Builder woes hit home [North Florida]

Builder woes hit home [North Florida]

Six months ago, the lots in Weschester, a subdivision in northwest Gainesville, were flying off the market. Today the first wave of homeowners is beginning to wonder when the vacant lot next door will see development.
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And further signs of troubling times have come as residents watch liens pile up against one of the home builders in the subdivision.

Brett Frye moved into his new house in Weschester in January, and was shocked to discover that a company providing building supplies to his home builder is seeking $3,742 in unpaid bills.

“As far as I am concerned absolutely no one has contacted me,” said Frye. “I’m absolutely unaware of any liens that have been placed on my house.”

The condo boom moves on to Latin America

The condo boom moves on to Latin America

What to do when you have a network of real-estate brokers selling new condominiums, but few new condos to sell?

Edgardo Defortuna, who has made millions selling South Florida condos, hopes one answer is found on the Pacific shores of Mexico.

Defortuna, who heads Fortune International, last year agreed to start selling condo units built by Miami’s Related Group in Puerto Vallarta. It’s part of a plan that he and Related CEO Jorge Perez hope will ultimately include more than a half dozen projects across Latin America and the Caribbean — and provide a fruitful market until South Florida’s formerly hot housing industry recovers from its cold snap.

At a time when starts for residential projects are slowing to a trickle from West Palm Beach to Homestead, those who sell new housing like DeFortuna’s Brickell Avenue company are having to strike out for new markets.

They are following different trails. International Sales Group in Aventura started marketing a project in New Orleans last year, attempting to take advantage of a lack of housing after Katrina. Prodigy Network in Miami moved its headquarters to New York City to better focus on its projects there, while also pushing units in places like Mexico and Panama.

Foreclosures take money from neighbors

Foreclosures take money from neighbors

Valerie Guerra’s Livermore home has lost $100,000 in value through no fault of her own.

Guerra and her husband have paid their mortgage without fail. Yet foreclosures in her neighborhood and on her street have erased much of the equity in their house.

“I certainly believe my house is worth less than what we paid,” she said. “But we’re here for the long haul.”

The Guerras are far from alone. Now that lenders have seized thousands of East Bay homes in default, the flip side of those failures has descended on the region’s homeowners. Banks that have foreclosed on a property often unload the house at a discount to the loan amount.

Forced To Give Up Condos

Forced To Give Up Condos

Shane Mummery and dozens of his neighbors are on the verge of losing their homes – and they face hefty losses on their investments.

They haven’t missed mortgage payments, and they don’t want to sell. But none of that matters.

Mummery and his neighbors own units in a New Tampa complex that failed as an apartment-to-condominium conversion. The 396 units in Portofino were put on the market as condos in 2006, but the developer sold just 31 of them. Last July, an apartment management company bought the rest of the units. Now, that company wants to terminate the condominium, buy out the individual unit owners – at today’s lower market rate – and convert the whole complex back to apartments.

And, apparently, the condo owners may have little say. A revised Florida statute and provisions in the original condominium declaration make it easier for the developer to force owners out.

Deal in works to save condo facing liens [South Florida]

Deal in works to save condo facing liens [South Florida]

Could there soon be an end in sight to the foreclosure quagmire at The Whitney, West Palm Beach’s newest condo?

Developer Enrique Dillon confirmed he’s crafting a deal to satisfy a foreclosure and liens on the 210-unit building at Evernia Street and South Dixie Highway.

In January, California-based lender iStar FM Loans filed a foreclosure suit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court against The Whitney’s developer, Evernia Properties LLLP. IStar claimed it is owed $37.3 million on a $52.5 million loan. That lawsuit follows an October lien on The Whitney filed by its builder, Bovis Lend Lease. Bovis claimed it is owed $2.86 million on a $43 million contract for construction of the eight-story project.

The legal actions put the brakes on closings by buyers of the upscale condo. The legal wranglings also underscore how the real estate crunch is trapping banks, developers and buyers.

General Growth Shops for Partners

General Growth Shops for Partners

General Growth Properties Inc., the second-largest U.S. mall owner and operator by market value, is shopping its portfolio to potential joint-venture partners as it scrounges for capital to pay off $18.7 billion of debt coming due over the next four years.
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Chicago-based General Growth, which owns more than 200 malls, said the ventures would likely target some of the 165 malls the company owns outright, a category that includes such high-profile properties as Fashion Show Mall and the Grand Canal Shoppes in Las Vegas and Ala Moana Center in Honolulu. Malls that already are part of joint ventures, including Water Tower Place in Chicago, are unlikely to take on additional investors.

Bernie Freibaum, General Growth’s chief financial officer, said in an interview that the company is approaching pension funds and life-insurance companies to first determine if they are interested in a deal before hashing out which properties would be involved. “It’s not going to be that people can cherry-pick and just ask for the best assets,” Mr. Freibaum said. “If it’s multiple assets [in a deal], it will be a good cross-section of our portfolio.”