KOYA Bay North Miami Beach: Intracoastal Townhomes, Reported Pricing and Deposit Questions

KOYA Bay North Miami Beach is a small townhome community in Eastern Shores, a private enclave in North Miami Beach. According to the developer's website, koyabay.com, as of this writing, the project offers just ten new waterfront residences on the Intracoastal waterway, each with four levels. The site describes the setting as tucked within the Eastern Shores enclave and frames the product around tranquil waterfront living. It is a very different proposition from a high-rise tower: ten homes, one developer, and a shared stretch of bayfront shoreline.

The developer is Macken Companies and the architect is Randall Stofft, as listed on the developer's website as of this writing. A November 2, 2020 announcement reproduced by PROFILEmiami described the plan as ten four-story luxury residences in the waterfront community of Eastern Shores, with each home to include a private elevator, rooftop terrace, dock and two-car garage with an optional car lift. Those amenities are the baseline for understanding what the homes are meant to offer on the water.

Geography matters here. Eastern Shores sits on the western side of the Intracoastal, so the water view is of the waterway and its boat traffic rather than open ocean. Buyers comparing waterfront options across northeast Miami-Dade often weigh this stretch against the island and point neighborhoods nearby and the oceanfront towers farther east. The useful questions are about frontage, dock position and orientation, not just the address.

Published pricing for a new development moves, so each figure below is tied to the outlet that reported it. According to the developer's website at koyabay.com, as of this writing, pricing is listed as starting from $2,794,900, and the site shows one residence available from developer inventory. The same page says the residences are fully furnished and available for immediate occupancy. That combination, a single available home that is already built, tells a buyer that this is no longer a pre-construction launch.

The figure looks different from the early announcements. In a report on the city's site plan approval, the Daily Business Review, as reproduced on the developer's site and undated there, wrote that prices start at $1.9 million for three-, four- and five-bedroom townhouses. That was a planning-stage number published before construction began, and it should be read as a historical marker rather than a current price. The gap between the two figures reflects the passage of time and a changed product, and it is a reminder not to compare asking prices drawn from different years.

A practical point follows. A starting price describes the lowest-priced available home, not the typical price. With only one residence marketed from developer inventory as of this writing, the from-price and the available home may be effectively the same unit. Anyone benchmarking value should ask the developer for the current price sheet, the residence it applies to, and what is included, including the furnishings the developer's site says come with the residences.

Deposit schedules at new developments are normally set in the purchase contract and the developer's offering materials, and they can differ by residence and by stage of construction. No deposit schedule appears on the developer's website as of this writing, and the pages that carry a dated, named report on KOYA Bay North Miami Beach do not set one out. For that reason this article does not quote deposit percentages. Any figure circulating online without a named, dated origin should be treated as unconfirmed until the developer's sales team provides it in writing.

The timing language matters as much as the percentages. Early marketing for projects like this one commonly ties installments to events such as contract signing and groundbreaking. The PROFILEmiami announcement of November 2, 2020 said the groundbreaking was scheduled for the second quarter of 2021. But the developer's website now describes furnished residences available for immediate occupancy, so milestone-based installments may not apply to a completed home. A buyer should ask directly whether the schedule is the original one or has been replaced by a closing-based structure.

Useful questions for the developer include how much is due at contract, whether any installments remain, where deposits are held, and what the contract says about the buyer's rights if a milestone is missed. These are questions for the sales office and the contract documents, and the answers should be collected in a single written statement so that the schedule can be compared with the contract itself.

In a tower, lines are stacked vertical columns, and the differences are floor height, compass orientation and which water is visible. In a ten-home townhouse community, a line is more like a position along the shoreline. The developer's website describes ten waterfront residences, and the 2020 announcement lists a dock as a feature of each home. That suggests every home has a relationship to the water, but the sources reviewed do not say that all docks, frontage widths or views are identical. Those details are worth confirming home by home.

Several things can separate one waterfront position from another: how wide the water frontage is, where the dock sits relative to the neighbors, whether the home looks straight across the Intracoastal or at an angle, and how much of the view is open water versus nearby structures. The rooftop terrace is the other variable. The Daily Business Review's description, as reproduced on the developer's site, notes an enclosed air-conditioned area and an open area with a Jacuzzi and summer kitchen on each terrace. Elevation affects what a terrace sees, so a buyer should stand on it, not just study the floor plan.

The compass direction a home faces also shapes daily life. Morning and afternoon sun, glare on the water and shade patterns vary by position, and a site visit at the hour you would use the terrace is more informative than a rendering. Ask the sales team for the site plan showing each lot's frontage, dock location and orientation, and compare homes using that document.

The earliest public description of the product gave a size range. The Daily Business Review, in coverage reproduced on the developer's site and undated there, wrote that the gated community would offer three-, four- and five-bedroom townhouses ranging from 2,900 to 3,600 square feet, each with its own elevator, a two-car garage with an optional car lift, and a rooftop terrace. The PROFILEmiami announcement of November 2, 2020 repeated the elevator, terrace, dock and garage features and described the homes as four stories.

Because those are planning-stage descriptions, buyers should not rely on them for as-built square footage or bedroom counts. Marketing materials for a finished home can describe interior area differently from early reports, for example by counting terraces, garages or lower levels in different ways. The reliable approach is to request the floor plan for the specific residence, along with the area figures the contract will use, and to confirm which spaces are air-conditioned living area and which are covered or open.

Features that carry across the planning-stage descriptions are the private elevator, the garage with an optional car lift, the rooftop terrace and the dock. For a waterfront buyer, the dock and terrace are the most consequential, because they determine how the home is used on the water rather than just looked at from inside. Ask what the dock can accommodate, since the sources reviewed do not state vessel size, lift capacity or water depth.

With so few homes, the character of the community depends on a small set of decisions made by the developer and the eventual owners. Ask for the governing documents, the budget and how shared elements are maintained. The sources reviewed do not state association fees, and none are quoted here. Request the current figure in writing, along with what it covers, and ask whether it applies to a single-family-style townhome arrangement or a condominium structure.

Physical questions belong in the same file. The sources reviewed do not describe the seawall, finished elevation or storm design, so a buyer should ask for those details from the developer and review the construction documents and any relevant approvals for the specific home. Inspect the dock and the waterline in person, and ask the sales office which features convey with the home, including the furnishings the developer's site says are part of the offering.

KOYA Bay North Miami Beach rewards a close, home-by-home reading rather than a skim of headline numbers. Wolsen Waterfront covers South Florida waterfront property only, and buyers who want help comparing waterfront positions can contact Denis Smykalov and the Wolsen Waterfront team to discuss what to request from the developer.