From the South Florida website: New York-based Goldman Properties, founded in 1968 by Tony Goldman, its CEO, has made its mark in real estate by developing, revitalizing, and making urban neighborhoods habitable. Some of Goldman’s notable projects include converting abandoned buildings — such as the Soho Building at 110 Greene Street in Manhattan — into luxury lofts, buying up Miami’s Wynwood district and creating a community centered around art and restoring 25 properties in Philadelphia’s City Center. Goldman Properties has offices in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Miami Beach, employing over 250. With dozens of projects to his credit, Goldman Properties’ revenue is an estimated $75 million. Goldman talked to The Real Deal about where he believes the Miami real estate market is today and the best opportunities for development. – compiled by John Zur   [more]

From the South Florida website: South Florida hasn’t seen a residential real estate market like this, especially on the high
end, since 2005 and 2006, according to Corcoran CEO and President Pam Liebman. “On an
overall basis, South Florida is starting to really recover,” she said in the video above. “On a sales volume basis, sales are up about
12 percent this year, and we’ve seen a lot of very good movement in the
high end.” Liebman estimated that there were likely more sales over $10
million in South Florida this year than in any time in recent years.
“The volume of sales is up,” she said. “But prices are still flat.”

Kelly Mack, 36, is president of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group.
Specializing in the planning, design, marketing, and sales of luxury
residential developments, the company has generated over $9 billion in
sales since she became president in 2006. Mack earned her MBA at New
York University before joining Corcoran Sunshine, where she became
executive vice president in 2004. Last year, Mack was named the
first-ever Distinguished Young Alumna by New York University.

Which amenities are popular in new buildings today, and how has that
changed over the past year?
Amenities still create value — that
hasn’t changed. The strength of sales at a building like the Rushmore,
one of the most amenitized buildings in Manhattan, demonstrates that new
development buyers still want the complete package. That being said,
are there other developers who are scaling back on amenities during
predevelopment? Some are. 

Compiled by Candace Taylor. [more]

Moody’s Economy.com predicts a 20-year wait for South Florida’s housing market to fully recover

From the South Florida Web site: The South Florida residential real estate market will not rebound to
previous highs until 2030, according to a Moody’s Economy.com
prediction. The forecast made something of a stir when it appeared deep
in an article on community development districts in Business Week
Monday (see chart on the forecast after the jump). While Moody’s Economy.com was under a contractual obligation not to
release the specific data it had supplied to Bloomberg, it provided The
Real Deal with data that supported a reasonably similar forecast — a
peak to trough price trajectory that tells of a long road ahead for
Florida real estate.

From the South Florida Web site: Thousands of South Floridians are among the nation’s foreclosure victims who’ve learned the hard way that troubles spawned by that procedure don’t end when they lose their home. John King, a Coral Gables resident who defaulted on his mortgage and was foreclosed upon, found out last month that a Miami-Dade County court gave debt collectors permission to seek an additional $44,000 stemming from the litigation. Lenders, reeling from the collapse of boom real estate markets like South Florida, Las Vegas and California, are now pursuing their right to seek the unpaid mortgage balances of homeowners who have defaulted. Ben Hillard, a former investment banker who now is a real estate and corporate attorney at Hillard & Rogers in Largo, said banks are now able to pursue what are called deficiency judgments with greater frequency as they adjust to the realities of a market cratering.

From the July issue: In some South Florida circles, they are known as “the Other Trumps.”
Brothers Jules and Eddie, the sons of a South African tailor known as
“Willie,” have no financial, philosophical or even familial ties to
Donald Trump. However, the Brothers Trump have quietly built an empire
on luxury real estate development, one which includes Williams Island
(named after their dad), an 82-acre posh preserve for the rich in
Aventura; the 51-story Acqualina Resort & Spa in Sunny Isles; and
Luxuria in Boca Raton, seaside condos that include flat-screen
televisions in the bathrooms.
“We love building high-end boutique buildings on the water,” said
Michael Goldstein, who has worked for the Trumps for 13 years and is
president of sales.
“The luxury market is strictly a niche market,” added Goldstein.
“We’re strictly dealing with the high-end. Yeah, the market is slowing
down and if people tell you different, they’re lying. But people with
money always have money, and they always want the finest.”

From the South Florida Web site: Bogged down by pricing that
remains out of sync with plunging property values and buyers expecting
great deals, the $1 million-plus luxury market in South Florida moves
at a trickle compared to lower priced homes. Even realistically priced
but expensive homes sit on the market for twice as long as homes in the
$300,000 and under range, due mostly to the battering of the stock
market and sagging economy — and topped off by a tough financing
climate. Together, that’s taken plenty of prospective buyers out of the
equation. One doesn’t have to look far to find examples of luxury homes
that aren’t selling. A 10,000-square-foot Intracoastal home in Boca
Raton has been on the market for two years. The seller dropped the
price several times — from $12 million to $7.1 million. [more]

From the South Florida Web site: South Florida’s real estate
ranks, thinned by the market collapse, are starting to increase again
as brokerages anticipate an upturn. Some struggling part-timers left
the business as the boom times faded, and others near retirement exited
gracefully. Those who hung on are sharpening their swords in
preparation for renewed opportunities. Home sales are once again on the
rise, but different strengths are needed for a market characterized by
lower prices, fewer buyers, and rising foreclosures. Companies like Flagler Development are taking advantage of the down economy to recruit talented brokers and train them to leverage market opportunities. In the last six months, the firm has hired four people, taking advantage of cutbacks at rivals such as CB Richard Ellis. [more]

From the South Florida site: They’re still at the top of the
list, but now it’s a positive stat: bargain basement prices set by the
banks that foreclosed on them meant seven of the top 10 most
foreclosure-ridden complexes last year ranked among the 10 top-selling
projects in the first three months of 2009. Miami-based market research
firm CondoReports.com compiled the data, which listed the three top
sellers as Shoma at Keys Cove in Homestead, ranked first with 50 sales;
Mandarin Lakes near South Miami Heights, with 32 sales; and Bluewaters
subdivision in the Country Walk area, also with 32 sales. [more]

From the South Florida Web site: A multimillion-dollar mansion
sale last week brought the extent of the housing crash home to the very
highest end of the South Florida market. Prices, expectations and
declining property values all played a role in the 40 percent discount
reached in the sale of the Palm Beach Island home of William and Sarah
Farish, politically connected prominent Kentucky horse breeders, who
last week accepted $8.38 million for their mansion at the southern end
of the island. Some realtors gulped when they did the math on the sale.
James Orthwein Jr., a trustee of the James B. Orthwein Jr. Revocable
Trust and a scion of the St. Louis Busch family, paid $5.57 million
less than the asking price of $13.95 million. The comments reveal as
much about the alternate reality of the luxury property market as the
sale itself. [more]