Condo Hotel Symposium Attracts 550+ Industry Leaders to Las Vegas

Condo Hotel Center and Information Management Network attracted over 550 top owners, developers, and service providers to their annual Symposium on Financing, Developing and Operating Condo Hotels on November 30 and December 1, 2006 at The Mirage in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event has proven to be the premier conference for educating new condo hotel market entrants and serving as a forum for candid discussions on the latest condo hotel trends.

"This was the first time I attended and I have to say that the content and agenda were well thought out, the speakers were excellent, and the networking was superb," said Mark Birtha, Vice President of Development, Edge-Star Partners.

 

"I truly enjoyed the opportunity to present to the attendees and found myself leaving with a higher level of knowledge, many new contacts, and some great ideas on the industry. Given where we are in terms of development, litigation, operations, and the overall future of this industry niche, the timing and relevance could not be better."

This year's Las Vegas Symposium featured over 30 sessions with 100 leading industry speakers discussing the latest trends and developments, over 40 condo hotel owners bringing their real-life experiences to the table and over 40 service providers exhibiting.

A very popular feature of the event was the geographic roundtable discussions, which gave participants the opportunity to delve deeply into various regional markets. Led by representatives from regions including Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, the East Coast, Florida, Las Vegas, California, and Arizona, participants addressed themes such as construction costs, buyer demographics, and entitlements.

The next Condo Hotel Symposium will be held in April 2006 in Orlando, Florida.  For more information on it as well as a summary of the sessions held at the Las Vegas conference, click here http://www.condohotelcenter.com/industry-news/in77.htm.

Trump Baja, Mexico Sells $120 Million of Condo Hotel Units In 1st Day

12/11/2006

SAN DIEGO- buyers purchased more than $122 million of Trump Ocean Resort Baja, Mexico’s condo-hotel residences.  They set a one-day real estate sales record for the country. Priced from the $200,000s to nearly $3 million, the 188 suites sold.  They represented 80% of Phase I of the project.

The Trump Baja results come just one month after the one-day, world record $700 million sell-out of Trump International Hotel & Tower Waikiki Beach Walk™. Combined, Baja and Waikiki topped $820 million in luxury residences sold during the two single-day sales events.

Partners in both projects include The Trump Organization, with Los Angeles-based development partner Irongate and sales & marketing firm S&P Destination Properties.

“The success of Trump Ocean Resort Baja has capped off an extraordinary month for our luxury real estate offerings,” said Donald J. Trump. “We’re looking forward to starting construction and creating one of the finest resorts in all of Mexico.”

“Trump will be the first truly world-class resort in Baja,” said Jason Grosfeld, co-founder of Irongate. “The design, architecture and service will be unsurpassed in the region.”

Located just 30 minutes from downtown San Diego, Trump Ocean Resort Baja will be highly distinguishable from other properties in the area. The property will boast a collection of amenities and features found only at luxury resorts, including an owner’s concierge; a lobby bar & lounge; a pool house bar & café; a fine dining restaurant; an infinity edge resort pool; lap and family pools; a spa and fitness center; tennis courts and walking trails.

“As evidenced by Friday’s sales results, Baja is clearly gaining momentum as a destination,” said Sid Landolt, president of S&P Destination Properties. “This is more good news for the resort real estate market. Clearly there’s still a lot of interest and demand for high-end vacation real estate.”

Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2007 with the completion of the first tower anticipated in late 2008. Phase Two is set to be released in early 2007.

If you are interested in Trump Baja information or in possibly reserving one of the remaining condo hotel units in the first tower, you can learn more here, http://www.condohotelcenter.com/condo-hotels/non-us/trump-baja.htm.

Aqualea Resort in Clearwater, FL Moving Forward

By Mike Donila

St. Petersburg Times
Published December 7, 2006

CLEARWATER - Work has begun on the much-anticipated Hyatt project, a mega-resort that is expected to help fill two voids on the beach: available rooms and parking spaces.

Crews last week began laying the groundwork for what will become the 150-foot-tall tower of the Aqualea Resort and Residences, a $140-million project that will include 250 condominium hotel units and 18 condominiums.

The overall project is expected to be finished in 27 months. But, city leaders say, a much-needed parking garage that is part of the development could be ready within a year.

This 750-space garage will include 400 public spaces. This is key because Beach Walk - a city revitalization initiative that includes walkways, plazas, greenery and fountains - will eat up about 500 existing public spaces beginning next year.

Word of construction starting on the Aqualea Resort comes as many big-ticket condo-hotel projects on the beach are experiencing delays and significant changes due to a softened real estate market.

A number of old hotels and motels have been torn down or closed down in recent years to make way for the projects, eliminating thousands of available rooms.

Development on the Aqualea was supposed to begin in March, but owners NJR Development asked the city for a nine-month extension because they needed to tweak construction plans.

The Aqualea project will replace the old Glass House Apartment Hotel and Beach Place, which took up about two acres.

If builders hadn't broken ground on the Aqualea by Dec. 31, 2006 the project would have been scaled back by 209 rooms, according to the city.

