South of Fifth vs. South Beach Condos: What Changes Below Fifth Street

South of Fifth is the southern tip of South Beach, the blocks below 5th Street around South Pointe Park. Crossing Fifth mostly changes the building stock: five of the six towers compared here share one architect, Sieger Suarez, while the rest of South Beach mixes Art Deco walk-ups, hotel-linked residences and bayfront towers.

Where the line actually falls

Fifth Street is the seam because it is where the MacArthur Causeway from the mainland lands on Miami Beach. Below it, the island narrows toward its tip. South Pointe Drive runs along the southern edge, Alton Road runs down the bay side, and the city's South Pointe Park sits at 1 Washington Avenue, where the City of Miami Beach lists a playground, a dog park, beach access and paid parking. The city's public art collection also includes Tobias Rehberger's 2014 gate for the park's pier.

North of Fifth is the South Beach most visitors picture: Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue, Lincoln Road and the West Avenue bayfront. Our two neighborhood pages are /neighborhoods/south-of-fifth and /neighborhoods/south-beach.

Addresses right at the seam deserve a map check. Our directory files Five Park under South of Fifth at 501 West Avenue, but our research notes on the building record that development materials describe its street address differently. Confirm the legal address and the entrance that serves the unit before you rely on either neighborhood label.

Below Fifth, the historic grid has its own district

The Art Deco district that made South Beach famous does not continue below Fifth under the same name. The City of Miami Beach's 1995 designation report for the Ocean Beach Historic District describes an area south of Sixth Street whose northern boundary is co-terminus with the southern boundary of the National Register Architectural District, the one also known as the Art Deco District. The city's historic-districts map, in its May 17, 2018 revision, lists Ocean Beach among its local historic districts.

The report traces the area to the original Ocean Beach Subdivision, whose first plat was filed on July 9, 1912, bounded by present-day 5th Street, Ocean Drive, Biscayne Street and Washington Avenue, and it describes the district as the birthplace of the City of Miami Beach. It was prepared partly because the city's preservation board worried about losing older structures in what it called the South Pointe Redevelopment Area.

The practical result is two kinds of property in one enclave: older low-rise stock in the historic grid, and large towers on South Pointe Drive and Alton Road. The report draws its boundary street by street, so whether a particular building falls inside the district depends on its exact address. If historic status matters to your plans, check that address on the city's map.

Six towers below Fifth, compared

Continuum South Beach is described by its developer as two condominium towers on a 12-acre oceanfront site, designed by Sieger Suarez with interiors credited to Allen Saunders; a 2019 city record places the South Tower at 100 South Pointe Drive. The profile is at /buildings/continuum-south-beach.

Apogee South Beach, at 800 South Pointe Drive, is a Related Group building of 67 residences across 22 floors, with Sieger Suarez architecture and Yabu Pushelberg interiors. That is roughly three homes a floor. See /buildings/apogee-south-beach.

Portofino Tower, at 300 South Pointe Drive, is recorded by Sieger Suarez at 45 floors and 228 residences with a 1998 build year, or about five homes a floor. It is a separate project from Murano at Portofino, so make sure the documents you receive belong to the right association. See /buildings/portofino-tower.

On the bay side, Murano Grande at 400 Alton Road is credited by Related Group to Sieger Suarez, with interiors by Rockwell Group, at /buildings/murano-grande. ICON at South Beach, at 450 Alton Road, is a 2005 Sieger Suarez tower whose common interiors Related credits to Philippe Starck and YOO; the architect's and developer's published floor counts differ, so we do not assign one. See /buildings/icon-at-south-beach.

Five Park is the newcomer: Terra's portfolio describes a 48-story tower completed in 2024, and the official site names Arquitectonica as architect, Gabellini Sheppard as interior architect and a three-acre park beside the building. See /buildings/five-park.

None of these six profiles carries reviewed floor plans on this site yet, so ask for the recorded plan of the exact residence rather than a marketing layout.

North of Fifth, more ways to own

The Setai Residences at 101 20th Street belong to a hotel complex whose operator attributes the original Art Deco hotel building to Henry Hohauser, and the residential association sits alongside hotel operations; see /buildings/the-setai-residences. The Ritz-Carlton Residences, South Beach is marketed as 30 residences at 1671 Collins Avenue, designed by Kobi Karp, with a described relationship to the Sagamore and Ritz-Carlton hotel facilities. We have not verified its completion date; the profile is at /buildings/ritz-carlton-residences-south-beach.

On the bay, West Avenue holds conventional condominium buildings such as Bentley Bay North at 540 West Avenue, an Arquitectonica project. With the Art Deco walk-ups, the choice north of Fifth is about format as much as location.

Ocean, channel or bay

Orientation varies more below Fifth than the label suggests. Continuum's site is oceanfront, the South Pointe Drive towers sit near the park and the channel at Government Cut, and the Alton Road buildings face the bay. North of Fifth the same split runs between Collins Avenue and West Avenue. On either side, judge the view from inside the unit, not the lobby.

Renting it out: the city and the association both decide

Miami Beach treats stays of less than six months and one day as vacation or short-term rentals. The city says they are prohibited in all single-family homes and in many multifamily buildings in certain zoning districts, and it publishes a short-term rental zoning map and a list of authorized apartment buildings. Even where zoning permits it, the documents the city requires for a short-term rental business tax receipt include a letter from the association, dated within the last 60 days, confirming that short-term rental is allowed for the specific unit.

So on both sides of Fifth the answer is building by building and unit by unit. Check the zoning map, then read the declaration and rules before you count on rental income.

Questions buyers ask about South of Fifth versus South Beach

Choosing a side of Fifth

Choose below Fifth if you want a tower at the residential tip beside a large public park, and you are comfortable with a skyline shaped mostly by one firm. Choose north of Fifth if you want to walk to Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive, want a hotel-serviced residence or prefer a historic low-rise building.

Whichever side you pick, request the association's budget, reserve study and milestone inspection records; our explainer is at /blog/miami-condo-milestone-inspection-sirs and the association directory is at /condo-associations. Neighborhood figures on our pages are research estimates, not comps, and the method behind them is at /market-stats. Single-area guides are at /blog/south-of-fifth-condo-guide and /blog/south-beach-condo-guide, with building guides at /blog/continuum-south-beach-guide, /blog/apogee-south-beach-guide and /blog/murano-grande-guide; Mid-Beach is compared at /blog/mid-beach-vs-south-beach-condos.

Miami availability

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