10875 North Bayshore Drive in Miami (Credit: Condo Vultures)

Today’s priciest new listing is a four-bedroom, six-bathroom single-family house asking $4.5 million. The 5,000-square-foot home is located at 10875 North Bayshore Drive in Miami, near Biscayne Bay. It features a fireplace, a garage and new electric wiring. Jeffrey Koebel of Annie Montgomery Realty has the listing. (Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Mark Maurer

Grand Central Park

MDM Group announced yesterday it has a contract to build a tower with a 500,000-square-foot convention space below a 1,800-room hotel to be managed by Marriott, the Miami Herald reported.

The site at 700 North Miami Avenue is currently Grand Central Park and under the control of MDM Group, which intends to privately finance the project. Coral Gables-based Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates is designing the tower, the Herald said. Marriott at Miami Worldcenter will be connected to the next-door All Aboard Florida train station by a skybridge. MDM and Miami World Center principals have declined to provide the project’s estimated cost, the newspaper said.

As previously reported, Marriott won a case against the owners of Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach late last year. Eden Roc had accused Marriott of mismanaging a Renaissance Hotel Management unit. Marriott subsequently sued Eden Roc, claiming they were attempting a hostile takeover of the hotel. [Miami Herald] – Mark Maurer

TRD will be covering all the highlights of this year’s ICSC REcon event in Las Vegas

The International Council of Shopping Centers’ RECon event kicks off on Sunday, and The Real Deal will be on hand to cover all the panels, parties, networking and, most importantly, dealmaking that are the hallmarks of the annual global retail convention.

This year’s conference, held in Las Vegas from May 19 to May 22, is expected to be the biggest one since the 2008 real estate bust, drawing more than 33,000 real estate professionals, 1,000 exhibitors and 1,000 companies.

Watch our New York site starting Sunday for live reporting from the convention floor, and don’t forget to follow @trdny on Twitter for up-to-the-minute dispatches.

From left: Adam Pincus, Katherine Clarke

Reporters Adam Pincus and Katherine Clarke will be in attendance. Email them with any tips or questions. Adam is at ap@therealdeal.com and Kathy is at kc@therealdeal.com.

And in case you missed it, check out TRD’s essential guide to ICSC here.

Gary Saul

The engine of South Florida’s factory-like condo production is what Carlos Rosso, head of condo development at the Related Group, touted in The Real Deal’s roundtable Thursday as a “new type of contract.”

Developers like Rosso are asking buyers – mostly wealthy and foreign – to cough up as much as 80 percent of a condo’s sales price, months before construction begins. “The world has changed. We’re coming back from a huge crash,” Rosso said.

Gary Saul, a leading South Florida condo attorney who represents Related as well as mega-developer Terra Group, told the South Florida Business Journal that developers are contriving ways to protect against another wave of buyers pulling out en masse.

“We got a real clear message that a buyer will walk away from a 20 percent deposit,” Saul said in an interview with the Journal.

“You want to know that the buyers are for real, and you sort of want to make sure they are the actual buyer,” Saul said, adding that his clients had buildings 100 percent contracted but only 10 percent closed.

However, tracing the cash back to an individual is nearly impossible in today’s real-estate climate, Saul said.

“If there was a law requiring a sale to a human being, you would lose a lot of South American buyers.” [South Florida Business Journal] –Emily Schmall

The answer appears to be yes, and last week two federal agencies — the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — were asked to investigate why. The reality is this: The credit reporting system now in place does not have a separate code that distinguishes a short sale from a foreclosure.

Yet there are crucial differences between the two.

In a short sale, the bank approves the sale of the house to a new buyer at a mutually acceptable price. Any unpaid remaining loan balance not covered by the sale proceeds may then be either partially or fully forgiven. The bank is an active participant throughout the process, negotiating for a higher price and higher repayment of principal from the original borrower.

In a foreclosure, the bank is essentially left holding the bag. The owners walk away at some point or live in the property rent-free until they’re evicted. Frequently there is damage to the house left by the departing owners, sometimes extensive. There is little or no cooperation between them and the bank.

Both transactions are serious, negative credit events for the borrower. After all, the mortgage wasn’t fully repaid. But the financial losses generated by a foreclosure typically are more severe for the lender than a short sale. Not only are there extended periods of nonpayment by the borrower but there are also substantial property management expenses, renovation costs, local property taxes and insurance while the house is being readied for resale. In some parts of the country, the average time to complete a foreclosure has exceeded two years.

The nation’s major sources of mortgage financing — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration — all recognize the differences between short sales and foreclosures in their underwriting policies regarding new mortgages. Fannie Mae generally won’t approve a new mortgage application by borrowers with a foreclosure on their credit report for up to seven years, but will consider lending to people who were involved in short sales — and who otherwise qualify in terms of recent credit behavior and available down payment — in as little as two years.

But if short sales routinely show up in credit reports coded as foreclosures, borrowers who might be capable to qualify for a new mortgage two or three years after a short sale find themselves shut out of the market.

George Albright, who completed a short sale on his home in New Port Richey, Fla., in 2010, has been trying for months to get through the hoops for a Fannie Mae conventional mortgage. According to his mortgage broker, Pam Marron, Albright has a solid 720 FICO credit score, 20 percent down payment cash and more than adequate monthly income and reserves for a new home. But he keeps getting rejected because his credit report indicates a foreclosure, not a short sale.

That’s not unusual, Marron said, since there is no specific code to identify short sales. In a highly automated and strict underwriting environment, lenders go by the codes, according to Marron, harming creditworthy applicants like Albright.

“I did my time,” Albright said in an interview. “I’m ready to move on,” but because of the inadequacy of current credit reporting practices “I’m still paying more for rent than I’d be paying on a new mortgage.”

Following a Capitol Hill hearing May 7 on credit reporting issues, Senator Bill Nelson, D-Fla., sent requests to both the FTC and the CFPB to investigate what he called the “disturbing practice” of misidentifying short sales, and to “penalize responsible parties in the mortgage- and credit-reporting industries, if they don’t fix this coding problem within 90 days.”

Nelson said real estate industry data indicate that there have been 2.2 million short sales nationwide during the past several years. Consumers who opted for a short-sale route rather than a more costly foreclosure are now being blocked from “re-entry into the housing market,” he said, thereby “stifling economic recovery for all homeowners.”

Officials of the main trade group for the credit reporting industry, the Consumer Data Industry Association, were not available for comment on Nelson’s short-sales complaint to the federal agencies.

Kenneth R. Harney is a syndicated real estate columnist.

Echo Aventura

New York-based developers Property Markets Group and JDS Development Group have teamed up to raise $100 million in construction loans to build the 190-unit Echo Aventura condominium tower, Mortgage Observer Weekly reported, in the latest sign of lenders’ renewed appetite for condo construction in South Florida.

Mission Capital Advisors, which is representing the borrowers, is seeking a non-recourse loan with a three-year term and two one-year extensions, the trade magazine said.

Construction-loan lending revved back to life in South Florida last February, when a group of lenders led by Alabama-based Regions Financial Corp. bundled a $160 million construction loan for the Mansions at Acqualina in Sunny Isles Beach, a Trump Group affiliate project. The deal was the largest construction loan in the region since the housing market crashed in 2007.

Echo Aventura’s sales center broke ground Thursday, providing a glimpse of Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott’s conceptual tower, outfitted by Yabu Pushelberg. The condo will feature Apple smart home technology, summer kitchens, a 3,000-square-foot suspended bridge connecting two towers and 18 penthouses.

Property Markets Group and JD hope to cover between 50 and 60 percent of the $205 million cost of constructing Echo Aventura, Mortgage Observer Weekly reported.

Eighty units at Echo Aventura are under “hard contract,” PMG founder and principle Kevin Maloney was quoted as saying. [Mortgage Observer Weekly] –Emily Schmall

South Beach’s celebrity Shore Club hotel

South Beach’s iconic Shore Club hotel has plunged into foreclosure, the Miami Herald reported, with more than $164 million owed on the property, according to a judgment entered earlier this week. An online sale of the 309-room hotel is set for June 25.

The Herald was unable to reach the hotel’s majority owner, New York-based Phililips International, or LNR, the Miami Beach company that controls the mortgage.

Morgans Hotel Group, a minority stakeholder in the Shore Club, which it operates alongside the Delano and Mondrian in South Beach, said it “remains committed to managing the hotel to the standards our guests have come to expect,” according to the Herald.

Morgans’ Miami hotels saw revenues per available room rise by 13.2 percent to $204.04 in 2012 from $180.32 in the fourth quarter of 2011. The total occupancy rate soared 71.1 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to 64.5 percent in 2011, The Real Deal reported in March.

At the Shore Club, revenue per room has increased 22.3 percent, the company said, while average rates have jumped $21.65 and revenues have increased 15.3 percent. [Miami Herald] –Emily Schmall

From left, Kevin Maloney, Gil Dezer, Carlos Rosso, Eric Trump and Avra Jain.

South Florida’s top real estate developers looked into crystal balls and swapped war stories Thursday at The Real Deal‘s roundtable event and the launch of the magazine’s spring 2013 South Florida Market Report.

With five South Florida powerhouse developers on stage, all of whom have snagged “starchitects” and competed on unforeseen heights in luxury after experiencing the bust in the Miami-area market, The Real Deal‘s Mel Gray, director of editorial development at TRD‘s New York headquarters, engaged the panel on questions regarding the substance and the sustainability of South Florida’s latest real estate boom, five years after the last crash, which left the region’s economy in tatters and tens of thousands of property owners under water.

Gil Dezer, president of Dezer Development; Carlos Rosso, president of condominium developer for the Related Group; Kevin Maloney, founder and principal of Property Markets Group; developer Avra Jain, who gained notoriety through Miami’s Regalia project; and Eric Trump, executive vice president of development and acquisition at the Trump Organization, spoke about the challenges and opportunities in the heat radiating from Miami, which overseas and all-cash buyers have turned into real estate’s come-back kid.

