Condo properties, relatively scarce in New York, top shopping lists for out-of-towners and locals who want to cash in on the real estate boom. Las Vegas and Miami, two cities seeing development on a scale that dwarfs the Big Apple, are also a big draw for condo buyers, but industry veterans say not all investment desires are created equal.
“Not everybody,” said Eddie Shapiro, CEO of New York brokerage Nest Seekers, “wants to own a unit in Las Vegas or Miami, but everybody wants one in New York.”
Due to the high market demand and the fact that New York apartments are predominantly co-op, marketing efforts in the city are more low-key than those in Miami and Vegas. Some developers in New York don’t begin marketing until 50 percent of the units have been sold or rented through referrals and in-house contacts.
“In Manhattan,” Shapiro said, “you can throw in a marble bath and get away by calling the unit luxury. It really doesn’t matter where you put a project people are going to want to buy.”
In Miami and Las Vegas, marketers must work a little harder. That’s led to some innovative approaches in selling condo and condo-hotel properties. Responding to the assumption that tourists in Vegas have time only to wine, dine and gamble, developers of big hotels have been selling fully furnished hotel units to buyers. For a specified period of time, hotel-unit owners live in the lap of luxury; when that time has passed, the units lapse back into the hotel’s pool of rooms and can be rented out to other users.
Critics believe that the trend will trail off when units become out-dated and owners recognize the disadvantage of having limited access to their condos.
In one major project, actor George Clooney and real estate developers Related Las Vegas and Centra Properties have joined together to create Las Ramblas, a $3 billion dollar hotel, condominium and casino complex just off the Strip. The complex will include a 30,000-square-foot spa, casinos, restaurants and more than 4,400 hotel, condo and condo-hotel units.
The 66-acre, $5 billion MGM Mirage development, Project CityCenter, which will be even larger overall and is expected to be the biggest construction project in the U.S., will have 1,640 condo units among its many hotels and retail spaces. Meanwhile, the Ivana Las Vegas The Donald’s ex-wife, Ivana Trump, lent her name to the project is already selling its 945 condo units, and is being touted as the tallest residential tower west of the Mississippi at 923 feet and 82 stories.
Las Ramblas, for one, already has an elaborate Web site, complete with top-definition virtual renderings of the complex. Virtual renderings, a huge aspect of marketing in Miami and Vegas, is just catching on in New York as more developers recognize its potential.
“3-D virtual renderings have really taken off in California and Florida,” said Kevin Small, director at marketing firm Alpha Vision, which markets projects in New York and Miami. “It basically appeals to an investors market. You can hand it to them on DVD and let foreign investors access it on the Web.”
Like their Web sites, development and sales openings in Miami and Vegas tend to be flamboyant affairs with high-end parties featuring A-list celebs. Developers continue to one-up each other by building more extravagant clubrooms, verandas, cabanas, lobbies, spas, pools, and sun decks.
It’s a similar over-the-top approach with amenities. The latest Miami luxury is the fully remote-controlled apartment. Through a touch-screen pad, owners are able to control temperature and electronics. The system, which boasts 66,000 features, can be connected to a Blackberry and controlled from anywhere in the world.
JC DeNiro & Associates, a New York- and Florida-based brokerage, is working to bring some of this Miami sophistication to the city.
“Now we’re doing this in Miami for people who aren’t that busy,” said Christopher Mathieson, managing broker at JC DeNiro. “Imagine how appealing it would be for New Yorkers, who work 18 to 20 hours a day, if you’re in a cab, on your way home, you can check in from your Blackberry; turn the AC on, turn your favorite CD on, turn on your favorite program that you recorded on TiVo. You can play music, turn on the shower, lower the shades.”
Still, despite any shortcomings in gadgetry or glitz, projects in New York can bank on the cachet of the city itself in a way that is not possible elsewhere.
“In Vegas, they have the Strip,” Mathieson said. “In New York City, we have New York City.”