Selling real estate becomes ever more creative in a town that loves to party

At Home With the Monster

Mix Blue with greens and you get one of Miami’s first new upscale developments on a golf course in a long time. Unlike other current condo-hotel projects, the hotel component — the landmark Doral Golf Resort and Spa (originally Doris and Alfred’s place in the 1960s) came before the condos. The Blue will rise alongside the 12th and 13th fairways of the famed Blue Monster course, home to the 2007 World Golf Championship and numerous PGA Tour events for four decades. Foundations for all the Blue’s 15 three-story buildings have been poured and the shells of nine buildings are complete. Each building, designed in Old Florida Key West-style, will house 16 fully furnished one and three bedroom residences, each with a private veranda overlooking the Blue Monster fairways.

Amenities include a full-service clubhouse with fitness center and restaurant; a pool area with private cabanas and expected services such as multilingual concierge, private butler service and in-room chef.

Developers Blueview Golf Villas, LLC, (a partnership between the Kaufman Organization, and Blue Doral Baklot LLC) is seeing interest, not only from keen golfers, but also corporate buyers who plan to use the units for visiting company executives. The location in an active business area, close to the Miami International Airport, is an attraction, not to mention the Blue View Sport Membership package. Residents will receive preferred pricing and access to Doral's five championship golf courses, the Blue Lagoon water-park and five signature restaurants and lounges as well as complimentary tennis privileges, and so on. Global Marketing Group expects to begin sales in early March with first-phase prices starting from the $400,000s to $1.5 million.

Celebrate to Sell

Selling real estate becomes ever more creative in a town that loves to party. There was nothing mundane about the recent sales launch sales at “The Office” condo office conversion at 2450 Hollywood Blvd. A Brazilian Carnival theme brought be-feathered samba dancers dressed in traditional garb (i.e., not very much) to entertain guests, who were handed masks, along with Passion Cocktails, on arrival.

Nir Shoshani and Ron Gottesman of N.R. Center Court Developers, LLC (NRCC) were on hand to show off the contemporary redesigned Office Suites in the renovated 56,307-square-foot, seven-story office building fronting Hollywood Boulevard. Office condo suites ranging from 300 square feet to 8,500 square feet are now available for sale. The developers also announced their launch of Park Center Office condos in Miami Gardens near the Golden Glades interchange.

Ordinary open houses just won’t do when the home for sale is a brand new $12.9 million mansion on exclusive Indian Creek Island. Showing off the house during the Miami International Boat Show at International Yachtsman Magazine’s Annual Miami Yacht and Brokerage party is the way to go. Last weekend several hundred who’s who in the yachting fraternity, some real estate brokers and other guests sipped champagne and nibbled hors d’oeuvres at a posh soiree in the 8,500-square-foot French neoclassical manse at 36 Indian Creek. Set in an acre and a quarter of gardens, lit by hundreds of candles with artistic images projected onto the walls of the house, the setting for the “Moonlight Masquerade” was pretty scintillating. Live performances throughout the evening and an informal fashion show by Tammy Apóstol Couture added to the glamorous scene, hosted by Anolan Dragitsch of the Carlos Justo team at Sol Sotheby’s International Realty in Miami. It reportedly produced several potential buyers.

Web On

Just launched — the InmanWiki, dubbed “The World’s Largest Real Estate Encyclopedia” and intended to be a collaborative, free, one-stop destination for anyone seeking to share or obtain information about any aspect of real estate buying, selling or investing. A Wiki (Hawaiian for fast) is a community-based Web site that allows large numbers of users collaborate to create, edit, update and share content — everything from opinions and graphics to videos and RSS blog feeds. Anyone can access the information posted on the InmanWiki. After registering, you can submit your own profile or add photos, graphics or Web page links to an existing profile. You can also post an article that you’ve written on any real estate related topic.

Buzz

Looks like the birds of prey are still flying high. A recent item on Condo Vultures Realty, produced a reply from the company’s broker/owner that “this current downturn in property prices at the expense of greedy speculators is an opportunity — possibly the last — (for buyers) to purchase a home or condo at a price that would not have been otherwise possible.”

All well and good, but I still think that the name and concept — to swoop in and buy distressed properties at distressed prices — is not the real estate activity favored by all. Now a sister company, Real Estate Vultures, has been created to assist buyers in acquiring single-family houses in tract developments at attractive prices. Declared intention: “…to help stabilize the housing market so that the recovery can begin!”

Ice Age

Last week’s cold spell highlighted the problem of heat in residential buildings — not something one thinks about much in this climate. But residents in a luxury waterfront rental building in Miami Beach were not thrilled to discover that the building’s air conditioning system was set permanently on cool, even when the outside temps were way down (chilly by Florida standards, even if warm enough for the snowbirds). At least one tenant took off to a hotel to get a couple of night’s sleep in a heated room.

Kudos To

Lissette Calderon, indefatigable developer, founder and CEO of Neo for winning “The March of Dimes’ Building Our Community Awards” for Excellence in Real Estate Construction and Development.” A pioneer of residential development on the Miami River some seven years ago, Calderon has not been inhibited by the fact that she is young, Hispanic and female in a male-dominated industry. To date she has developed nearly a billion dollars worth of real estate — and she’s still in her early 30s.

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.