Following the panel, held at the site of Property Markets Group’s new Echo condo project in Aventura, Fla., guests nibbled and sipped their way through the furnished floor plan, “lavished with exotic marble and granite surfaces,” the project’s web site confirms, during a party to celebrate the grand opening of Echo Aventura’s sales center. Standing at the back of the tented audience, Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott quietly acknowledged a salute from the panel; Ott, who has been constructing buildings for 30 years, is the Echo project’s “conceptual” architect. Yabu and Pushelberg, the Canadian designer duo of George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, is contracted to design the high-rise’s residences and shared interior spaces, including a 3,000-square-foot, indoor-outdoor “Skybridge” that links the east and west towers. Though the event wrapped up at 9 p.m., a reporter was told revelers danced to the live 1980s cover band while alcohol, appetizers and Journey songs flowed long into the balmy night. –Emily Schmall

Villa Magna in Highland Beach

Today’s priciest new listing is a three-bedroom, four-bathroom condominium at Villa Magna asking $2.25 million. The 3,077-square-foot home is located at 2727 South Ocean Boulevard, unit penthouse-150, in Highland Beach in Palm Beach County. Scot Karp of Premier Estate Properties has the listing. It has a 58-foot-by-38-foot rooftop terrace. It features a boat dock, cabana and two garage spaces. The unit has a spacious dressing room and updated kitchen. (Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Mark Maurer

Miami Beach Convention Center

Two prospective developers for the billion-dollar Miami Beach Convention Center project said the 52-acre district stands to gain more than 11,000 jobs, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

Portman CMC and South Beach ACE filed letters of interest with budgets and financial strategies for the Miami Beach Convention Center project. Yesterday both groups presented a video rendering of their respective visions at a public workshop. The Miami Beach Commission, which last week approved a proposal for writing November ballot questions on the scale and size of the project, will be reviewing the plans today.

The Portman CMC plan would cost $1.15 billion in renovations and improvements, while South Beach ACE identified a $1.21 billion cost. When it comes to financing, Portman CMC would have $364 million in debt and $234 million in equity, totaling $598 million. South Beach ACE would have $297 million in debt and $286 million in equity for a total of $583 million, the newspaper said.

The architects on each team are well regarded: Bjarke Ingels for Portman and Rem Koolhaas for South Beach ACE. [South Florida Business Journal] –Mark Maurer

From left: Jed Kolko of Trulia and Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research

Steep home price gains in certain U.S. markets, including South Florida, have some economists worried that the increases are unsustainable for a healthy housing market, forecasting another real estate bubble, Bloomberg News reported.

“If prices keep going up at this rate for another six months, we will have a bubble, and people will get hurt,” Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, told Bloomberg.

The traffic for housing is evident in South Florida, Bloomberg said. Keeping up with demand, the region now has 20 condominium properties — over 3,300 units — under construction. There are also nearly 15,000 units planned, and 75 percent of them are slated for Miami-Dade County alone.

Across the country, home prices in March were 11 percent higher than the same month a year ago, when prices were at their lowest since the boom. The increase was the biggest year-over-year gain since 2006.

“It’s a big change from a year ago,” Paul Willen, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, told Bloomberg. “You’ve gone from hearing horror stories about people losing money to hearing stories of frenzy — lots of traffic and multiple offers.”

However, the debate on whether a bubble is inflating is far from settled.

Trulia’s chief economist, Jed Kolko, recently said that home prices are undervalued compared to incomes and rents, whereas in the bubble years, they were overvalued. U.S. home prices are now increasing at the same rate as they did during the 2003, 2004 and 2005 bubble years, Trulia data show. [Bloomberg News] –Zachary Kussin

Barton G

Star Miami chef Barton Weiss sued the owners of the Versace mansion in South Beach, alleging they duped the restaurateur into signing a 10-year lease on a property while hiding its imminent default, South Florida Business Journal reported, citing a complaint filed with the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida this week.

Weiss, also known as Barton G, has filed for an emergency injunction to remove his boutique hotel and event space business from the mansion without any interference from the owners, the Journal said.

Casa Casuarina had used the mansion as a members-only club for several years before defaulting on the loan several times, documents states.

The complaint alleges the mansion’s owners, Casa Casuarina and Peter Loftin, knew that it would not be able to fulfill its obligations under a long-term lease Weiss signed in 2009.

After forming a company called 1116 Ocean Drive, Weiss intended to use the venue as a place to host upscale weddings, parties and operate a boutique hotel. But once news that the property could face foreclosure reached the public, Weiss was unable to book special events and hotel rooms due to the uncertainty that the restaurateur would continue to operate the mansion in the future, the Journal reported, citing the complaint.

The Versace mansion is currently listed for $100 million, according to the report. [South Florida Business Journal] –Emily Schmall

From the May issue: Like the residential scene nationwide, strong demand keeps shrinking the supply of homes on the market — obviously not good for the scads of buyers out there. But the dearth of properties is driving up prices, making for very happy sellers.

The region, though, is distinguishing itself from other parts of the country with its high number of cash transactions, nearly all by international buyers. [more]

Miami tower’s Brazilian side

Brazilians have overtaken Canadians as the top overseas visitors and property buyers in Miami as the city shrugs off the after-effects of the 2008 real estate crash, América Economía reported.

“There is a love affair between Brazilians and Miami, which has helped the economy in both places,” Rolando Aedo, executive vice-president of the Greater Miami Office of Tourism and Conventions, told the online magazine. Brazilians’ stamp on South Florida’s economy has been “incredible,” Aedo said.

Brazilians outnumbered Canadians as Miami’s main international tourists and buyers last year. Around 690,000 Brazilians visited the Magic City, an 8.8 percent gain from 2011, and spent an estimated $1.5 billion.

Favorable currency exchange rates and Brazil’s economic growth – despite a recent slow-down – have helped a larger demographic of Brazilians visit Miami than could a decade ago, consul general of Brazil in Miami, Helio Vitor Ramos Filho, told the magazine. Exempting Brazil from U.S. visa requirements would flood Miami with even more Portuguese-speaking South Americans, the Brazilian consul said.

“If Brazil were included in the visa-waiver program, there would probably be an explosion of Brazilian tourists in the United States. The visa requirement is still an obstacle for many potential tourists from Brazil, since in Brazil obtaining a visa means additional costs related to having to travel domestically just to get the visa, which can increase the overall cost of a trip substantially,” Ramos Filho said. [América Economía] –Emily Schmall

Clockwise from left: Eric Trump, the Miami skyline, Carlos Rosso

The Real Deal will supplement the launch of its spring 2013 South Florida Market Report, an in-depth look at all aspects of real estate in the region, with a top-flight roundtable Thursday in Aventura.

Slated to speak are Gil Dezer, president of Dezer Development; Carlos Rosso, president of condominium development for the Related Group; Kevin Maloney, founder and principal of Property Markets Group; developer Avra Jain; and Eric Trump, executive vice president of development and acquisition at the Trump Organization.

The RSVP-only roundtable and party will take place at Echo, a new condo project by Property Markets Group. The roundtable will begin at 6 p.m.; the party, marking the grand opening of Echo’s sales center at 3250 N.E. 188th Street, begins at 7 p.m. and wraps up at 9 p.m.

The Real Deal’s 2013 South Florida Market Report is out as part of our May print issue, distributed to readers both in New York City and South Florida. The next issue is planned for later this year. For editorial inquiries, email southfloridanews@therealdeal.com. For advertising opportunities, please contact Ross Fox at rf@therealdeal.com. To secure a last-minute spot, contact Levy Communications.

900 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami

Today’s priciest new listing is a five-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom penthouse condominium asking $4 million. The 5,643-square-foot home is located at 900 Biscayne Boulevard, Unit 6303, in Miami. It features a master suite and open floor plan. Barbara Elmir  and Alexandra Goeseke of Cervera Real Estate have the listing. (Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Mark Maurer

Marina Lofts rendering

The $150 million rental project in the works in Fort Lauderdale should be approved, the city’s Chamber of Commerce President Dan Lindblade wrote in an op-ed published in the Sun-Sentinel.

The Marina Lofts project would create 999 multi-family rental units near the New River with a starting price of $1,100 per month, at a time when demand is outpacing supply, he wrote. Lindblade defended against activists who he said are “spewing propaganda opposing the impressive project mainly because of the relocation of a rain tree.”

The board of directors, however, widely supports it because it would attract young professionals and enhance marine interests, he wrote.

Lindblade urged the Planning and Zoning Board to approve the plan at a special hearing May 14. He said Broward County has the lowest unemployment rate – 5.7 percent – in the region. More than 4,000 multi-family units are under construction in Fort Lauderdale and another 5,000 are under review, Lindblade wrote. [Sun-Sentinel] —Mark Maurer

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index posted a three-point gain to 44 from the 41 recorded in April. A number over 50 on the index shows that a majority of the 341 builders surveyed see market conditions as good, rather than poor.

“Builders are noting an increased sense of urgency among potential buyers as a result of thinning inventories of homes for sale, continuing affordable mortgage rates and strengthening local economies,” said NAHB Chairman Rick Judson. “This is definitely an encouraging sign even amidst rising challenges with regard to the cost and availability of building materials, lots and labor.”

Each component of the index posted gains in May. For example, current sales conditions gained four points to 48, and expectations for future sales inched up one point to 53, which is its highest number since February 2007. [CNBC] –Zachary Kussin

Fontainebleau Miami Beach condo-hotel

A dearth of land in Greater Miami is pushing hotel developers further north than they’d like, Miami Today reported.

Would-be hotel investors from Eastern Europe and South America – as well as other U.S. cities – are striking out at their attempt to grab a piece of Miami’s hotel industry, the newspaper said.

Soaring land prices and construction costs are barriers for national hotel chains, Guy Trusty, president of Lodging & Hospitality Realty, told Miami Today. Developers would have to look to the northern reaches of Miami-Dade County or southward towards the Everglades to find a deal.

“Lots of demand but the economics don’t work, by and large,” Trusty said.

Boutique hotels and hotel-condo projects are two concepts that do work, according to Greenberg Traurig real estate attorney Gary Saul. Lenders prefer the quick cash from condo sales, he said.

Buyers like the perk of hotel-grade amenities, including concierge, room service and housekeeping. [Miami Today] –Emily Schmall

Florida City city hall

Blue Heaven Villas LLC is poised to buy 22 lots in a Florida City neighborhood dubbed the “Snakepit” because of the slithering creatures known to greet gas-meter readers there, the Miami Herald reported.

The developer, also involved in a separate redevelopment project in Florida City, plans to build 100 apartments on the site, where evidence of Hurricane Andrew’s devastation in 1992 can still be seen, the Herald said.

The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency bought the lots, totaling about 5.2 acres, for $1.35 million.

