Outsized Trump goes boutique in Fort Lauderdale condo-hotel
Pre-construction sales started last month on Trump Las Olas Beach Resort, Donald Trump’s new 100,000-square-foot boutique condominium-hotel. Scheduled for completion in early 2008, the building is located on Fort Lauderdale Beach, just south of the city’s popular Las Olas Boulevard.
The project is Trump’s first boutique condo-hotel. The 12-story resort will have 95 guest rooms with estate-style butler service (whatever that may be), daily housekeeping, concierge service, limousine transportation, and pet sitting and walking services. There will also be a restaurant, fitness center, heated swimming pool, conference centers, and retail space. Deluxe studios, one-, and two-bedrooms range from $500,000 to $3 million.
Hurricane season precipitates insurance crisis for businesses
Florida’s insurance woes are widening to commercial properties, restaurants, shops and office buildings, according to the Miami Herald.
Because of the threat of hurricanes, insurers writing coverage for Florida businesses are backing away from the area, either canceling policies outright or gradually reducing their business in Florida by dropping policies come renewal time.
These cancellations create a problem for recruiters trying to lure companies to a region where other costs of living continue to escalate, the Herald reported. A Miami insurance agent reported that a client couldn’t take on a $14 million shopping center project in Weston, west of Miami, because the client couldn’t get insurance. Insurance experts claim the crisis has moved into a new stage as it is now affecting the real estate market and soon will hurt the state’s overall economy.
South Florida single-family home prices continue 2006 slide
Prices of single-family homes in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties have decreased since the beginning of 2006 as sales volume has plummeted, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Palm Beach County’s median price of $386,500 in April was down 2 percent from January, while Broward’s median of $360,600 fell 3 percent. Miami-Dade County’s median price of $374,500 also fell slightly since the beginning of the year.
The number of home sales plummeted across South Florida in April 2006 compared to April 2005; sales fell 43 percent in Palm Beach County, 37 percent in Broward County and 31 percent in Miami-Dade.
Palm Beach County pushes massive mixed-use development
Palm Beach County officially signed off in May on plans for a massive mixed-use development, but the project is currently on hold.
The project includes a whopping 10,000 residential units, 2 million square feet of research space, 500,000 square feet of offices, 1.3 million square feet of retail, and a 150-room hotel on the Callery-Judge Grove on the western edge of the county.
Though the county approved a plan that included a development program for the 3,900-acre site, it was held up by the state and has yet to be put into effect. The project is now being considered by the Florida Department of Community Affairs. A decision is expected in the coming month.
Downtown Miami’s Mary Brickell Village gets first tenants
P.F. Chang’s Chinese Bistro and a Regions Bank branch are the first tenants to open in Mary Brickell Village, a 195,000-square-foot commercial project in downtown Miami expected to have over 70 retailers. Starbucks, Enerjuicer juice bar and the La Romainville Bakery are set to open within the next three months, the Miami Herald reported.
Other tenants will fill in as construction finishes, including seafood and Cuban restaurants, a martini bar, a gourmet Publix, a hair salon and Bally’s Total Fitness. There will also be an apartment building with 329 units atop a seven-story parking garage. Units in the 35-story building will sell from $400,000 to $1.2 million. The project is expected to be completed by 2008.