water heater, television and even a fan or two in the event of a weather event.
“What we will be able to do is energize inside the individual unit, energize the key elements to keep their life somewhat in order during the course of a storm. While you look down a dark street, we’re going to be lit up,” Yaffa said.
Casa Majorca is one of a few multi-residence developments in the entire South Florida real estate landscape with plans to install a hurricane generator that could provide emergency power for individual condo units.
A bill signed in June by Gov. Jeb Bush requires the owners or operators of any building that at least 75 feet high to be able to run at least one elevator on generator power, as well as power the fire alarm system, but these developers are going beyond those requirements.
Charles Kibert, a construction professor at the University of Florida, said providing emergency power to individual condo units is a good idea, seeing that research has shown (and the damage of 2004-2005 will attest) that the Atlantic Ocean is in the middle of an active cycle of storms.
“Maybe we’re seeing a trend here where people are seeking backup power because predictions for the future are that this would keep happening,” Kibert said.
Hundreds of Floridians have purchased whole-house generators for individual homes. Now, given the frequency of hurricanes and the prediction that many more may come in the next 10-15 years, it seems builders of multi-unit residential projects are getting wired, too.
Of course, unless you’ve got the ability to take out a large Florida home loan, it may be a moot point. At Casa Majorca, units run from 1,150 to 1,931 square feet and are being offered at $600,000-800,000 at current pre-construction prices. They feature high-end furnishings and fixtures, such as single-mold glass sinks and Sub Zero refrigerators. The urban low-rise development also includes a swimming pool and exercise room.
It will also include the gas-powered generator, which is much larger than portable generators or those commonly used for single-family homes. The units would have a regular circuit used during normal periods and an emergency circuit available when the power goes out, according to David Belsky of RCI Engineering.
“The idea and the scheme is expensive because it’s new. You have to make the generators larger and you have to run two separate circuits. The wiring is almost duplicated,” he said.
Bids are currently being fielded for the development’s electrical contract, but Yaffa said early estimates would put the generator at about $250,000, or around $7,000 per unit. The power will allow residents to run a fridge, microwave, water heater and some outlets. However, it would not run central air because that simply saps too much energy.
The development will have a maintenance fee, and the cost of the emergency power would be funneled to the residents through it.
The idea comes at a time when the Florida housing market is experiencing a general slowdown, and Yaffa acknowledged that the hurricane generator is “a wonderful marketing tool that would give us still another reason to put us apart from the market.”
Eleven condo units are under contract so far, he said. Yaffa said he was aware of the current active cycle for hurricanes when he came up with the generator idea. Like any Florida resident, he keeps his eye on the tropics for storm development.
“Believe me, nothing will make me happier if we turn the generator on only for parties,” Yaffa said. “Nobody wants to see a storm come in. But would you spend $600 or $700 a year for the next 20 years to know that in the event you lose power for maybe two or three weeks at a time that you could watch TV, listen to the radio, cook, have a cold drink, take a hot shower?”
Many residents of South Florida, already reeling from the combination of skyrocketing energy and property insurance costs, as well as monthly Florida home mortgage payments, would probably not. But on the flip side, there is a significant contingent of Coral Gables residents who can not only afford it, but are willing to pay for the convenience it provides.