Blue Heaven outbid a competitor with a $1.5 million offer.

Principal George Howard took over a failed Florida City project in the same area, which he bought in foreclosure in 2010. There he plans to rehabilitate 24 existing homes and build 24 more, under the auspices of Tower View Town Homes LLC.

CRA director Richard Stauts is executing a purchase and sale agreement that allows Blue Heaven to defer paying for the parcels in full until the project moves past the construction phase into permanent financing, for an anticipated period of two years, the Herald reported.

At that time, Blue Heaven will be expected to pay the $1.25 million balance due on the parcels. If the project falls through, the parcels will revert to the CRA.

“Things take on a life based on what they’re called, and Blue Heaven Villas sounds a lot nicer to me than ‘Snakepit,’” Stauts told the newspaper. [Miami Herald] –Emily Schmall

From the May issue: South Florida’s office market isn’t as robust as its residential one — just like much of the rest of the country — but the slower pace of leasing comes with an upside: The surplus of inventory is keeping prices in check for tenants.

Less than a fifth of the commercial space in Miami-Dade and Broward counties — 18.1 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively — is available, about the same amount percentagewise as what’s available statewide, according to CBRE, the real estate service firm. Palm Beach County has roughly a quarter of its office space open. [more]

Anchorage Apartments

Carlisle Development Group, the Miami-based affordable housing developer under grand jury investigation for allegedly padding profits with government subsidies, has built a 22-unit complex with nine units dedicated to youth aging out of foster care, according to a news release.

“Life is challenging enough for young adults who come from stable homes, but for youth aging out of foster care, the obstacles to succeeding in life are almost insurmountable,” said chief executive Matthew Greer.

Carlisle, the third largest affordable housing developer in the U.S., will cut the ribbon on the Anchorage Apartments, which target working families and individuals making 50 to 60 percent of the median area income, in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood on June 3.

Residents of the one- and two-bedroom apartments, ranging in size from 630 to 940 square feet, will have access to shared amenities, including a computer lab, gym, library and on-site laundry, according to the release.

Providing housing to those who at 18 age out of foster care is a core priority for Carlisle, which has a track record in providing housing opportunities to teens unadopted and on their own.

A disclosure last month revealed that the company is facing a grand jury investigation into allegations that it defrauded taxpayers by padding construction costs for public projects in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, as The Real Deal reported.

The focus is on two of Carlisle’s top executives, including Greer and retired CEO and founder Lloyd J. Boggio, as well as general contractor Michael K. Runyan, according to the subpoena.

Carlisle Development Group has received accolades for its well-designed apartment buildings that provide housing opportunities for some of South Florida’s poorest.

R. Donahue Peebles

Miami has become a global real estate market to the credit of New York developers, R. Donahue Peebles, chairman and chief executive of the Coral Gables, Fla.-based Peebles Corporation, said in a New York Times interview.

“Strategically, New York and Miami are very well connected. When you look at the last real estate cycle, much of the big boom in Miami took place because New York entrepreneurs and developers came to Miami to develop,” he said.

Local government in South Florida are “reluctantly partners,” Peebles said, especially in Miami Beach.

Miami has bounced back quickly from the 2008 economic collapse because of international buyers, he said.

Among the largest African-American-owned developers in the U.S., Peebles Corp. focuses on residential and hospitality developments, and has projects in Miami, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York.

“One of the criteria is I have to like the place — I enjoy being there myself. I’m from Washington, and in 1996 I went to Miami on vacation, liked it, saw an opportunity, and in ’98 moved there and built a business there,” Peebles said. [NYT] –Emily Schmall

17121 Collins Avenue, Unit 4604

Today’s priciest new listing is a four-bedroom, six-bathroom condominium asking $6.75 million. The 5,200-square-foot penthouse is located at 17121 Collins Avenue, Unit 4604, in Sunny Isles Beach. It features 180-degree views of the ocean, downtown Miami and the Intracoastal Waterway. It also has appliances with intelligent touchscreen technology and is finished in calacata gold marble. Lana Bell of One Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing. (Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Emily Schmall

Howard Stern

Shock jock Howard Stern has purchased an oceanfront home appraised at $40.8 million on “Raiders Row” in Palm Beach, according to Gossip Extra.

North County Road, nicknamed for the high number of corporate tycoons living there, is home to talk-radio king Rush Limbaugh and Nelson Peltz, the billionaire founder of Trian Fund Management.

The sellers are New Hampshire textile mogul Martin Trust and his wife, Diane, the blog reported.

The Trusts purchased the house in 1986 for $4.6 million, Gossip Extra said, citing property records. Floor plans show 12.5 bathrooms, an elevator and a manicured croquet lawn.

Stern’s wife, former model Beth Ostrofsky, fell in love with the 19,800-square-foot manse when she traveled to Palm Beach to look at several properties earlier this year.

Stern confirmed on his show a previous Gossip Extra report that said he was property shopping in Florida, but denied it was to escape New York’s high income tax. [Gossip Extra] –Emily Schmall

Sailboat Bend (Source: Sailboat Bend Civic Association)

The new owner of the dilapidated but historic Weidling House in Fort Lauderdale plans to build a home on the site, after commissioners approved the demolition last week, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

A failed restoration project for the Sailboat Bend home at 716 Southwest 4th Place in 2005 rendered it in poor shape. Three years later, the Unsafe Structures Board issued a demolition order for the building. But the Historic Preservation Board would not give the green light.

Edward Strobel, the owner, told the commissioners it would be cost-prohibitive to tear it down. Commissioners agreed and overturned the board’s ruling. The building was owned by C.P. Weidling, co-founder of the city’s first law firm and publisher of the Fort Lauderdale Herald.

Strobel told the newspaper the new structure would be built to withstand 200 mph winds, be almost completely solar-powered and include a cistern system handling its outdoor watering needs. [Sun-Sentinel] – Mark Maurer

Jed Kolko

In a time of sharply rising U.S. home prices, should one worry about a new housing bubble? Apparently not. Despite the price hikes — which are currently increasing at the same rate as during the 2003, 2004 and 2005 bubble years — there is no bubble today, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Trulia data.

The difference is that home prices are now undervalued when compared to personal incomes and rents. In the bubble years, they were overvalued by 39 percent nationally. Today, on a national basis, prices are undervalued by 7 percent roughly.

“Today’s price gains are actually still a rebound, not a bubble,” said Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko.

Las Vegas and Detroit are the markets where prices are most undervalued, with a respective 24 percent and 23 percent below Trulia’s estimate for fair value, the Journal said. [WSJ] –Zachary Kussin

South Florida residential inventory (Click to enlarge image)

Residential inventory in South Florida decreased to 31,760 from 31,946 active listings for the week ending May 13, 2013. During the same period, pending sales increased slightly, to 24,828 from 24,199.

Active listings are properties where no current sale contract exists; pending sales are properties in which a contract for sale has been executed, but not yet closed. Listing brokers control the status of a property listing. The figures were compiled by Condo Vultures Realty using the South Florida Shared Multiple Listing Service. –TRD

Clockwise from left: Eric Trump, the Miami skyline, Carlos Rosso

The Real Deal will supplement the launch of its spring 2013 South Florida Market Report, an in-depth look at all aspects of real estate in the region, with a top-flight roundtable Thursday in Aventura.

Slated to speak are Gil Dezer, president of Dezer Development; Carlos Rosso, president of condominium development for the Related Group; Kevin Maloney, founder and principal of Property Markets Group; developer Avra Jain; and Eric Trump, executive vice president of development and acquisition at the Trump Organization.

The invitation-only roundtable and party will take place at Echo, a new condo project by Property Markets Group. The roundtable will begin at 6 p.m.; the party, marking the grand opening of Echo’s sales center at 3250 N.E. 188th Street, begins at 7 p.m. and wraps up at 9 p.m.

The Real Deal’s 2013 South Florida Market Report is out as part of our May print issue, distributed to readers both in New York City and South Florida. The next issue is planned for later this year. For editorial inquiries, email southfloridanews@therealdeal.com.

Today, the five most expensive properties on the market range from a mere $39 million to an eye-popping nine digits — $100 million. [more]

Weak dollar draws Fla. sales

Florida property prices are growing at a rate unseen since 2005, according to a Colordarcy analysis of Florida realtors’ data and real estate portals.

Investors from Canada to Asia are capitalizing on a weak dollar compared to their home countries’ currencies and a slate of new luxury condo projects, according to Colordarcy, a UK-based property investment consultancy.

Median sales prices for single-family homes across Florida shot up by 16 percent from February to March, the biggest month-on-month gain since the height of the previous boom. Florida property prices have risen for 16 consecutive months.

Amid the 2008 bust, prices dropped to exaggerated levels.

“It is not surprising that property prices in Florida continue to rise. It is eight years since the peak of the last boom and it will take time for property prices to rise to the kind of levels they were at in 2005, allowing for inflation,” Loxley McKenzie, Colordarcy’s managing director, said in a news release. The consultancy focuses on investment properties that will immediately generate positive cash flow, in the UK, Brazil, Turkey and Florida. –Emily Schmall

Santa Maria in Miami

Today’s priciest new listing is a five-bedroom, five-bathroom condominium asking $5.9 million. The 5,733-square-foot home is located at Santa Maria at 1643 Brickell Avenue, Unit 3702, in Miami.

It features 5,733 square feet and 1,742 square feet of terraces on the waterfront. It also has marble floors, 20-foot ceilings, electric storm shutters, a Jacuzzi, Swedish-style showers with a steam room and a home theater. Fabian Dominguez of Fortune International Realty has the listing. (Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Mark Maurer

Rendering of condo at 1100 Millecento in the Brickell neighborhood

Several Miami projects helmed by luxury condo developer the Related Group are making progress, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

A 22-story project in Hollywood called Apogee Beach is slated to finish construction in the next few weeks. The group plans to begin construction on a 30-story BeachWalk project in Hallandale Beach tomorrow, the Business Journal said.

As for condo projects still in the works, the 42-story 1100 Millecento in the Brickell neighborhood broke ground last October and the 40-story Icon Bay in Edgewater began construction in March. The 27-story MyBrickell is expected to be ready by the fall. Related is also eyeing various multifamily communities and mixed-use projects, the newspaper said. [Business Journal] –Mark Maurer

Icon Bay in Miami

The revival of construction in Edgewater is turning a once-blighted Miami neighborhood into the next hip spot, the Miami Herald reported. As property values steadily climb, developers have been launching several high-rise condominium and apartment projects.