"They've paid the bill, pulled their permits and begun the foundation work, so they're good to go," said Garry Brumback, assistant city manager.

The condo hotel units will be individually owned but primarily rented to guests. Those units will cost between $500,000 and $2-million, while the traditional condominiums will cost between $2-million and $5.5-million.

NJR Development president Neil Rauenhorst said the buyers have shown a high level of interest in the development, especially a "strong level of interest outside this geographic area and all across the Midwest."

He said the units are geared mostly for second- or third-homeowners but referred questions about actual sales numbers to David Hooks who handles marketing for Aqualea.

Hooks on Wednesday said the project has done $40-million in sales, but he hadn't yet broken down how many buyers it had and what types of units were purchased.

Still, he said, sales "have been brisk and while some say the market has gone south, we say the sales have certainly supported Aqualea, and we're certainly pleased with the project."

"And now that it's under construction, we expect sales to continue, if not accelerate," Hooks said.

About the project

The Aqualea Resort and Residences is a Hyatt project located at 301 S. Gulfview Blvd., on Clearwater Beach. The resort will feature a spa and fitness center, a club, a terrace restaurant, a pool, room service and daily maid service.

Here's a snapshot of what's going in:

- 250 condo hotel units priced between $500,000 and $2-million.

- 18 condominiums priced between $2-million and $5.5-million.

- Parking garage with 750 spaces - 400 available for the public.

For more information, visit http://www.condohotelcenter.com/condo-hotels/featured-properties/aqualea.htm or contact Maria Lopez at Maria@CondoHotelCenter.com, 305-944-3090.

Activists Wage Battle Over Trump Soho

By John Koblin

The New York Observer

 

With a tall tower tucked among tiny office buildings and warehouses on the West Side in Soho, here comes Donald Trump, pricking the sky.

 

Mr. Trump’s proposed 45-story tower, which would be part hotel, part condo, at 246 Spring Street, next to Vandam and Varick streets, would be by far and away the most conspicuous symbol in the neighborhood.

 

So, for the past five months as the Department of Buildings comes closer to granting a permit for the building, Mr. Trump and community activists have been wrangling over the building’s development.

 

But this dispute has a special wrinkle to it.  No one is contesting whether a very tall building can go up in the area—in fact, the building, which is being constructed in a manufacturing zone, can legally be built.

 

The problem lies with whether the rather fuzzy combination of a condo and a hotel should be allowed to go up in this zone.  The city’s zoning resolution says that transient hotels—like S.R.O.’s—are allowed in manufacturing districts.

 

Critics of the tower—which include the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and officials like City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Congressman Jerry Nadler and State Senator Tom Duane—argue that the building might look and feel like a hotel, but residents will be living there, not visiting.

 

They said that this would lead to a troubling trend: Once Mr. Trump gets this building approved, developers everywhere will be eyeing manufacturing districts for large condo-hotels.

 

“There’s a specific and philosophical problem with it,” said Ms. Quinn. “Specifically, I think it’s too large and out of context. Philosophically, I don’t like the idea of having loopholes in manufacturing zones.”

 

So, is the conflict being waged in an attempt to stop a landslide of condo-hotel developments in manufacturing zones? Or is this a loophole for activists to stop tall buildings—condo-hotels or otherwise—in Soho?

 

Critics contend that they’re primarily concerned about the project’s lasting effects throughout the city, not its scale in Soho.

 

“If Trump built a 15-story condo-hotel, we would be absolutely, absolutely against it,” said Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

 

“The height and the scale of the building bother me incredibly, but there are things illegal about the building and legal things about it. The condo-hotel is illegal. I don’t want the scale of the issue to be a red herring that hides the fact that the city is violating its own laws here by approving this building.”

 

“This building will stick out literally and figuratively like a sore thumb,” said Ms. Quinn. “The problem is that once you do this once, it’s no longer out of context and there will be a physical precedent set.”

 

To understand the nitty-gritty of a potential wave effect, the Trump project is being constructed in a manufacturing zone called an M1-6 construction zone. These zones would be the ones most vulnerable to a wave of construction, since the floor-area ratio allows for buildings that are, say, 45 stories tall.

 

In Manhattan, there are M1-6 zones in Hudson Square, the Flatiron district, the garment district and in midtown south. The far more ubiquitous manufacturing zone is the M1-5, which has a shorter floor-area ratio—so buildings of, say, 20 stories, rather than 45, could go up.

 

“Our concern is not just the hype,” said Mr. Berman. “Whether it’s a 45-story building or a 25-story building, they just don’t belong in manufacturing zones.”

 

On the Trump project, the Department of Buildings has granted permits for foundation work and excavation. Ms. Quinn said the Department of Buildings is in negotiation with Mr. Trump and his joint developers, the Sapir Organization and Bayrock Group, over a restrictive declaration that would make sure the building is actually a hotel.

 

A spokeswoman for the Buildings Department, Jennifer Givner, disputed that and said the department isn’t in negotiations, but merely looking over proposals that the developers have made.

 

Want to know more about the Trump Soho?  Click here to see renderings and details.

http://www.condohotelcenter.com/condo-hotels/featured-properties/trump-soho.htm