Advice On Investing In A Condo Before A Massive Renovation Miami

[Danny N.]

Before you guys mention how condos are bad investments or how they dont get 2% a month bc of maintenance fees, let me say this is a personal vacation home and would be bought at 70 cents on the dollar. I have rental homes back in texas that do generate high returns but this is my 4th flipped condo in south beach I'll be looking to buy after having sold the previous 3 for great gains without , my current one just went under contract for a 38% cash on cash return in 1 year so for the most part I know what I'm doing with these condos but an incredible offer just came across my realtors desk and I wanted some advice.

So there is a building with units in the $1200-2000/sq ft range and I have the opportunity to snag a water view unit on a low floor, 9th floor, for $750/ft but there is a big catch. The building was built in the 1990s and is about to undergo a monster 3 year renovation which Im sure will turn out to be 4-5 as nobody ever finishes on time. Then ontop of a maintenance fee thats about $1300/mo as is, there will be a special assessment that will be 2 years of maintenance fee up front, so $30k or so added to the price basically, but its in the best, most expensive neighborhood. The location is unreal and all the buildings surrounding this property are selling in the $1200+ range per sq ft. 

With so many question marks about the renovations to the building, would a deal like that be something worthwhile? Im only scared bc the building will be 24 years old in 4 years but of course it will be brand new basically, will it be worth more than the surrounding properties at that point? Or will new construction always be significantly more? The thing is there is no space to build new construction on the water anymore in this area, so renovating buildings is the only option.

Just interested in hearing some different opinions