The bayfront neighborhood, offering views of Biscayne Bay, unofficially spans Northeast 17th Street north to the Julia Tuttle Causeway at 36th Street and from Biscayne Bay west to the railroad tracks. Developers are drawn to the permissive zoning that allows for high-rise buildings, and the proximity to the also trendy Wynwood and the Design District.

Restaurants and shops are popping up, and longtime drug hangout Margaret Pace Park cleaned up its act.

The Related Group broke ground last month on luxury condo Icon Bay at 428 Northeast 28th Street. Pre-sales started last September and the building “is basically sold out,” Carlos Rosso of Related told the Herald.

New York-based real estate private-equity firm GTIS Partners and West Palm Beach-based Eastview Development are planning a 42-story, 394-unit condo tower on a 2.65-acre site between 29th and 30th streets they bought in March. The Melo Group has lined up seven condo projects across a roughly four-block radius. [Miami Herald] –Mark Maurer

Oren Alexander

A heated real estate market is fueling another boom in South Florida, with more than 120 projects underway in Greater Miami, broker Oren Alexander said on television to Fox Business.

Like its basketball and weather, Miami’s real estate market is ablaze, he said.

“On the high end specifically, we have all of the whole world’s wealth out here trying to vy for a handful of properties,” Alexander said.

The 20-something Douglas Elliman broker and Miami Beach native sold Miami’s most expensive mansion for $47 million last August, as The Real Deal reported.

Another height was reached when a condo sold for $34 million, a Florida state record.

“Miami was one of the hardest hit areas during the recession. Since then, we’ve grown tremendously. We have an influx of cultural centers, of restaurants, infrastructure. Today Miami has to be one of the hottest destinations in the world,” Alexander said.

The young broker works with his father and his older brother, Tal, in Miami and New York. His twin works in securities.

The $47-million single-family home in the Indian Creek section of Miami Beach, designed by Miami architect Rene Gonzalez, was assessed at $7.2 million at the time of the sale, according to the County Property Appraiser’s office. [Fox Business] –Emily Schmall

Aerial view of Sunny Isles Beach

While some 1,200 new condos have been proposed for Sunny Isles Beach, sales are slowing at the barrier island city, according to a new Condo Vultures report.

In the first quarter, developers sold 35 units for $20.3 million compared to 70 units for $67.8 million during the same period in 2011, Miami-Dade County records show.

New construction could eclipse existing inventory, leaving already standing units shelved, according to Condo Vultures principal Peter Zalewski.

“It remains unclear whether developer condo sales of boom-era units are slowing as a direct result of the wave of new projects being proposed for Sunny Isles Beach,” he wrote.

“The unanswered question.. is whether buyers will prefer to purchase units built during the last condo boom…instead of new units.”

Some 280 condo units – about four percent of the more than 6,400 units built in Sunny Isles Beach during South Florida’s last boom-and-bust cycle, from 2003 to 2008 – remain unsold, the report said. [condovultures.com] –Emily Schmall

Daren Blomquist

Home flippers are playing a role in South Florida’s real estate comeback, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Buyers are picking up distressed homes at big discounts, sprucing them up and selling them off within two years. They’re getting credit for helping the market to recover after the 2008 crash, the paper said, by improving homes – landscaping and upgrading the interior with new floors and appliances.

“When I put a house back up for sale, it usually goes very quickly,” Bruno Duarte, a 34-year-old former stock broker, told the Sentinel.

The tri-county region is the most profitable in the U.S. for flipping homes, a recent report by Irvine, Calif.-based Realty Trac said. Flippers earned an average 37 percent in gross profit, the report said.

Flippers often pay cash for run-down properties, RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist told the Sentinel.

“There will always be some bad players, but overall, flippers seem like they’re filling a necessary gap in the market,” he said. [Sun-Sentinel] –Emily Schmall

Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas, the Dutch architect behind the Faena renovation of Miami Beach’s Saxony Hotel, leads one of two firms vying for the $1 billion redevelopment of the city’s convention center.

Koolhaas has joined a circuit of Pritzker Prize-winning architects working in South Florida, already assuring his stamp on the region.

Bold designs made Koolhaas among the 20th century’s most iconic architects and urban theorists. He has written and published a wealth on cities while designing city fixtures like Porto, Portugal’s Casa da Música, the Dutch embassy in Berlin and the pants-shaped CCTV building, China’s state TV headquarters in Beijing.

Harvard’s long-time dean of architecture, Koolhaas is among the rare architects who have transcended the realm of popular culture. Tall and thin, Koolhas, 67, is the inspiration for the Cool Haus Miami ice-cream truck and the villain Kem Roomhaus in the Batman graphic novel, Death by Design.

A regular visitor to Miami over 40 years, Koolhaas has long wanted to work here, according to an interview with the Miami Herald. He felt car-dependent suburban living choked the city’s potential. First in Miami in 1972 on a travel fellowship to the U.S., Koolhaas’ ideas were a strong influence on the eventual birth of what is now Miami’s top firm, Arquitectonica.

“It’s always unbelievably beautiful, so that is the biggest asset,” Koolhas told the Herald. “I think there is another city which is unbelievably beautiful, which is Los Angeles. They both clearly have a lot more potential than they are currently realizing. But that also gives them an enormous charm.

“As an architect I always have mixed feelings. On the one hand, your fingers are itching. As a human being, you are happy to participate in the indolence.”

Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture recently won what could be the firm’s most ambitious project to date, designing a 200,000-person “airport city” near a new air terminal in Doha, Qatar.

Last year, the Dutch architect won his first project in Miami — Argentine developer Alan Faena’s Saxony Hotel redevelopment. OMA has planned a compact area along Collins Ave. and 32nd Street, including a ballroom and cultural center and discreet parking garage and the renovation of a smaller, adjacent hotel, the Herald said.

321 Ocean Drive, Unit 201, in Miami Beach (Source: Condo Vultures)

Today’s priciest new listing is a four-bedroom, five-bathroom condominium asking $7.5 million. The 4,466-square-foot home is located at 321 Ocean Drive, Unit 201, in Miami Beach. It features a balcony and two private gardens. The building, designed by architect Enrique Norten, contains 21 residences. Veronica Cervera of Cervera Real Estate has the listing. Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Mark Maurer

Palm Beach County

North Palm Beach residents were among the 96,000 U.S. borrowers feeling cheated after receiving errant checks for foreclosure abuses this week, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Rust Consulting, a Minneapolis-based paying agent with an office in Palm Beach Gardens, issued a statement Wednesday about the error, saying it would mail supplemental checks to the bilked borrowers “as soon as May 17.”

Regarding foreclosure abuses in 2009 and 2010, regulators hired Rust to distribute funds using formulas designed to calculate the probability that borrowers were wronged, reports said.

John Lebeau of North Palm Beach expected a $50,000 restitution check for a possibly fraudulent foreclosure on his home that had dragged on for years. Instead, he received $400, he said. Lebeau told the newspaper his home was recently bought by an investor and he has been served with an eviction notice.

Lebeau said he received a loan modification in 2009. His loan was bought by another company, which said he needed to apply for the modification. And though he did, the company lost his paperwork repeatedly and his home was soon foreclosed on, the report said.

About 2.1 million borrowers have cashed settlement checks worth $1.9 billion, the Palm Beach Post said. [Palm Beach Post] –Mark Maurer

2.55-acre lot at 20 Casuarina Concourse in Coral Gables (Source: StreetEasy)

Demand for waterfront property in South Florida is so high that the price for vacant parcels of land is rising along with it, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

Available lots are not all snapped up, but they are getting scarcer. In Coral Gables, a vast and exclusive vacant lot at 20 Casuarina Concourse in Gables Estates has a $13.5 million asking price, the Business Journal said. The trend can be seen in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Meanwhile, many are tearing down existing homes and building anew.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Anibal Sanchez is tearing down his Old Cutler Bay home at 275 Solano Prado in Coral Gables, which he bought in May for $4.5 million, said Toni Schrager of Avatar Real Estate Services.

A home’s physical, functional and economic value, as well as its age and surrounding property values, factor in to the price a buyer would pay for a teardown, author and developer Frank McKinney told the newspaper. [Business Journal] – Mark Maurer

Le Parc

South Florida condo developers are competing for cash-rich buyers by upping the ante in luxury amenities.

Le Parc, a 12-story “boutique” condo tower in Brickell, is being marketed as the height of green chic.

Among a small cluster of LEED-certified residential buildings in Brickell, Le Parc will be “set off the beaten path” of Simpson Park Hammock, one of the few remaining green spaces in Miami’s urban core. The building will offer energy-efficient, stainless steel appliances, electric car-charging stations, UV blocking glass and palatial terrace views of the park’s lush vegetation, according to a company release.

The building is being jointly developed by South Florida-based Strategic Properties Group and AXA Developers, a collaboration between Chile’s largest publicly-traded residential developer, Aconcagua, and Miami-based Archiplan USA, the release said.

Not to be outdone by neighboring Brickell towers, Le Parc’s 128 units and townhomes will feature European-style cabinetry, imported quartz countertops and Briord, France-based Ligne Roset furniture.

From left: Steve Witkoff, Anatoly Golubchik, Helly Nahmad and Vadim Trincher

Real estate mogul Steve Witkoff, whose company is behind glitzy new condos at 10 Madison Park and 150 Charles Street, has a reputation for not being shy about betting the rent in his business ventures. And now there’s evidence that he’s a bit of a risk-taker in his personal life, too.

New documents obtained by The Real Deal show Witkoff submitted a recommendation for indicted Russian mobster Anatoly Golubchik more than two years ago when he applied to live in a condominium building at 971 Madison Avenue.

Golubchik played a key role in a high-stakes gambling ring based out of Trump Tower, according to indictments unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Billionaire art scion Helly Nahmad also submitted a letter for Golubchik; Nahmad is also named in the gambling indictment.

Witkoff, of the Witkoff Group, submitted the letter to the building’s board of directors. In the letter, dated Dec. 3, 2010, Witkoff describes Golubchik as a “friend” and as “a person of strong reputation and integrity.” There are no previous reports of the duo’s friendship.

How Witkoff came to know Golubchik or whether he was involved in gambling activities is not clear. In a 1998 interview with the New York Times, the developer said he had turned his back on gambling when he was 17 after a series of losses forced him to sell a new sports car he’d purchased from previous winnings at the racetrack.

