After 20 Years, Rooms With a View

After 20 Years, Rooms With a View [Southern California]

Downtown’s Longtime Laughingstock High-Rise, 1100 Wilshire, Is Reborn As a Condo Complex

Like an ugly duckling in its awkward teenage years, the triangular glass skyscraper at 1100 Wilshire has stuck out since it was built in 1986 as an office building. It’s been called names, and though it had multiple suitors, it was never occupied.

Now, after a two-year conversion to high-end condominiums, the 20-year-old building hopes to transform into a swan.

The odd design and eccentric flourishes – like floor-to-ceiling windows in every unit and 16 levels of brick-bounded interior parking – that original developer Tsai Ming Yu insisted on made it impractical for office leasing. A team of developers and architects are using these former blemishes as unique beauty marks.

Future of Vista Meadows Golf Course up in air [South Florida]

Future of Vista Meadows Golf Course up in air [South Florida]

Residents who live along the Vista Meadows Golf Course are wondering about the course’s future after it was sold at a foreclosure auction Thursday to a company that intends to resell the property.

A previous owner of the course said he believes it may have been acquired for development purposes.

Glendale Trade Center Inc. of Vero Beach acquired the 27-hole course for $2.8 million at an auction at the Indian River County Courthouse.

They Bought but Never Built

They Bought but Never Built

In 2002, when the St. Joe Company, one of Florida’s largest real estate developers, began selling parcels in a new neighborhood here, it was inundated by potential buyers.

With as many as 10 applicants for every lot, the company put numbered balls into a fishbowl, then had an agent draw the balls at random, to decide who would be allowed to buy the home sites.

Four years later, you can hear a pin drop at the gated community of WaterSound Beach. Most of the lots sit empty, and even Thanksgiving weekend brought only a handful of visitors.

A Few Doors Away, Miles Apart In Taxes

A Few Doors Away, Miles Apart In Taxes

On most every block along Corona Street in south Tampa, imposing new homes grow alongside compact, 1940s- and ’50s-era dwellings.

Young professional families move in next to widows subsisting on Social Security checks.

On one block is a vacant lot. Its developer waits out a lull in new-home sales before he builds.

Near Corona’s corner with Dale Mabry Highway, a motel and a funeral home do business.

Deputies warn to beware of old scam with new twist [Central Florida]

Deputies warn to beware of old scam with new twist [Central Florida]

Collier County officials have a warning for anyone in Southwest Florida trying to find the perfect renter because con artists using an old scam with a new twist may be targeting you.

It all involves bogus checks that are complete with the logos of Navy Federal Credit Union and Wachovia Bank. But they’re all fake. Deputies with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office say the trick is knowing how you can catch them.

One Collier woman says all she was trying to do was rent out her condo when e-mails, pictures, and bogus checks started pouring in.

“I started receiving one check after the other,” said the woman.

Owners grapple with choice to sell, rent

Owners grapple with choice to sell, rent

As the real estate market in Washington slowed in 2006, some home sellers opted to offer incentives to potential buyers, such as closing-cost assistance or payment of condominium fees, while other home sellers dropped their listing price, sometimes more than once.

Some sellers, frustrated by a lack of offers — or even visitors — or discouraged by receiving low-priced offers for their homes, chose to take their homes off the market and instead rented them.

Sellers leaving the area or committed to another home are sometimes forced to rent their home if they cannot sell it and need the rental income to offset the mortgage payment.

Other sellers simply believe the market will change again, perhaps next year, and want to wait until that market change before attempting to sell their property.