Friday, October 31, 2014

ANOTHER RESIDENTIAL REDEVELOPMENT IN FT. LAUDERDALE


ANOTHER RESIDENTIAL REDEVELOPMENT IN FT. LAUDERDALE

This time it is the former Ireland’s Inn located on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale. This is a good story and a great example of what is going in South Florida now. The Ireland Inn was built in 1965 at 2200 N. Ocean Blvd. In 2005 the hotel was damaged by hurricane Wilma and it closed in 2007. It has been closed since that time, deteriorating. Now the families who originally owned it are partnering with the Related Group to transform it into luxury condo property with 170 residencies. So another vacant, tired eyesore will soon become a gleaming new condo tower. When times are good, there is a shortage of land, and what there is becomes price prohibitive. So people look to see what they can reinvent / redevelop and this is happening all over the place right now. Every kind of product type is fair game, and you can literally see the differences in the landscape as you drive around. Properties from casinos, to multifamily to retail, you can see the improvements changing all around us as they are being upgraded. And it is all happening so quickly, seems like at least one new project announcement per day. Yes it is almost hard to see things ever going back down again, just like before. Since there is a lot more boom before the bust will come, people will just plow forward and do as much as they can while they can. It is exciting times, and I hope that we can manage the growth better this time around. Have people learned the lessons from just a few years ago? We will see as this story continues to quickly unfold. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.

Ireland's Inn to be redeveloped with Related Group luxury condos

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

WEST PALM BEACH TO LOSE 3 GROCERY STORES


WEST PALM BEACH TO LOSE 3 GROCERY STORES

West Palm, West Palm, West Palm. What are we going to do with you?? We have to find a way to get some good news for this city. Well there is the new Eat Scene coming to the outside of City Place, and I do know of a new Publix that will be coming to Belvedere Rd. eventually. But this is big and important news and we need to talk about it even though it is negative. South Florida’s economy is surging now, development and redevelopment projects abound and activity in all sectors is up. All over South Florida developers are eyeing vacant tracts of land, old projects that can be redeveloped and reborn. They are looking for bargains and municipalities that will work with them to allow lots of units for their projects, increasing their profits. But West Palm seems to be left out in all this and it is strange. They cannot give away their land and old dilapidated buildings on Broadway, and the blighted areas continue to worsen. That is what is happening right here with the closing of 3 Winn-Dixie grocery stores. They are all located in tough areas, and the residents there will suffer even more now that they won’t have access to a supermarket close to their homes. They will be forced to pay more for their groceries and possibly drive further to get them. 200 people lost their jobs, although some of them might be given jobs at other locations. Now the vote on the baseball stadium at 45th Street looms large. It is a once in a lifetime chance to erase the blight in that area if the project is approved. If not there is another proposal on the table that would be OK but certainly won’t be an attraction that will draw people to the area. It should be noted that despite all this bad news, Jeff Greene the billionaire, is buying up downtown West Palm as fast as he can with big plans to develop it. But that is the one area that really doesn’t need the help. Maybe the Federal Government can be called in to help. It might take something like that to help this city get back on the right track. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.

Grocery chain to close 3 Palm Beach County stores


Monday, October 27, 2014

PORT OF PALM BEACH GETTING NEW MULTI-DAY CRUISES TO BAHAMAS

 
PORT OF PALM BEACH GETTING NEW MULTI-DAY CRUISES TO BAHAMAS
The Port of Palm Beach looks like they will soon have a new operator, PV Enterprises, who will be doing multi-day trips to Nassau Bahamas. They have put a $50,000 deposit down and are in negotiations with the port for a cruise ship and parking facility. At the end of the day, there will be a new 600 foot long, 1,700 capacity passenger boat along with the Bahamas Celebration, a 1,250 passenger boat, that will be making two day cruises to Nassau and Freeport respectively, Bahamas. The new boat, for which no name is provided, is going to have some cool amenities such as buffet and a la carte restaurants, a casino, nightclubs, lounges, bars and even a kid’s play room. I think this is a great thing for people that live in Palm Beach county! I have never been to the Bahamas before and this seems like a great way to travel there, as long as the weather is good. I also like that some of the smaller ports like Port of Palm Beach are getting more business despite their not dredging and deepening their ports to accommodate larger vessels like PortMiami and Port Everglades are doing. No, they are going to stay small and hopefully fill a smaller vessel niche that can still work and be profitable. This is certainly a good start! Looking forward to seeing these cruises happening and to possibly taking one! As always thanks for reading and have a great day.
Riviera Beach port could get Nassau cruises