Witkoff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Golubchik is charged with Nahmad, alleged Russian mobster Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov and poker pro Vadim Trincher with operating a criminal organization engaged in illegal gambling, money laundering and extortion.

The organization, headquartered at Nahmad’s palatial apartment at Trump Tower at 725 Fifth Avenue, allegedly catered to gambling oligarchs residing in the former Soviet Union. Golubchik in particular was accused by federal authorities of extorting money through force and threats of force.

Another recommendation for Golubchik came from Nahmad, who has been slapped with racketeering and money laundering charges as part of the mass indictment, The Real Deal has learned. In his letter, Nahmad said he had conducted “numerous significant business transactions” with Golubchik. “Knowing Anatoly as well as I do, I can sincerely say that he and his wife Yelena will make a wonderful addition to your condominium,” Nahmad’s letter said.

Golubchik, whose main residence is in New Jersey, closed on his purchase of the apartment for $5.03 million in January 2011, according to public property records. The seller was John Rosanvallon, president and CEO of aviation company Dassault Falcon Jet, and his wife, Genevieve.

The apartment is now subject to forfeiture since it was allegedly acquired with funds obtained illegally through racketeering, according to an official complaint filed by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in federal court last month. The apartment has been empty since the couple purchased it in 2010, sources familiar with the case told The Real Deal.

Golubchik’s failure to disclose that he owned the home prompted the judge to increase his bail amount, from $3 million to $10 million.

Besides his Madison Avenue home, Golubchik has an apartment at Trump Tower in Sunny Isles, Fa., which he purchased in 2010, that also has been forfeited, according to the complaint.

Trincher’s two-unit apartment combination on the 63rd floor at Manhattan’s Trump Tower has been forfeited as well. Nahmad also owns a pad at Trump Tower, which he bought for $8 million last year, but that property does not appear to be subject to forfeiture.

Lubavitch Education Center’s rabbinical college

The Lubavitch Education Center, the first rabbinical college, or yeshiva, in the southeastern U.S., could be sold in a foreclosure auction set for July, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge awarded Alabama-based Regions Bank a $15.1 million foreclosure judgment against Friends of Lubavitch of Florida and 17330 NW 7 LLC, the owners of the property, in addition to two other properties that provide Jewish education from pre-school to high school.

The judge ruled against counterclaims filed by Friends of Lubavitch, a non-profit affiliate of the orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch – a branch of Hasidism – movement, deciding it was past due on $7.8 million plus interest owed to Regions and setting its three properties for online auction on July 29.

Those include an 84,020-square-foot building on seven acres in Miami, a 30,750-square-foot education center in Miami Beach and a 3,363-square-foot apartment building, also in Miami Beach.

Several Jewish institutions in recent foreclosure lawsuits have been saved by donations or loan refinancing, the Journal said. [South Florida Business Journal] –Emily Schmall

Vanessa Grout

From the May issue: Vanessa Grout was a Miamian living and working in the heart of Manhattan when she got the call to head Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s Florida operation.

Grout didn’t have to think about the offer long. She knew the brokerage from her job as a vice president of its parent company, Vector Group Ltd. She knew her hometown, of course. And she knew real estate would give her the chance to use both her MBA from New York University and her law degree from St. Thomas University. [more]

Miami’s Brickell and downtown

Competing visions for South Florida are fueling a building boom here, with starchitect skyscrapers rising over Biscayne Bay and ritzy hotels and name-brand condos crowding into the ocean-side suburbs north of Miami Beach.

Cash-paying, mainly overseas buyers putting half down as a security are helping to finance various urban experiments across South Florida, with some developers selling the sophistication of a bustling city while others promise exclusivity and space.

Carlos Rosso, head of Related Group’s condo division, is among those who herald the urbanization of Miami through the growth of Brickell, the financial corridor connected to edgy Wynwood and downtown by the Metro Mover, the city’s rarely used, free elevated train. Related has nine projects in the pipeline, including the Philippe Starck-designed SLS Brickell, the haute hotel brand’s first residential development, with 450 units, and the 42-story Millecento, designed by Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott.

Rosso thinks South Florida’s new landlords and tenants want the sense of independence and exposure of living in a city like his hometown, Buenos Aires.

“The tendency toward a European style of city is growing. People say, ‘hey, I don’t care about the view; I want the action,’” Rosso said.

Miami architect Rene Gonzalez’s expensive glass-paneled construction Glass in South Beach and the Porsche Design building in Sunny Isles Beach, a slick luxury condo tower where every appliance is chosen by Porsche’s German design team, express a contrary impulse.

Each Glass unit owner will have a private floor (or three) and a 360-degree view of the Atlantic, the bay and South Beach’s neon-lit Art Deco buildings.

One owner, a Brazilian investor who asked not to be named, described it as a “sanctuary.”

“It’s two different worlds — you can face the ocean and feel the tranquility of the sea, and if you feel lonely, you can walk the other direction and feel the warmth and excitement of the city. The perspective is like you’re flying,” he said.

The Porsche Design’s luxury innovation is a smart car elevator that delivers drivers unseen into their apartments, further protected by obsidian glass, that range in price from $4.5 million to $25 million.

“There’s nothing like it,” said Gil Dezer, the Porsche tower’s developer. “It’s a really over-the-top scenario, but at those prices, it has to be.”

Rosso of Related credits foreign clients with infusing South Florida with their urbane customs and culture. In exchange, the region, and the U.S. more broadly, offers safety and a growing economy, he said.

“The Latin influence has been good for it. It feels like the home they’d like to have,” Rosso said.

Whether the influx of cash for developments molds South Florida into miniatures of buyers’ home cities or creates something entirely new may be determined by whose vision adheres faster.

Residences At Vizcaya condominium in Miami

Today’s priciest listing is a six-bedroom, six-bathroom condominium asking $6.7 million. The 9,498-square-foot home is located at Residences at Vizcaya, 3535 Hiawatha Avenue, Unit 702 penthouse, in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. It features a pool, two spas and cabana areas. The listing agent is Paola Garcia-Carrillo and listing broker is Residence Realty Inc. (Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Mark Maurer

Timothy Mayopoulos

Fannie Mae will pay the Treasury Department $58.7 billion in dividends by the end of June, Forbes reported.

The mortgage finance firm recorded $8.1 billion in pre-tax income in the first quarter. Its payment to the feds is enabled by a $50.6 billion valuation allowance on deferred tax assets, the magazine said. Then, the total dividends reimbursing the Treasury for the 2008 bailout will hit $95 billion. Yesterday, Freddie Mac reported a quarterly net income of $4.6 billion and owes a $7 billion dividend to the Treasury. No valuation allowance was announced, Forbes said.

“I think there is a risk policymakers might look at our profitability and conclude they don’t need to take action with respect to housing finance reform,” said Fannie CEO Timothy Mayopoulos on a conference call. “I think that would be a mistake.” [Forbes] –Mark Maurer

Designer Yves Béhar

UPDATED, 2:00 p.m., May 10: The new 37-floor residential tower project Centro in downtown Miami is one step closer to its vision for sustainability.Newgard Development Group has tapped award-winning entrepreneur and sustainability advocate Yves Béhar to design its new 37-floor residential tower in downtown Miami, according to the company.

Newgard intends Centro to be environmentally friendly by encouraging alternative modes of transportation. Centro will offer Car2Go smart cars, a bike-share program and a valet, but no parking spaces. At 151 Southeast First Street, it is located close to the Metromover stations, Metrorail, Miami Trolley stops and multiple bus lines, the release said.

The building will feature one and two-bedroom loft-style homes. The units will contain “geometric patterns” and “organic forms in machined aluminum” from Neal Feay, Swarovski amplify lights, Herman Miller and custom furniture, the release said.

Béhar’s San Francisco-based industrial design and branding firm, fuseproject, envisions minimal walls and room divisions. Yves Béhar was recognized by Condé Nast as designer of the year in 2011. –Mark Maurer

Echo Brickell

Although Echo Brickell is not set to be completed until 2017, all but the priciest units in the planned 60-story condo tower have been snapped up.

A month after the condos went on sale, only about 50 units on the tower’s top floors of a total 190 units remain, and these will be sold in a second, exclusive release, Ryan Shear, developer Property Markets Group’s managing partner in South Florida, told The Real Deal.

“We’ve sold out everything that was on the market,” Shear said.

The 750-foot tower, conceptually designed by renowned Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott, will be Miami’s tallest residential building.

Miami condo prices are soaring as demand, particularly from foreign buyers, far outstrips supply.

Much of the new inventory — including at Echo Brickell — is being financed by what has been dubbed the Latin American model, where buyers pay much of the construction costs up front, along with high initial deposits.

“This is the first buyer spree post-crash,” Philip Spiegelman, a principal at International Sales Group, told TRD last month.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Echo Brickell will be completed early next year. The building’s groundbreaking is scheduled for early next year, with completion expected in 2017. The article has also been changed to correct  a misstatement that 30 units remain. There are closer to 50 remaining units.

Proposed Saxony Hotel and Condo project in Miami Beach

Big-time hoteliers are seeing construction lending come back strong, but less-established developers are struggling because of the strict standards that banks still have in place, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Hotel construction is a risky venture for lenders, but Marty Collins of Gatehouse Capital Corp. told colleagues at a conference this week that Gatehouse and other hotel developers are seeing support in financing. A key factor for change in lending is the issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities, which are expected to double this year to $80 billion to $100 billion, Trepp LLC told the newspaper.

Construction is surprisingly ramping up in full-service hotels, which feature restaurants and spas, said Alison Cumberland, senior vice president at Marriott.

Because to the lack of new hotel projects since the recession, figures are on par with 2007. Average occupancy is at 57.7 percent, while the average nightly rate is $108.31, according to Smith Travel Research data reported by the Journal.

Research firm Lodging Econometrics predicts the industry will inch up its room base by 1.1 percent this year and 1.4 percent the next. Last year’s growth rate was 0.9 percent, the Journal said. [WSJ] —Mark Maurer

Power Studios

A gargantuan retail complex is planned for the site of Miami’s iconic Power Studios, where Emilio Estefan produced his first music video and where photographer Bruce Weber shot the late fashion designer Gianni Versace’s last catalogue, the Daily Business Review reported.

