In accordance with Scandinavian legend, a single tree has been placed atop Aventura’s ArTech project to appease the spirits of displaced trees.

By Helen Hill

Super Bowl, Super Living       

With a name like Fortune International, the Miami-based real estate development and sales company has a direct line to psychic predictions on the Super Bowl outcome while promoting sales in Flamingo South Beach to upscale audiences in town for the big game.

Michael Lerner and Arthur Slavin of Chicago-based MCZ/Centrum, developer of Flamingo South Beach condominiums, and Edgardo Defortuna, founder and president of Fortune International, are the exclusive real estate sponsors of the Sprint Style Villa on Ocean Drive Village. This two-story glass house built right on the beach, produced by Ocean Drive magazine and Miami Marketing Group, will host athletes, celebrity guests and VIPs during Super Bowl XLI.

The “Find Your Fortune at Flamingo” penthouse at the Sprint Style Villa, Flamingo South Beach will be open from Friday, Feb. 2, through Sunday, Feb. 4, and will feature some noted South Florida psychics, including Jill Dahne, who will predict game results. Visitors to the suite will also be invited to try their fortune at winning a free, one-year lease at the condominium community on Biscayne Bay. Hidden within hundreds of keys will be at least one key (how many total winning keys, perhaps only the psychics know) that will unlock a specially designed “glass” house encasing a Lucite replica of the Flamingo building, complete with its ubiquitous blue neon rooftop ring. Flamingo suite guests will also be treated to “Flamingo-tinis,” made from Absolut Mandarin vodka, and videos of Flamingo South Beach, currently undergoing $30 million in renovations.

Expect to see some famous football players heading to, where else, Flamingo South Beach this weekend to survey the 2007 Home of Legends show home, open onsite at 1500 Bay Road, to get a feel for Miami Beach-style resort living in a luxury waterfront condominium community.

A Super Bowl tradition in its fourth year, this is the first time the Home is being featured in a condominium. Ferrari Interiors, Inc. has designed a model residence for contemporary living with a mix of sleek cabinetry and countertops, stylish kitchen and bath fixtures, exotic wood floors and natural stone surfaces. Sponsors include American Standard, CaesarStone, KraftMaid, Mirage Flooring and Soli tile, with home furnishings and accessories by Anima Domus, Design Depot, Idea, Ogetti, Poltrana Frau and Roche Bobois.

Home of Legends sponsors will be involved in a variety of exclusive events to be attended by former and current NFL players. A portion of each premier sponsorship package will be donated to the NFL Alumni’s “Caring For Kids” program, which engages in hands-on community service and raising funds for youth-oriented charitable causes.

The show home is set to be featured in upcoming issues of Home and Florida InsideOut magazines, who are co-presenting the project.

Hotel Sold

Some notable real estate deals take place under the radar. For example, Miami’s Sam Brenner Inc. has been involved in buying and selling more than a few Miami Beach hotels, commercial and apartment buildings over several decades. Sam Brenner, also known as “The Poet Laureate of Surfside,” is retired, but son Bard Brenner keeps the transactions going all around town. Most recently, he was a real estate broker involved in the sale of The Holiday Inn Golden Glades hotel (148 NW 167th St., North Miami Beach) for $10 million. The seven-story, 163-room property, completed in 1971, sits on a 1.4-acre lot with an additional parking lot of nearly two acres across the street.

Buyer Francisco Martinez of O.J.A. Development Company, Ltd. of Key Biscayne plans to keep the property as a Holiday Inn. Seller was Latrun Realty, Inc., of Miami Beach, principal Mordecai Boaziz. Besides Brenner, other real estate brokers involved in the transaction included Urban Group Realty Corp. in Miami Beach and Estrella Perez Realty Group, Inc. in Coral Gables.

Top Spirits

Appeasing the spirits sounds like a good idea for a new building. Last week in a traditional topping-off ceremony, a fir tree was placed on the roof of ArTech, a distinctive curvilinear building that evokes a cruise ship, on the waterfront at 2950 NE 188th St. in Aventura.

According to ancient Scandinavian legend, the tree is placed there to appease the spirits who might have been displaced from trees cut down for building.

ArTech’s construction management team and developers, Fortune International President Edgardo Defortuna and Shefaor Development’s Gilbert Behamou and Claudio Stivelman, with local VIPs, celebrated completion of ArTech’s last structural deck at its final height of nine stories.

At the same time, Coscan Construction, general contractor for the building, celebrated nine months’ work to completion of the shell — safely and ahead of schedule — with a barbecue buffet party for the hundreds of workers and contractors involved. Good spirits all around!

Talking Condo

Forget huddling in the hallways, muttering in the lobby and intense discussions by the pool. Now condo residents have a new forum to air their opinions — and dare we say complaints — about their building. New website www.Condopinion.com  went live last week, offering a virtual place for residents to network, socialize and discuss the issues facing their buildings. The site also offers a forum for informed give-and-take by managers and board members to explain the rationale behind their decisions (which are surely never arbitrary or capricious).

Imagine! Condo boards and management companies could become more responsive when they see owners’ concerns out in cyberspace, right along with the reputations of the buildings!

The Condopinion site is also intended to be a marketing vehicle for real estate agents. Each building will be sponsored by a “community expert” whose photo and banner ad will appear on every page of the discussion boards for that particular condominium community and help lead the discussion, field questions and make everyone feel good about living there.

Buzz

Is Bay Harbor Islands getting a name-brand hotel and condos on an off-water site? Reports are that there are plans for a famous flag to fly over converted and new buildings in the tony, small-town community. Stay tuned….

Coming up

Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate is the title sponsor for the 33rd annual Miami Beach Festival of the Arts 2007 on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 10 and 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Ocean Terrace (east of Collins Avenue between 73rd and 75th streets).

Helen Hill is a freelance writer specializing in real estate and lifestyle topics.

Please send news items on Miami-Dade real estate to hhill@miamisunpost.com.