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

ROSENFELD RESTAURANT REVIEW – LA NOUVELLE MAISON & TASTE BUDS OF INDIA

ROSENFELD RESTAURANT REVIEW – LA NOUVELLE MAISON & TASTE BUDS OF INDIA

Nothing like setting history and that is what we are doing today folks. This is the first ever 2 for 1 restaurant blog! Always trying to provide extra value for all. Let’s begin with La Nouvelle Maison. This place is located in East Boca Raton right next to Trattoria Romana, who also owns this place. My friend who lives nearby said it was good so we decided to give it a try. It is a nice place, slightly on the stuffy side. While there were lots of waiters and busboys, the service was poor. The food was pretty good though. I got the French onion soup first, then the special which was filet of sole. Both were very good, although the fish had some bones. My mother had the duck, which she enjoyed. My father had the sole as well and the wife had a risotto with shrimp. I tried everything and it was good but honestly not good enough to return, especially for the prices which are high. My guess is they will do just fine getting the runoff from Trattoria Romana, and the same crowd will go to both places and not really care. Now the 2nd restaurant was much more interesting and far better. Taste Buds of India is located in Coral Springs. While somewhat hard to find, you will be glad you did once you get there. This place has the biggest menu I have ever seen at an Indian restaurant, I think it was 8 pages! They offer food from Northern and Southern India, as well as Chat, which is a Chinese Indian mixture. We had naan bread, lentil soup, a mixed chicken platter and a shrimp tikka. And an order of spicy cauliflower, lentil crackers and a chickpea dish. Everything was amazing and I really look forward to going back, which I have plans to do next week. If you are ever in the area do yourself a favor and give this place a try. It is open for lunch and dinner. Would love to hear about a great restaurant from you! Don’t be shy. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.

Friday, October 17, 2014

DOWNTOWN AT THE GARDENS SELLS FOR $142 MILLION


DOWNTOWN AT THE GARDENS SELLS FOR $142 MILLION

OK this is a great real estate story, what we in the business refer to as a home run. It begins with the Berman family, a super nice bunch from Maryland. They are fabulously rich, owning properties and businesses all over the place. They fell into this property, Downtown at the Gardens, which was a more or less failed lifestyle project off of PGA Blvd. in Palm Beach Gardens. They bought it for a song, for $38 million out of foreclosure, as it sold for $200 million in 2007. The property has a terrible design, with the anchor tenants on the outside and all the small shop tenants inside with no anchor tenants to draw people to them. The restaurants and anchor tenants did OK and the small retailers struggled. The first thing the Bermans did was put in a cool carousel to try to draw in children and families, which is exactly who lives in this area. Then through their own hard work, being on site and through shrewd deal making they leased it to almost full capacity. Sure enough the market turned around during all of this and low and behold they just sold it for $142 million dollars just 5 years after buying it for $38 million. This is a classic story of buying at a low point in the market and selling at a high point. And these are truly good people and I couldn’t be happier for them, not that they need the money! Congrats to the Berman family and I hope that they buy another property here in South Florida soon so I can see them again. As nice as they are, they have been adverse to fishing but I will keep trying. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.

Five years after foreclosure, Downtown at Gardens fetches $142 million

Monday, October 13, 2014

PALM BEACH’S LONG TIME TESTA’S RESTAURANT TO FINALLY BE REDEVELOPED?


PALM BEACH’S LONG TIME TESTA’S RESTAURANT TO FINALLY BE REDEVELOPED?

This has been a battle that has been going on for years. Since 2006 in fact, and it still is not over yet. It pits the Testa family, owners of the longtime (it is 93 years old!) Testa’s Restaurant on Royal Poinciana Way in Palm Beach against the Town Council of Palm Beach. Change and redevelopment in Palm Beach is rare and is not typically welcome. You can only imagine the Town Council’s horror when informed that the Testa family wanted to substantially change their 1.3 acre property which encompasses 221 and 231 Royal Poinciana Way, 214 Sunset Ave and 216 Sunset Ave. In all honesty, no one disputes the fact that it is necessary to renovate this property. The restaurant is 93 years old and needs a facelift, while there is a vacant gas station next store. This is something that is more than out of place in Palm Beach, it is almost insulting to have such a pedestrian use on The Island. You would think this fact alone would make them work more quickly on this project. As you can see above, a beautiful rendering was provided, showing the new proposed 2 story property. It would feature 6 residential condominium units, a courtyard, ground floor retail of 33,000 square feet (a combination of stores and restaurants including Testa’s of course!), and 34,618 square feet on the 2nd floor. That is where the residential units would be. There is even 47,331 square feet of underground parking, something that is extremely rare in Florida. But the devil in in the details as they say. After this long battle, the Testa’s are finally waiting for a site plan review and special exception and variance requests from their friends at the Town Council. But as you can imagine, they are far from being in agreement on the project. The article ends with a quote from Bill Cooley, they Landmarks Preservation Commission chairman, saying that he thinks the project is too big and “out of scale for this street.” Could this saga continue even longer?? We will find out soon since the next ruling is scheduled for Oct. 15th. You can look for the updates here. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.  