The Design District two-story building, purchased by sculptor Ross Power for $90,000 and opened as Power Studios in 1989, was sold for $8 million to a partnership led by Chariff Realty Group, which plans to use the quarter-acre property for 19,000 square feet of retail space, the latest project to convert the outpost for furniture showrooms and art galleries into a luxury retail hub.

“We see it as the gateway entrance to the district,” Lyle Chariff, the real estate group’s president, told the Review, adding that his company remains in “buy mode” for undervalued Design District-area properties.

The Power Studios building, erected in 1925, boasts a production studio and cinema; a restaurant and outdoor patio and a nightclub with plenty of space on the dance floor. [Daily Business Review] –Emily Schmall

Bal Harbour Shops

From the May issue: South Florida’s residential brokers aren’t the only ones singing a song these days. So are their retail counterparts.

Boutiques, discount giants, supermarkets, restaurants, department stores — they all need space, and they’re leasing it in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties. [more]

Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac

South Florida is no longer the national leader in foreclosures, the Sun-Sentinel reported, citing April figures from RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based listings monitor.

After holding the ignominious title for two consecutive months, the tri-county metro area slipped to third last month, behind Akron, Ohio and Ocala, Florida. One in every 269 homes in South Florida was in foreclosure, with one in every 211 homes in foreclosure in the Akron area, in April, according to RealtyTrac.

South Florida had 9,127 total filings in April, up slightly from a year earlier, but new cases declined by 35 percent, Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for RealtyTrac, told the Sentinel.

“It appears that lenders have caught up with these delayed foreclosures,” he said. “Banks are pushing through the backlog, so we’re getting closer to seeing a resolution with these distressed homes.”

While statewide, Florida last month had the nation’s second-highest foreclosure rate after Nevada, filings are down sharply since the 2009 peak, Blomquist said.

Florida had the top foreclosure rate for six months in a row until relinquishing the top spot to Nevada in March. [Sun-Sentinel] –Emily Schmall

Apogee condomiums in Miami Beach (Source: Condo Vultures)

Today’s priciest new listing is a four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom condominium asking $9.8 million.The 3,731-square-foot home is located at Apogee at 800 South Pointe Drive, Unit 1101, in Miami Beach. It features an outdoor kitchen as well as a 2,400-square-foot terrace that offers views of Fisher Island, Cruise Ship Alley and the Atlantic Ocean. Marcello Agostini is the listing agent and AG Real Estate Advisors LLC is the brokerage firm. (Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Mark Maurer

Barry Sternlicht
of Starwood

Opportunity real estate funds are increasingly testing out a new profit-making strategy, investing in riskier real estate — such as distressed properties or those with large vacancies — in the hopes of yielding larger returns, the Wall Street Journal reported.

During the downturn, private equity and pension funds generally invested in safe properties in healthy markets. But the increased demand for these assets has driven up prices, according to the Journal.

As a result, the funds need to “take more risk to get double-digit returns,” Bob Jacksha, the chief investment officer at the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, told the Journal.

For example, KKR and TPG Capital are now raising their first real estate funds. Starwood Capital Group closed an over-$4 billion fund last month, which was ahead of its target of $2 billion to $3 billion. Brookfield Asset Management has now raised $2.8 billion for a targeted $3.5 billion opportunity fund. [WSJ] –Zachary Kussin

Kendall, Fla.

Home sale prices in the greater Miami area increased 8.6 percent in March year-over-year, according to numbers from CoreLogic. Compared to the previous month, prices in the area — which includes Miami, Miami Beach and Kendall — were up a mere 0.3 percent, including distressed sales, the data provider said.

Not including distressed sales, the CoreLogic Home Price Index found prices went up by 15.6 percent year-over-year and 2.8 percent month-over-month.

Across the U.S., March saw the largest year-over-year increase since March 2006, the firm said. Home prices nationwide jumped 10.5 percent from the previous March. Several Western states, such as California and Arizona, made significant gains. Nationwide home prices increased by 1.9 percent from February. —Mark Maurer

Timothy McCabe

A Palm Beach attorney who vanished nearly six weeks ago is being sued in the county’s circuit court by a couple who say he looted their trust in order to pay off his own mortgage, the Palm Beach Post reported.

The suit, filed last week, is believed to be the first client action taken against attorney Timothy McCabe, who vanished in early April, leaving his law firm’s bank accounts emptied of millions of dollars, the newspaper said.

Broward County residents George and Lori Miguel accuse McCabe, 55, of swindling $72,000 from a trust account to pay off a $388,334 mortgage for his Boca Raton home.

The couple claims they also lost a $40,000 deposit on a home they intended to buy but were not able to close on without the trust account money, the Post said, citing the lawsuit.

Six other clients have retained Fort Lauderdale attorney Jeffrey Sonn, who specialized in investment fraud.

“It all paints a picture of a guy in financial trouble using clients’ money to get him out,” Sonn told the Post. “While deals were pending, he was promising clients returns of one, two, four percent per month.”

The FBI, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department and Boca Raton police are working on the case, the newspaper said. [Palm Beach Post] –Emily Schmall

Cranes in Miami

From the May issue: It’s anybody’s guess whether real estate in South Florida is headed for another bust, but the boom is clearly on.

All the demand, especially for condos, is drying up inventory. And developers are ginning up projects, refusing to be haunted by the bad times of only a few years ago. [more]

Bal Harbour

Investors paid $11.2 million last month for a pair of waterfront development sites on a once-sleepy and now-booming barrier island in Northeast Miami-Dade County, the latest sign of developers’ race for land in South Florida’s heated real estate market.

A group of local and international developers are planning nearly 1,000 new condo units for the 20-block stretch of Bal Harbour, Surfside and Bay Harbor Islands, a trio of tiny communities north of Miami Beach, according to the report.

The success of the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort & Residences, where new condos are selling for an average $1,500 per square foot, is driving attention up the beach, Condo Vultures principal Peter Zalewski said in the report.

“After years of limited new development, Bay Harbor Islands is suddenly a hot market,”he wrote. “Right now, investors are descending upon the…area looking for developable land in an attempt to try to capitalize on the strong pricing.”

Across South Florida, developers are planning more than 130 condo tower projects that would collectively offer about 18,000 new units, according to CraneSpotters.com.

It is unclear whether the land buyers – Bay Harbor Residences LLC and Bay Village Condos LLC – are related. The individual ownership information was omitted from corporate documents but the registered agent for both groups is listed as Jennifer Snyder with the same Biscayne Boulevard address in Aventura, according to the Florida Division of Corporations. [CondoVultures.com] –Emily Schmall

Four Seasons Residences in Miami

UPDATED, 1:46 p.m., May 8: The sale of a 70th-floor penthouse at the Four Seasons Residences for $5.2 million has shattered the record amount paid per square foot in Miami’s Brickell corridor, according to the seller’s broker.

A “highly recognized European tennis” player paid more than $1,500 per square foot for the apartment in the tallest tower south of New York, where residents live with hotel-style amenities, the broker, Nelson Gonzalez, told The Real Deal.

The penthouse became the most expensive unit in the building, selling for as much as three times the average per square foot for housing in the fast-growing Miami enclave.

“It’s going to blow open the market on Brickell Avenue,” Gonzalez said, adding that residential real estate prices in neighboring buildings were hovering between $500 and $1,000 per square foot.

The buyer “really has faith because of what is happening in Brickell that the unit will gain a lot of value in the coming years,” Gonzalez was quoted earlier as telling Daily Business Review.

The seller, Miami spinal surgeon Ronald DeMeo, paid $4.15 million in July 2005 for the 3,452-square-foot unit, the newspaper reported, citing county records. The top-floor unit features a master suite and room-sized bath, as well as daily housekeeping and access to the hotel’s spa. [Daily Business Review] –Emily Schmall

Stephen Ross

Miami Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross, the billionaire co-founder and chairman of the closely held luxury condo developer, the Related Group, pledged half his $4.4 billion fortune to charity, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Ross became on Tuesday one of nine new members of the Giving Pledge, created by investor Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates in 2010 to encourage the largesse of fellow billionaires. The group has 114 signatories.

“As a very young boy my uncle taught me a valuable lesson, the importance of giving back and using your impact and influence to make the world a better place,” Ross said in a statement, referring to American businessman and philanthropist Max Fisher.

Ross halted plans to renovate the Dolphins’ Sun Life Stadium last week after Florida’s House of Representatives failed to take up a bill that would have provided about $300 million in public subsidies towards a stadium upgrade over 30 years.

The Miami Beach native bought the team and stadium from Wayne H. Huizenga in 2008 for $1.1 billion, according to the Sentinel. [Sun-Sentinel] –Emily Schmall

5817 Riviera Drive in Coral Gables

Today’s priciest new listing is a five-bedroom, five-bathroom single-family home asking $2.7 million. The 5,454-square-foot French colonial home is located at 5817 Riviera Drive in Coral Gables. It features marble floors, a fireplace and tall ceilings. The fifth bedroom is currently a den and library, but can be converted. The listing agent is Maria Cardenal and the listing broker is Mariana Martinez. (Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Mark Maurer

Matthew Greer

Carlisle Group Inc., the predecessor to the Carlisle Development Group, a Miami-based subsidizing housing developer with more than $1 billion in completed projects, has a trial date set for a supposed $5.1 million loan default at Alabama-based Regions Bank.

The court action preceded last week’s disclosure that Carlisle Development Group is facing a grand jury investigation into allegations that it defrauded taxpayers by padding construction costs for public projects in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

The grand jury is focusing on two of Carlisle’s chief executive officers, Matthew S. Greer, and retired CEO and founder Lloyd J. Boggio, as well as a general contractor Michael K. Runyan, according to the subpoena.

The for-profit Carlisle Group, the third-largest affordable-housing developer in the U.S., has received accolades for its well-designed apartment buildings.

Regions has said Carlisle violated a 2002 contract when it defaulted on a $6.5 million loan. Carlisle has denied liability in the case.

According to local press, Carlisle has completed more than 80 projects with a value of about $1.4 billion.

Over a decade, the defendants donated at least $68,000 to South Florida political action committees, particularly for mayor and commission races, local media reported.

A U.S. District Court judge denied Carlisle Group Inc.’s request for a dismissal in the Regions suit and set the trial date for September 2014.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Miami-based Carlisle Development Group had a trial date set for September after a disclosure that the company is under grand jury investigation. Carlisle Group Inc., the predecessor to Carlisle Development Group, had a trial date set for September 2014 before the the disclosure about Carlisle Development Group.

