· Bargain hunters scoop up discounted units in Southwest Florida.
· South Beach, FL a sellers’ market as inventory shrinks sharply.
· Atlanta buyer pays $31M for 37-year-old Sunny Isles Beach, FL apartment complex.
· Non-gaming Planet Hollywood Towers Westgate opens in Las Vegas.
· Providence, RI mayor buys into struggling condo project to save local market.
· Summit at Copper Square owners in Phoenix fight to stop lender from foreclosing 74 remaining unsold units
(SARASOTA, FL)—Deeply discounted prices have turned Southwest Florida markets into a buying frenzy, according to local brokers.
The median price in the Sarasota-Bradenton hub was down 20 percent from a year ago to $141,000 in November. In Punta Gorda-North Port, the media dipped 22 percent to $80,000.
Sarasota broker Perry J. Corneau (top left) tells the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, “A lot of people have been wanting to buy – they were just waiting for the price to come down.
“Now they are down to 2003 levels, where they were before the boom started – and people are thinking they don’t need to wait any more. Everything is on sale.”
Sales are also hot throughout the state. November sales in Orlando were up 301 percent; in Fort Myers-Cape Coral, up 174 percent; in Tallahassee, up 150 percent; and in Tampa Bay, up 80 percent.
But closing on a bargain-basement deal isn’t easy, cautions broker Charles H. “Charlie” Bray (top right photo) of Surfside Realty in Englewood, FL.
“Right now, you’ve got to have cash to buy a condo,” he tells the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “If you go to a bank, they will put you through the ringer.”
Less than two percent of the South Beach inventory in condo projects with at least 30 units are available for resale in Miami Beach's internationally acclaimed neighborhood, far less than the industry standard of 10 percent typically found in a normal market, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.
There are currently 258 units available for resale in the 25-block stretch of South Beach from South Pointe Drive north to 24th Street, the Atlantic Ocean west to Biscayne Bay.
The area is home to nearly 16,400 units located in 147 projects with at least 30 units, according to the newly released Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To South Beach™.
"The rule of thumb is, in a normal market some 10 percent of the units in a project are available for resale at any given time," says Peter Zalewski, (middle left photo) a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC."If a condo has more than 10 percent of its units available for resale, the buyers have the negotiating advantage. On the flip side, if less than 10 percent of the units are listed for resale, the sellers have the advantage.”
Zalewski adds, "South Beach is definitely a seller's market considering the current inventory levels available for resale. By comparison, several other areas in South Florida have resale rates of 20-percent plus of the available condo inventory."
(SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL)-- CondoVultures.com reports an Atlanta group has acquired Vistaview Apartments, (middle left photo) a 37-year-old, 308-unit complex in the barrier island city of Sunny Isles Beach for $31.3 million or $92 per square foot.
The newly created entity, JTCI5 Sunny Isles LP, along with Matt M. Bronfman, (middle right photo) acquired nearly 340,000 square feet of livable space in the four-building complex situated on seven acres, according to the CondoVultures.com report based on Miami-Dade County records.
More than 18,000 condominium units -- including a new tower still under construction today -- exist in the Sunny Isles Beach submarket of Miami-Dade County, according to preliminary research for the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To Sunny Isles Beach™.
The seller, Vistaview Apartments Limited with Yizhak Toledano of Aventura, deeded over the complex on Dec. 16, 2009. Toledano signed the deed, according to Miam-Dade County records.
In unison with the deed transfer, Utah-based Capmark Bank assigned the remaining outstanding balance of a $48.7 million loan secured by the complex over to Vista Sunvest LLC of Wilmington, Del.
Capmark Bank provided the loan in November 2007, but just 20 months later in July 2009 filed to foreclose on Vistaview Apartments, according to Miami-Dade County records. In 2008, the property had an assessed value of $29.8 million, according to the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser.
The first phase of the planned two-tower, 52-story, 2,700-unit Planet Hollywood Towers by Westgate(middle right photo) has welcomed its first 20 owners who plan to use the premises as vacation homes and traditional hotel rooms, according to Westgate Resorts chief operating officer Mark Waltrip.
The top five stories of the first tower consist of 40 penthouse units sized from 4,000 square feet to 12,000 square feet. Eighty percent of the tower will be used as hotel rooms, Waltrip says.
The condo-hotel project’s partners are Planet Hollywood and Orlando-based Westgate Resorts. Westgate owns the property; Planet Hollywood is the marketing and operating partner.
The transaction saved the property from going to a foreclosure auction the same week, according to the Providence Business News. The Athena Group LLC of New York City had defaulted on a $69 million acquisition loan.
The price was not disclosed. However, Winn Development president and managing partner Lawrence H. Curtis confirmed Winn helped financed the deal with a $17 million loan from Columbus Bank and Trust Co. of Georgia.Paolino Properties, which had managed 903 Residences, had previously invested in the property. Winn Development will now manage the asset.
(PHOENIX, AZ)-Three Canadian investment groups have teamed to buy 78 units for $4.875 million or $62,500 per unit at the 240 unit Riverwalk at Papago Park community.(bottom left photo)
Mark Forrester, a partner in Phoenix-based Hendricks & Partners, told the Phoenix Business Journal some of the units at Riverwalk are privately owned; others have been leased out as apartments.
Forrester says Canadian investors are playing a prominent role in the current Phoenix condo sales market. Hendricks & Partners of Phoenix represented the seller. SiteWest of Phoenix negotiated for the buyers.
(PHOENIX, AZ)—In a metro area that didn’t produce its first high-rise condominium community until 1990, the fate of the two-year-old, 165-unit Summit at Copper Square is grabbing the attention of players in the local condo sales market.
The owners of the development are fighting to stop the lender from foreclosing on 74 of the unsold units and selling them at fire-sale prices – a move that could lower the value of the entire condo market in Phoenix, they argue.
The three corporate owners are W Developments LLC with a 30 percent stake; Summit Investors LLC, also with a 30 percent stake; and Diamondstar Partners III LLC, a Wheaton, IL firm with a 40 percent equity investment.
According to court documents, they defaulted in August 2008 on interest payments for an original $64 million loan.
The owners seek Chapter 11 protection and have submitted a reorganization plan to an Illinois bankruptcy court judge. Judge Eugene Wedoff is expected to rule on the plan at a possible January hearing, according to the Arizona Republic.
The current lender is Stearns Bank of Scottsdale, AZ. Stearns bought a number of bundled notes from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. after the FDIC had taken over the original lender, FNBN or First National Bank of Nevada in Reno, NV in July 2008.
But when FNBN went under, the value of the $64 million notes was about $28 million. Stearns bought that note for $6.4 million, according to WeKnowUrban.
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