Building facts
- Address
- 1025, 1045 Michigan Avenue
- Neighborhood
- South Beach
- Year built
- 1925
- Floors
- 2
- Residences
- 15
- Status
- Completed
- Pricing
- Starting at $625,000
1025, 1037 & 1045 Michigan Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida 33139 | Neighborhood: South Beach
It’s one of the oldest buildings on his list, but Josh Stein’s Villa Lucca remains the world-class structure it was in 1925. Renovated in 2008, these luxury condominiums in Miami Beach continue to wow nearly a century after they arrived in South Florida.
With just 15 coveted units across two floors, you’ve truly found a private resort-style home in a bustling area of Miami. Choose from one or two-bedroom units. Your European-style kitchen features stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. Large, impact-resistant windows allow light into each room, illuminating the Brazilian cherry wood floors underfoot. A state-of-the-art video intercom system is ready for your disposal. Soundproofing in each unit prevents noise from carrying between residents. Both the plumbing and electrical systems have been recently upgraded.
Outside your unit, you’ll enjoy reserved and gated parking, an enviable commodity in a busy area. A beautifully landscaped walkway leads to a private garden for residents. Venture from the property and you’ll soon come upon the hottest nightlife spots and best beaches. You can’t go wrong at Villa Lucca.
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Villa Lucca in the Miami Beach Architectural District
The Miami Beach Architectural District, almost always called the Art Deco District, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 1979. It runs from the Atlantic Ocean west to Alton Road, and from 6th Street north to the Collins Canal and Dade Boulevard. Depending on how you count, it holds between the over 800 properties built between 1923 and 1943 cited by the City of Miami Beach and roughly 960 historic buildings counted elsewhere. Either way it is the largest collection of Art Deco architecture anywhere in the world.
Villa Lucca dates to 1925 and stands at 1025, 1045 Michigan Avenue. With 15 residences, it belongs to the small-building stock that gives the district its scale. Buildings of this vintage in South Beach are usually Mediterranean Revival rather than Deco proper, the style that dominated Miami Beach before Art Deco arrived. Stucco walls, barrel-tile roofs, arched openings and courtyard plans are the tells.
What it costs to own here: the three-story rule
Florida milestone inspection requirements apply to condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or more in height, at 30 years of age, or 25 years where the local enforcement agency cites conditions such as salt-water proximity (Fla. Stat. 553.899). HB 913 (2025) refined the trigger to buildings with three or more occupied stories, excluding garages and non-habitable areas, and applied the same threshold to Structural Integrity Reserve Studies, required every 10 years.
At 2 stories, Villa Lucca falls below that statutory threshold. It is not compelled to carry out milestone inspections or fund a Structural Integrity Reserve Study on a mandated schedule. In a market where Miami condo special assessments in 2026 commonly run $30,000 to $75,000 per unit, with some projects exceeding $100,000 per unit, that is a material difference in carrying cost.
The counterweight matters just as much. Exemption from a mandated inspection is not exemption from physics. A building of this age still needs a roof, plumbing, electrical and a wind-rated envelope. The difference is that no statute forces the association to study and fund that work on a timetable. Read the reserve balance, the minutes and the maintenance history yourself, and budget for what a study would have found. Lower mandated cost, higher personal diligence burden.
Renovating in a historic district
Interiors are generally straightforward. Exterior alterations are not: work visible from the street in a Miami Beach local historic district goes through the city Historic Preservation Board review process, codified in Miami Beach Code Chapter 118, Article X. Miami-Dade is also a High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, so impact-rated windows and doors are required, and inside the district those products have to satisfy preservation review on appearance as well as code. Budget more time than a comparable renovation off the beach, and use trades who have been through the process before.
There is a second layer buyers routinely miss. Local Miami Beach designation governs day-to-day alterations. National Register listing is what triggers the stronger state-law protections under SB 1730 and SB 1526. Many buildings here are locally designated but not individually National Register listed, and the two are not interchangeable. Ask which applies to this specific building before assuming it is protected.
Is the district protected from demolition?
Substantially, yes. The Florida Resiliency and Safe Structures Act (SB 1526, 2024), which allows owners to demolish and replace certain non-conforming coastal buildings, explicitly excludes structures on the National Register and several locally designated Miami Beach neighbourhoods including Ocean Drive and the Art Deco District. The 2025 Live Local update, SB 1730, effective July 1 2025, caps development inside National Register districts at the maximum height allowable within a three-quarter-mile radius and permits facade replication. Its protections attach to National Register districts rather than to buildings that are only locally designated.