Fontainebleau Miami Beach

The Fontainebleau hotel has parted ways with the Greater Miami & The Beaches Hotel Association amid a disagreement over redeveloping the convention center district, the Miami Herald reported.

The famed 1,500-room Miami Beach resort was the largest hotel member of the association before it opted not to renew its membership. But the city’s billion-dollar plan soured the relationship.

“The Fontainebleau Miami Beach has always advocated an immediate renovation, expansion and upgrade to the Miami Beach Convention Center and we are not opposed to a hotel project, provided no public monies, taxes or subsidies are used in its development,” a Fontainebleau spokesman told the Herald in an email.

Miami Beach is close to picking a team to overhaul the outdated convention center, as well as add a ballroom, apartments, a shopping area and an affordable hotel. The Fontainebleau owners bid on the project, but lost, the newspaper said.

Last month, the hotel owners claimed a now-jailed city official cost them a $1 billion contract to redevelop the center. The Herald had reported Gus Lopez, the city’s former procurement director, was arrested and charged with 63 felony counts of public corruption charges. He has pleaded not guilty. [Miami Herald] —Mark Maurer

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi

Florida’s attorney general Pam Bondi said her office is considering claims that Wells Fargo and Bank of America are violating the terms of last year’s nationwide, five-bank mortgage settlement.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has notified a national oversight commission created to enforce the agreement, which requires banks to respond to mortgage modification requests within 30 days, and pledged to sue if the group took no action.

Bondi said in a news release this morning that her office is considering the attorney general’s complaint.

“As one of the hardest hit states in the foreclosure crisis, we have been closely monitoring compliance with the national mortgage settlement, and we are in regular contact with several banks on behalf of complainants,” Bondi said. “We look forward to reviewing the information New York has provided.”

The $25 billion settlement between the government and the nation’s five largest mortgage lenders has gone to some 102,000 distressed Florida homeowners with an average of $75,949 in relief, according to a February report of the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight.

Today, a nine-bedroom, newly constructed home on the market for $74 million shows the city is as popular as ever with the richest of the rich. [more]

Miami’s machine-bored tunnel

Construction workers emerged from the darkness, climbing over chunks of debris pushed by a giant $45 million boring machine Monday as it completed the final leg of forging a westbound tunnel to Watson Island in Miami, the Associated Press reported.

The machine, nicknamed Harriet, finished boring a $1 billion tunnel connecting the Port of Miami with nearby expressways. The tunnel won’t open to traffic for another year, the AP reported.

Harriet began the underground journey on Watson Island off downtown Miami in November 2011.

It reached the port July 31. It was then taken apart, pointed in the other direction and put back together for a return trip in October heading back to downtown.

The excavation came to an end Monday morning on Watson Island. Hundreds of workers will now begin laying pavement for roads inside the tunnel, the AP said.

The project will give cargo trucks a direct route to the port from nearby expressways such as Interstate 95 and an alternative to congested downtown Miami. [AP] –Emily Schmall

1601 Washington Ave., Miami Beach

Parkway Properties signed a deal to buy Lincoln Place, an office and retail building on Washington Ave. in South Beach, for $66 million in debt and stock, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

The publicly traded, Orlando-based company said the building is fully leased by LNR Corp., the commercial-property arm spun off from U.S. homebuilder Lennar Corp. LNR is headquartered there in a deal that runs through June 2021. The building’s current owner, 16th Street Partners, is managed by LNR.

Parkway Properties said it would assume a $49.6 million mortgage with a 5.9 percent interest rate and maturity set for June 2016. It would also give the seller 900,000 shares of Parkway Properties. The deal is $472 per square foot and expected to close in the third quarter, the Journal said.

“We are excited for the opportunity to expand into the South Florida area,” James Heistand, Parkway Properties’ president and chief executive, stated in a news release. “We believe this market is in the early stages of a recovery and has the potential to improve quickly given the diversity and vibrancy of its economy.”

Lincoln Place, a 140,000 square feet of office space, retail and a 534-space parking garage, was constructed in 2002. [South Florida Business Journal] –Emily Schmall

Kenneth Krasnow, CBRE South Florida

Office space in Broward County, Fla., dropped in the first quarter to a vacancy rate of 18.6 percent while retail and industrial space vacancy hovered around 8 percent, according to a CBRE research report released today.

The county north of Miami-Dade saw new tenants absorb 118,000 square feet of additional office space since January, but construction remained at historic lows, with no projects starting in the first quarter of 2013.

It’s a tenant’s market for office space in Broward, the report said.

“With asking rates on the rise, the market is still experiencing historically low rental rates,” the report said. Exploiting these low rates, tenants are trading up to luxury office space, reducing demand for other properties.

A southwest corner of Broward buzzed with 400,000 square feet of new construction of industrial buildings, and 140,000 square feet were absorbed in the first quarter.

Retail decreased slightly from a year ago, with Wal-Mart planning to build 200,000 square feet in southwest Broward County this year.

Bentley Bay condominiums (Source: StreetEasy)

Today’s priciest new listing is a five-bedroom, five-bathroom penthouse condominium asking $20 million. The 6,000-square-foot home at Bentley Bay is located at 520 West Avenue, Unit 2301, in Miami Beach. It features a private rooftop pool, private entrance, staff kitchen, entertainment area with pool table, private gym and steam room. Janne Keskinen has the listing. (Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Mark Maurer

Jeff Bartel

Despite the rise of construction and demand, commercial and residential developers are still lacking a steady source of funding for projects.

However, there are alternative financing options — including private mortgage lenders providing bridge or hard money loans and other alternative lending models — in place to fill gaps, GlobeSt reported.

Borrowers are increasingly relying on alternative funding to enable a residential or commercial property purchase or the start of new development, said Jeff Bartel of consulting firm Hamptons Group  and private mortgage provider Benworth Capital Partners.

“Regulatory constraints remain an impediment for accessing debt financing that borrowers require to acquire or develop property under the traditional levered model,” Bartel told the website. [GlobeSt] –Mark Maurer

Peter Messina

Financial solutions firm Bankers Health Group purchased three office buildings in Davie for $3.5 million — 46 percent off their foreclosed mortgage, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

The 39,298-square-foot space at Diamond III Office Park in the Broward County town has been vacant since the buildings were finished in 2008. EverBank seized the buildings last year after foreclosing on a $6.5 million mortgage originated by the now-defunct Bank of Florida — Southeast, the publication said.

Bankers Health Group — which provides financial services to health care professionals — would lease out or sell some of the building space, Peter Messina of Brenner Real Estate Group told the Business Journal.

The company’s staff of 40 will move into the address at 10230 West State Road 84, the report said.

The Florida Office of Financial Regulation closed the Bank of Florida — Southeast in 2010. [South Florida Business Journal] –Mark Maurer

Share of working households with a severe housing cost burden by state, 2011

In the grand scheme of personal finances, your take home pay is like an apple pie. Your bills are the hungry flock of kids banging their fists on the table to get their share.

For renters in America, housing is usually the hungriest of the bunch. Ideally, it would gobble up one-third of the pie –– anymore than that, and you likely wouldn’t have enough to feed the rest.

Unfortunately, one in four working renters watched housing devour more than half of their paycheck pie in 2011, according to the latest Housing Landscape Report from the Center for Housing Policy. The report analyzed the period between 2008 and 2011, when the rate of renters putting more than half their income toward housing jumped nearly 4 percent.

“The growing rate of severe housing cost burdens among renters is not a new trend, but it is clearly an unsustainable one,” said lead report author Janet Viveiros. “While rental costs have steadily risen over the last few years, wages for these working families have not fully recovered from the hit they took between 2008 and 2009. Spending most of your paycheck on rent means cutting back on other necessities, including health care and even food.”

Among working households earning less than 30 percent of their area’s median income (AMI), a whopping 80 percent spent more than half their pay on housing alone. Among the toughest states for renters are usual suspects like New York, California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona (see map above).

Much of the strain on renters has to do with fallout from the housing crisis of 2009. Homeowners fled their underwater homes and flooded rental markets to downsize, driving up demand on a stagnant supply of properties and sending rental prices skyrocketing. At the same time, the job market floundered and people’s take home pays dwindled –– basically a perfect storm in personal finance hell.

Homeowners who stuck out the crisis haven’t fared much better, but their cost burden remained relatively stable throughout the economic recovery, according to CHP. One in five working homeowners experienced severe housing affordability challenges, versus one in four working renters. However, their income dropped 4 percent between 2008 and 2011.

Foreclosure cases mount up

Clearing the dockets of foreclosures can appear a Sisyphean task for South Florida’s courts as new filings keep apace with closed cases, the Palm Beach Post reported.

From July 1 through the end of March, judges moved 168,589 cases out of the system statewide, but 143,772 cases were added during the same period, the Post said, citing a new report by the Office of the State Courts Administrator.

Broward County has the highest backlog of cases in the region with 42,992; Miami-Dade is second with 41,681 and Palm Beach County’s caseload stands at 30,272.

A bill passed the last day of Florida’s annual legislative session that needs the governor’s approval gives $16 million over the next two years to keep staff on hand to manage the foreclosure backlog. A separate bill would make it easier for lenders to foreclose on defaulted borrowers.

Forty-one percent of the cases cleared statewide were dismissed, an indication that more homeowners are working out ways to avoid foreclosure, defense attorney Greg Clark told the Post.

Last year’s $25 billion National Mortgage Settlement required banks to boost short sale approvals and loan modifications.

“In my own practice there is a new spirit of cooperation and settlement, in an even and measured pace, that we haven’t seen before,” Clark said. [Palm Beach Post] –Emily Schmall

Sun Life Stadium

The Miami Dolphins halted plans to renovate Sun Life Stadium after Florida lawmakers failed to take up a bill that would finance part of the renovation with public subsidies, the franchise’s chief executive Mike Dee told a Miami CBS affiliate Sunday.

Dolphins owner Stephen Ross was hoping to win legislative approval for $289 million over 30 years from an increase in mainland Miami-Dade’s hotel tax rate and $90 million over the same period in sales-tax subsidies, the Miami Herald reported.

“I don’t think Steve or any of us knew the condition of the facility was as desperate as it was when he bought the team,” Dee said in a live interview on “Facing South Florida with Jim Defede.”

