Orlando’s condo boom a thing of the past

Orlando’s condo boom a thing of the past

After a more than five-year frenzy, the condo-building boom in downtown Orlando has ground to a halt.

A new Orlando Sentinel survey of the downtown core finds that more than two-thirds of the 40 new high- and mid-rise condo projects announced in recent years are in limbo, as developers grapple with a slumping housing market, soaring construction costs and lending-industry turmoil.

Many plans have been postponed or altered; some have been scrapped altogether.

“It cannot be done,” said Stahley, whose company is building the 32-story Dynetech Centre on Washington Street, which will have office and retail space plus 164 apartments — but no condos.

Developer of stalled Eden condos asks Boca Raton for permit extension

Developer of stalled Eden condos asks Boca Raton for permit extension [South Florida]

It may be called Eden, but many say the Boca Raton condo project is nothing but trouble.

Now the developer who failed to complete the luxury condos has a new plan: a community for seniors.

That’s if the Boca Raton City Council grants Ceebraid-Signal Corp. another two years to finish the four-building project plagued by a swirl of lawsuits and liens. The project was scheduled to have been completed three years ago, and it’s the third time Ceebraid has asked for a permit extension.

‘Underpriced’ at $100 Million

‘Underpriced’ at $100 Million

Five houses are vying to be the most expensive ever sold, market slump notwithstanding. Ben Casselman and Christina S.N. Lewis handicap the race.

The price to beat is $103 million.

Two years ago, at the peak of the real-estate boom, only a handful of homes in the U.S. had ever been listed for $75 million, let alone $100 million. Even the highest residential sale to date — investor Ron Baron’s $103 million purchase earlier this year of a 40-acre compound in East Hampton, N.Y. — was never publicly listed. The deal was so secret that the brokers weren’t named.

There are five contenders for the current prize, including a Beverly Hills compound once owned by William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies that’s listed for $165 million; the Aspen home of Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, which has been visited by the past three U.S. presidents ($135 million); and an estate overlooking Lake Tahoe with a staircase modeled after the one aboard the Titanic (a dark horse at $100 million). All have come on the market since summer 2006.

State reviews title insurance

State reviews title insurance

Cozy relationships between title insurance companies and real estate agents, builders and lenders, and the question of who ends up with premium dollars were at the heart of a four-hour public hearing in Tallahassee on Thursday as Florida regulators began to pull back the curtain on the little-known title insurance business.

The goal: To determine how extensively Florida should regulate the industry.

Facing regulators were representatives of the nine companies that write most of the title insurance in the state. The companies were sent subpoenas this month in response to studies that found, among other things, that Florida homeowners are paying premiums as much as 136 percent higher than in neighboring states, that industry profits rose by 368 percent from 1995 to 2004, and that in 2004, only 3 cents of every $1 of premium paid was spent to cover losses.

Real Estate Record Hits Hurdle

Real Estate Record Hits Hurdle

When the private equity firm Somerset Partners announced last month it was acquiring 450 Park Ave. for $1,589 a square foot, a record for a Manhattan office building, it was hailed nationwide as a sign of the historic strength and high demand in the city’s commercial real estate market. Now, just weeks later, the firm is struggling to close the $510 million deal, beset by the rising cost of debt.

The purchase of the 321,000-square-foot office building, at the corner of East 57th Street, is only the latest of several high-profile deals that are in turmoil. Metropolitan Real Estate Investors, an Israeli investment group, only just closed on its acquisition of the Lipstick Building at 885 Third Ave. and 292 Madison Ave. after struggling to secure permanent financing, and Harry Macklowe is reportedly in trouble with his $7 billion acquisition of several Manhattan skyscrapers from the Blackstone Group.

At the time these blockbuster deals were struck, they were touted as signs of an escalating real estate boom. Now that they are in trouble, real estate insiders say it portends a potentially severe downturn.

Florida men may face federal indictments in alleged fraud

Florida men may face federal indictments in alleged fraud

A group of men accused of bilking hundreds of Southwest Florida residents out of at least $35 million will ask a judge today to put a state civil case against them on hold because they are facing a federal indictment.

The indictment would be the first criminal charges brought against anyone in the case involving Dallas-based AmeriFirst Funding Inc.

In early July, a court-appointed receiver seized the Sarasota and Fort Myers offices of Capital 1st Financial after the Florida Office of Financial Regulation accused the four men operating the offices — Vincent Bazemore of Sarasota and Eric Hall, Fred Howard and John Priest of Fort Myers — of a host of securities-related misdeeds.

The company the four worked on behalf of — AmeriFirst — has been placed in receivership, the company’s and directors’ assets have been frozen and the SEC is working to recover $55 million that investigators claim was raised by salesmen in Florida and Texas.