Why supply here can never grow
The historic district southern boundary is 6th Street. That one line explains the entire South Beach price map. Everything south of it, including Continuum, Apogee, Portofino Tower, Icon South Beach, Murano Grande and Five Park, sits outside the preservation overlay, which is why 40-plus-story towers were legally possible there and nowhere in the blocks immediately north. Inside the district, the two and three-story stock is permanently capped. New Art Deco cannot be built. It can only be restored.
The neighborhood around Villa Lucca
- Art Deco Welcome Center, 1001 Ocean Drive, the Miami Design Preservation League base. Daily 90-minute walking tours run $35 for adults and $30 for students and seniors; a self-guided audio tour is $25.
- Ocean Drive, the photographic core of the district, including the Colony Hotel at 736 Ocean Drive and its much-photographed neon.
- Espanola Way, three blocks of Mediterranean Revival, pedestrianised at weekends.
- Lincoln Road, the pedestrian mall from Washington to Alton, designed by Morris Lapidus in the 1960s.
- Collins Avenue, the Streamline Moderne hotel corridor running north toward the Raleigh redevelopment at 18th Street.
Who buys in the Art Deco district
Three buyers, consistently. Design-motivated primary and second-home purchasers, for whom this is the only walkable, ocean-adjacent product in Miami Beach at anything near this price point. Cost-conscious buyers deliberately targeting sub-three-story buildings to stay outside the milestone and reserve regime. And preservation-minded owners who treat design review as the price of a protected streetscape rather than as an obstacle.
Two practical notes. South Beach transacts at a high cash rate, and small older condominium buildings are frequently non-warrantable for conventional financing, so confirm financing early rather than late. And adaptive reuse has decisively proved the value thesis: the Shore Club restored its 1939 Art Deco building alongside a new tower and put a penthouse under contract north of $120 million, while the Rosewood Raleigh redevelopment is asking $150 million. Historic fabric is now the premium, not the constraint.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the Miami Beach Art Deco District?
The Miami Beach Architectural District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 1979. It runs from the Atlantic Ocean west to Alton Road and from 6th Street north to the Collins Canal and Dade Boulevard. Counts range from the City of Miami Beach figure of over 800 properties built between 1923 and 1943 to roughly 960 historic buildings, depending on the counting method. It is the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world.
Can you actually buy an Art Deco condo in Miami Beach, or are they all hotels?
You can buy them, but most of the famous Ocean Drive frontage is hotels. Genuine residential Art Deco condominiums cluster one to three blocks inland, on Meridian, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Jefferson and Euclid Avenues and along Espanola Way. A third category, condo-hotels, can be owned but operates as hospitality and is underwritten differently. Always confirm which of the three a specific building is before you make an offer.
Does Villa Lucca have to do Florida milestone inspections?
No. Florida milestone inspections and Structural Integrity Reserve Studies apply to condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or more in height, under Fla. Stat. 553.899 as refined by HB 913 in 2025. At 2 stories this building falls below that threshold and is not compelled to inspect or fund reserves on a statutory schedule. That lowers mandated cost, but it raises your own diligence burden, because the underlying maintenance need does not disappear.
Are Miami Beach Art Deco buildings protected from demolition?
Substantially. Florida 2024 Resiliency and Safe Structures Act, SB 1526, which allows demolition and replacement of certain non-conforming coastal buildings, explicitly excludes National Register structures and several locally designated Miami Beach neighbourhoods including Ocean Drive and the Art Deco District. The 2025 Live Local update, SB 1730, added height caps and facade replication rules inside National Register districts. Note that protections differ between National Register listing and local-only designation.
Can I renovate an Art Deco condo in Miami Beach?
Interiors are generally straightforward. Exterior alterations visible from the street go through the City of Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board review process under Chapter 118, Article X of the city code. Miami-Dade is a High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, so impact-rated windows and doors are required, and inside a historic district those products must also satisfy preservation review on appearance. Allow more time than an equivalent renovation elsewhere in the city.
Why does South of Fifth have towers when the Art Deco District has none?
Because the historic district southern boundary is 6th Street. Everything south of that line, including Continuum, Apogee, Portofino Tower, Icon South Beach, Murano Grande and Five Park, sits outside the preservation overlay, so high-rise development was legally possible there and not in the blocks immediately north. That single boundary explains both the South of Fifth premium and why Art Deco district supply is permanently capped.
Is financing harder on a small older Art Deco building?
Often, yes. Small older condominium buildings are frequently non-warrantable for conventional financing, which is one reason South Beach transacts at a high cash rate. Establish financing early rather than late, and ask the association for the documents a lender will want before you are under contract.
Related coverage
Part of Art Deco Condos in Miami Beach.