News About Properties

Seniors consider reverse mortgage

The Martins had plenty of money in the bank.
Or so they thought.

Robert Martin got cancer, and the bills started to pile up. Insurance helped with much of the costs associated with Robert’s treatment, but some still fell to the septuagenarian couple.

Reverse mortgages are loans taken out on home equity. They are designed specifically for seniors 62 years and older to use that equity to come up with cash for everything from medical bills to vacations.

Connecticut | Aussie outfit buying up hundreds of units

An international real-estate giant is poised to become the dominant landlord for students living near the University of Connecticut in Storrs after purchasing 15 apartment complexes in the area.

The ING Real Estate Community Living Fund, part of the Australian branch of the ING insurance company, was expected to complete today the purchase of 20 off-campus apartment complexes in the United States, including 18 in Connecticut, for $110 million.

According to a report prepared Monday for the company, ING is moving into the student housing market because it offers “captive demand and limitations to supply.” In other words, with college enrollment growing, on-campus housing stocks are being squeezed to their limit.

County pressed to move on offer for apartment complex

A chance to purchase more than 200 apartments and preserve what little remains of affordable housing has county leaders scrambling against a ticking clock to respond to an offer that would make the county a landlord.

An attorney representing Willow Lake Apartments, a 240-unit community outside Lake Worth, sent a letter to the county last week offering to sell the complex for almost $15 million, saying it “might be ideal for the county’s workforce housing program.”

“To me the price seemed kind of right,” said Commissioner Karen Marcus, who has met with north county cities in her district over the past year to discuss the shortage of inexpensive housing.

Mott Street Blues

In Philip Lam’s office, at Green City Realty on Market Street near the Manhattan Bridge, a picture of a property under renovation is pinned to the wall. The two-bedroom condo has huge windows, pristine hardwood floors and an airy luxury that gives the space the look of a SoHo loft.

But this attractive posting has people in Chinatown worried. The condo sits not in SoHo but at 173-5 East Broadway, right in their neighborhood. The other 28 condos under development in the 60,000-square-foot building are no less luxe, and will variously offer 18-foot ceilings, four exposures and gas fireplaces, and carry price tags of $600,000 to $5 million.

Hamads aim high with new luxury Marquee project

Samuel Hamad spent his entire career working for a series of pharmaceutical giants.

By the time he decided to retire, in 1997, he was running Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s international operations.

But you’d never know that from the way real estate developer Hamad worked the room when unveiling the $55 million Marquee on the Bay, his latest project downtown.

Work could begin this summer on Arcadia Mills | Pensacola Florida

Work could begin as early as this summer on the first phase of Arcadia Mills, a new development just north of Pace that its creators envision will be the “crown jewel” of Santa Rosa County.

Officials with Atlanta-based The Eagle Group eventually want to build a self-contained new town on 2,718 acres between Berryhill Road and Willard Norris Road. But they emphasize that plans to build 9,800 new homes in the area may take as long as 50 to 60 years.

“Our plan is based on the concept of ‘new urbanism’ where people can easily walk to the town center to shop or dine without having to get in their cars and drive somewhere else.”