After a heated debate over whether to invest public funds into a professional sports facility, Florida’s House of Representatives ended the annual lawmaking session without taking up the team-backed bill, the Herald said.

The Dolphins had argued a public-private partnership was needed to make crucial repairs to the Sun Life Stadium if the team hoped to compete in a bid to host the 2016 Super Bowl.

“I wouldn’t want to prognosticate what the future holds but it’s clearly bleak,” Dee said. [WFOR-CBS4] –Emily Schmall

Indian Creek

From the South Florida issue: The most expensive home in Miami-Dade County is in a neighborhood that those in the know consider perhaps South Florida’s most exclusive: Indian Creek.

A foreign investor — a Russian who wished to remain anonymous — paid $47 million for a five-pavilion compound that sits on two acres of manicured grounds, including a private beach of imported Bahamian sand, and a 100-foot infinity-edge pool with underwater speakers. [more]

Carlisle’s Lloyd Boggio, far left, Matthew Greer, far right

A Miami federal grand jury is investigating South Florida’s preeminent developer of affordable housing, the Carlisle Group, on accusations of fraud, the Miami Herald reported.

The company is suspected of padding construction costs to boost tax subsidies, the Herald said, swindling the U.S. government out of millions of dollars in low interest loans used to finance construction of affordable housing in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

The grand jury is focusing on two of Carlisle’s chief executive officers, Matthew S. Greer and retired CEO and founder Lloyd J. Boggio, as well as a general contractor Michael K. Runyan, the Herald said, citing a subpoena it obtained.

The investigation began in 2011 when two Carlisle senior executives quit and became whistleblowers for the feds, cutting deals with the Internal Revenue Service, FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office, the paper reported.

The for-profit Carlisle Group, the third-largest affordable-housing developer in the U.S., has received accolades for helping people live in well-designed apartment buildings they otherwise could never have afforded, the Herald said.

“Carlisle intends to cooperate fully with this investigation and looks forward to a speedy resolution so it can get back to helping provide affordable housing for Miami’s neediest,” company lawyer Jeff Marcus said in a statement Saturday. “The company is proud of its track record, which includes housing over 13,000 low income residents, including working families, the elderly, youth aging out of foster care, and the formerly homeless.” [Miami Herald] –Emily Schmall

Robert Wolf, Moses & Singer

Concierge Auctions, the Manhattan-based luxury home seller, filed for an injunction in a Florida court against rival Grand Estates Auction Co., alleging the firm has interfered in its business with One Sotheby’s International Realty.

The motion comes five months after Concierge sued Grand Estates, based in Charlotte, N.C., in a Palm Beach County court alleging that Grand Estates conspired to ruin its business relationship with Sotheby’s and other firms. The suit comes less than two weeks after Grand Estates filed a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Practices Act, known as RICO, suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Concierge, alleging it used sham buyers to inflate its sales volume.

“They got caught with their hand in the till; now they’re using this phony RICO complaint as a basis for more relief,” said Robert Wolf, an attorney with Moses & Singer in New York, which is defending Concierge in the New York lawsuit, to The Real Deal.

In a suit filed Dec. 11 seeking $15,000 in relief, Concierge claimed that Grand Estates engaged in a campaign to defame Concierge and discourage Sotheby’s from partnering with the company as its preferred auction house by emailing Sotheby’s agents false claims that Concierge was involved in illegal and deceptive business practices.

The injunction motion also says, citing depositions, that two couples named as plaintiffs in the case, who Grand Estates had alleged were defrauded by Concierge, were either not aware of the RICO suit or had never complained about Concierge Auction’s business practices.

The Real Deal has not been able to independently confirm the content of the depositions.

Concierge was founded in 2008 by Chad Roffers, the former owner of Sky Sotheby’s International Realty, a franchise brokerage in Sarasota, Fla.

Lawyers for Grand Estates claim the injunction filing is highly unusual given the length of time since the original lawsuit.

“It appears as though they’re filing this motion as a defense to the federal motion filed in New York,” said attorney Jeremy Slusher, who is representing Grand Estates in the Florida case. “If this was an emergency they would file a motion for temp injunction six months ago.”

A spokesman for Sotheby’s was not immediately available for comment.

Hibiscus Island, Miami Beach

Today’s priciest new listing is a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom single-family home with a separate cottage asking $6.5 million. The 3,089-square-feet home is located at 56 South Hibiscus Drive on Hibiscus Island in Miami Beach. It features vaulted ceilings, a fireplace and a new pool. Esther Percal of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell has the listing. (Condo Vultures data include condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) –Emily Schmall

The latest South Florida Market Report

The latest South Florida Market Report, included as a supplement in the May issue of The Real Deal magazine, is now available through our new iPad app.

Our app provides a rich media experience with extended photo galleries, expanded charts and graphs — we know you love those — and a clipping tool, allowing users to crop articles, photos, and pull quotes to be posted quickly to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media sites.

The app itself is free and the stand-alone supplement can be purchased for $2.99. Or buy a subscription to The Real Deal — 12 months’ of the New York City-based magazine, the South Florida Market Reports and our annual Data Book for just $14.99. Click here for more information.

Tax liens can yield annual returns of 20 percent.

Since discovering Florida tax liens are a good way to make a quick buck, big institutional investors have flooded online auctions with shell companies to do their bidding, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Florida is the top state seller of liens, certificates that give holders the right to collect back state and local taxes on properties whose owners are behind on payments, the newspaper said.

Lien buyers have to immediately cover the property owners’ tax bill, so that municipalities have the cash to pay employees like police and schoolteachers. When the property owners settle up, the lien buyer collects with interest.

While stock prices remain sluggish, Florida tax liens caught investors’ attention because of their yield – annual returns of as much as 20 percent, the paper said.

Using proxies with names like Pork Chop Sandwiches and Spiderman Corp., big investors are squeezing small bidders out of the mix.

Until 2005, Florida tax lien bidders had to appear in person, vying for the auctioneer’s attention with gaudy, bright-colored clothing.

Individual investors say the online auctions are unfair, with one investor able to raise through its affiliates tens of thousands of paddles at once.

Palm Tree Tax LLC, formed in 2012 by Hollywood, Fla.-based hedge fund LienBase, now has more than 200,000 affiliates, according to the Sentinel.

Competing against such heft, “the little guys are pushed out,” Fort Lauderdale resident Jason Quinn, who bids as a lone individual, was quoted as saying. [Sun-Sentinel] –Emily Schmall

Kevin Maloney

From the South Florida issue: Developer Kevin Maloney had serious doubts about the housing turnaround. It just seemed to be happening too fast, especially considering the depth of the downturn. Was it for real? Was it solid?

But Maloney decided to shove his skepticism aside. He had to if he wanted in on the action. [more]

Mecca Farms

A former swath of citrus groves in Palm Beach County once earmarked for a research lab may instead become a shooting range, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

The county hoped to use the nearly 100-acre Mecca Farms for a biotech village anchored by the Scripps Research Institute, and sunk $100 million in public money into the failed project.

Scripps’ labs ended up at Florida Atlantic University’s Jupiter campus, and the project was scrapped.

A new state plan would use a northwestern portion of Mecca Farms for a state-owned shooting range to complement the adjacent 60,000-acre J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area.

Environmentalists opposed both plans, supporting a proposal to sell the land to the South Florida Water Management District to be used for water storage and Everglades restoration.

County Commissioner Jess Santamaria, whose district includes Western Palm Beach County, said there is space for both.

“It is something that the public has been wanting for a long time,” Santamaria was quoted as saying, referring to the shooting range. “I want to see Mecca Farms unloaded for a good purpose.” [Sun-Sentinel] –Emily Schmall

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi

Banks have paid millions of dollars to settle allegations that they wrongfully foreclosed on thousands of homeowners since the housing industry collapsed five years ago. Loan companies have been charged with submitting fake documents on banks’ behalf.

Lawyers and law firms who served as middlemen in the same faulty transactions have not been adequately punished, critics told the Associated Press.

Law firms that handled thousands of foreclosures have been accused of falsifying documents with fake signatures, backdating records and failing to provide homeowners with adequate notice about the risk of foreclosure, the wire service said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi told the AP there was little she could do after an appellate court blocked an investigative subpoena submitted from her office. Any punishment would have to come from the Florida Bar, she said, which has so far initiated disciplinary proceedings against two attorneys out of 330 cases being investigated.

Several Florida firms that handled hundreds of thousands of foreclosures have been accused of “robo-signing” documents with fake signatures. Florida’s legislature could pass a bill today that would speed up the foreclosure process. [AP] –Emily Schmall

Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort’s planned turbines

The breeze off the Atlantic Ocean will soon serve as a source of fuel for the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort, joining a handful of U.S. hotels with wind turbines, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

“The turbines will help us visualize the hotel as a place to be conscious of energy use,” Randy Gaines, a Hilton vice president of engineering, housekeeping and laundry operations, told the Journal.

The symbolism of the six turbines being installed on the roof of the hotel is important for environmentally conscious guests, he said.

“It’s not going to be a big percentage of the hotel power, but it will help to highlight the importance of conserving electricity, and to start dialogue.”

The chain announced in 2009 that it would reduce its energy, waste and carbon output at each of its hotels by 20 percent in five years. Solar panels, roof gardens and co-generation plants have saved the company $75 million, Gaines said. [South Florida Business Journal] –Emily Schmall

Maya Brennan

South Florida tops metro areas in the U.S. where working families are under the most strain from housing costs, according to a Center for Housing Policy report.

In 2011, 41.2 percent of working households in the tri-county region, including renters and owners, spent more than half their incomes on housing costs, the report said.

Despite falling mortgage interest rates and home prices far below peak levels, a robust rental market and anemic salary growth are keeping housing costs in proportion to income high in South Florida.

The Los Angeles metro area was second behind South Florida, with 39 percent of working households facing a housing crunch. New York and Orlando were tied for third at 35 percent and San Diego was fifth at 34 percent.

“It’s stretching people’s paychecks quite thin,” Maya Brennan, co-author of the report, told the Sun-Sentinel. “When you’re spending more than 50 percent of your income on housing, you start to have more difficulty affording health care and food.”

The percentage of South Florida households with severe housing cost burden rose from 40.1 percent in 2008 to 41.2 percent in 2011, the report said. [Center for Housing Policy] –Emily Schmall