Testa family files new zoning application


Friday, October 10, 2014

PORT MIAMI LOOKING GOOD IN EXPANSION BET


PORT MIAMI LOOKING GOOD IN EXPANSION BET

With my newfound port fascination, there was no way I was letting this article get away. It is very well written and spells things out very clearly. Here is the deal in a nutshell. The expansion of the Panama Canal is almost 80% complete. When it is complete, larger ships with more cargo, etc. need places to port and those places must be deep enough to accommodate these big ships. In Florida, there is only Jacksonville and Port Everglades that want to get this new traffic but they do not have the necessary infrastructure in place yet. But PortMiami will and they are the closest major port to the Panama Canal. The rewards could be huge, which would make everyone forget about the large investments that were needed to get here. Port Everglades was the top container port in Florida last year but they haven’t even begun to deepen their channel yet, putting them way behind Miami. Ports from around the Eastern seaboard are competing with each other to modernize, deepen their channels and handle the new traffic coming from the South. As usual, the only real competitor in the area comes from Georgia, from the port in Savannah. It has been the 2nd largest container port on the East Coast and has a vast network of rail lines nearby to easily transport goods. It is unknown where they are in their quest to deepen their channel, which they are trying to do. This new era of being a major transportation port is almost upon us. I think it will significantly boost the economy and will even further our substantial business dealings with South America. It is very exciting and I think that Florida is well prepared to take advantage of this new nautical world. Stay tuned, there will be plenty more to come on this. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.

Miami is betting big that expansion of Panama Canal will bring in megaships


Monday, October 6, 2014

BOCA RATON MYSTERY AT SPANISH RIVER AND MILITARY FINALLY SOLVED

BOCA RATON MYSTERY AT SPANISH RIVER AND MILITARY FINALLY SOLVED

Well I tried and tried to find this article, which appeared Sunday in the Community section of the Sun Sentinel. On the first page no less but for some reason it doesn’t exist as far as Google is concerned! Well this one caught my eye because it is one of the few sites in Downtown Boca Raton that has not been developed yet. It is at a major intersection, Spanish River Blvd. and Military Trail, made even more important since the announcement was made that the work for the I – 95 exit at Spanish River has begun. It has been vacant for years and many proposals have come and gone. The most recent was from a developer who hired a real estate company while he had it under contract. They marketed it as a retail and bank site but there must not have been enough interest from prospective tenants as he never closed on the land. Now we finally have the unexciting answer to this mystery of what is coming to this major corner: it is going to be 75 townhomes. The project is called Spanish River Townhomes, also very unexciting. There will be 12 buildings built on the site. All the homes will be 3 stories with 3 bedrooms and 2 car garages. The homes will range in size from 2,114 – 2,800 square feet. Pricing will be between $400,000 - $600,000 per unit and there will be a pool and fitness center in the middle of the project. I am a little bit disappointed, was hoping for some retail on the site that could have been useful. But as we all know, when it comes to real estate development (and most other things too) the determining factor is how much money can be made from it. And clearly the not surprising answer here is residential use. It is a very convenient location and will become even more so when the 95 exit is completed. It is also close to where the new Tri – Rail station will be, schools, restaurant, banking and even a cemetery. What more could you ask for in a location? I don’t think they will have any trouble selling these somewhat affordably priced homes and wish them the best of luck in doing so. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.


Thursday, October 2, 2014

ONE LAST CHANCE FOR SPRING TRAINING BASEBALL OCT. 21


ONE LAST CHANCE FOR SPRING TRAINING BASEBALL OCT. 21

In a tight vote, the proposal to fund the new spring training baseball site in West Palm Beach failed 4 – 3. But there is one last chance it could still work out. There will be one last vote on October 21 to see if the project can happen. The sticking point is an escalator clause the baseball teams are pushing for that relies on tourism forever expanding, which could be unrealistic. If there is a problem there then the county must pick up the bill. The time between now and then will be used to try and overcome this obstacle. Why is this issue such a big deal to me? Besides the fact that I love sports, there is the simple idea of this project. Right now this site is a nasty landfill that is an eyesore and generating no income. The area it is located in is suffering economically and there is a fair amount of crime there. It could become a gleaming new stadium that would generate lots of money. Oh yes, there is a huge economic impact at stake. How about these numbers: annual economic impact of $92.1 to $128.6 million, of which $55.1 to $76.9 million would be a direct economic impact. They project 160,000 – 220,000 visitors per year, and 94,400 to 129,000 would come from outside the state. 1,007 to 1,422 jobs would be created by the project. Basically, it would lift this entire area and put it on the map. It would go from a location where no one wants to be to one that would be drawing hundreds of thousands of people every year, giving them a chance for even more growth. If all this is not enough for you, if this deal does not happen we will lose the 3 baseball teams we have now and all the economic benefits they bring. So there is an awful lot riding on this issue and the next final vote. Say a prayer for this to happen! It could only help! As always thanks for reading and have a great day.

Washington Nationals, Houston Astros strike out on pitch for stadium funding