Aqua Vista

Home Type:  Single Family Home
Where: West Boca (2 miles from West Boca Medical Center.)
Rented:  April 2014
Size: 3Bedrooms/2.5 Bath  2,433 square feet  
Rented at:  $2,095

Central Park

Home Type:  Townhouse

Where: North Boca (less than 5 min  from the Boca Ballet Theatre.)
Rented:  July 2014
Size: 3Bedrooms/2.5 Bath  1,598 square feet  
Rented at:  $1,875

NBC Miami on 2020 Alton

The Greenest Home in America

408-Unit Multifamily Portfolio Sale in Broward

Multifamily.bizcom

DEERFIELD BEACH, FL - The Boca Raton office of Atlanta-headquartered ARA, the largest privately held, full-service investment advisory brokerage firm in the nation focusing exclusively on the multihousing industry, recently brokered the sale of Quiet Waters at Coquina Lakes (200 units) in Deerfield Beach and The Fairways of Carolina (208 units) in Margate. Quiet Waters at Coquina Lakes, built in 1995, was 95% occupied at the time of sale; The Fairways of Carolina, built in 1993, was 96% occupied at the time of sale.

The Boca Raton-based transaction team of Principals Avery Klann, Hampton Beebe and Richard Donnellan represented a pension fund advisor in the sale.  San Diego, CA-based Fairfield Residential, among the most experienced multifamily real estate operating companies in the United States, was selected as the buyer. 
The properties have been institutionally owned by the same owner for the past 12 years, and select units have been renovated over the last two years in order to achieve rental premiums.

“The acquisition represents a tremendous opportunity to gain significant market share within the strong performing northwestern area of Broward County (Fort Lauderdale MSA). Both garden-style apartment communities are well-positioned, offering excellent value-add opportunities, top-quality concrete block construction and stabilized long term historical occupancy,” said Avery Klann, lead advisor on the transaction.
Quiet Waters at Coquina Lakes features 20% townhome units and is located only one mile from Quiet Waters Park, a 427-acre park which includes five lakes, miniature golf, camp sites, swimming, bike trails, fishing, water skiing and picnic areas. Amenities include a renovated clubhouse (2005), gated entry with coded directory, business center, pool with heated spa, playground, fitness center, indoor air-conditioned racquetball court, lighted tennis court, detached garages and carports, car care area and valet trash.

The Fairways of Carolina is beautifully landscaped and adjacent to the Carolina Golf Club, which provides golf course and lake views. The current owner replaced the roof in 2006 and has completed upgrades on 36 units (17%) over the last two years, including new granite-look laminate countertops, new cabinet door fronts, stainless steel appliances, new carpeting, six-paneled interior doors throughout, new kitchen/bath/entry lighting and plumbing fixtures, new ceiling fans, faux wood blinds throughout, white vinyl verticals and decorative track lighting in dining rooms.
“With a large average unit size of 1,037 square feet, these Class “A” properties are in demand by families looking for a convenient location close to employment, shopping and entertainment options in Broward County,” remarked Richard Donnellan.

Neighborhood Reniassance Restores 70 Units in Greenacres



By Willie Howard PB Post

 

                                                                

GREENACRES —

Palm Beach County officials and the nonprofit housing group Neighborhood Renaissance will dedicate the Mathis Place apartment complex at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. The former foreclosed apartment complex east of Greenacres was bought and renovated using $1 million from a federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant. Mathis Place is one of 70 foreclosed apartments and homes redeveloped by Neighborhood Renaissance using the federal grant money administered by Palm Beach County’s Department of Economic Sustainability. The apartment complex is at 4509 Mathis St. — west of Davis Road and south of Lake Worth Road. The two-bedroom, two-bath apartments are available to tenants who meet income guidelines.

More info on Neighborhood Reniassance

 

TRG's Focus on Delray Beach

Palm Beach Post-

The Related Group’s land grab to build more condos and apartments in Florida has spilled into Delray Beach, where the Miami-based developer plans two new apartment buildings.

Jorge Perez Chair of THR

“Delray is the most livable small town, with great restaurants and shops. And people will pay for that,” said Jorge Perez, Related Group chairman.
Plans are to build two apartment buildings, a block south of Atlantic Avenue, downtown Delray’s lively dining and entertainment street.
The apartments will be across the railroad tracks from each other. Informally dubbed South of Atlantic, or SofA, 1 and 2, the four-story properties will have amenities that can be accessed by residents of each building, according to Uri Man, Related Group vice president of development.
SofA1, for instance, will consist of 117 units and will feature a pool, fitness room and club room. SofA2 will have 55 apartments and a shallow pool with chairs in the pool. A bike-sharing program is planned.
Prices will be about $1,300 for a studio and about $2,300 a month for a two-bedroom unit, although about 10 percent of the units will be lower priced to allow for “workforce housing” for such residents as firefighters or teachers.
“We think Delray Beach is a phenomenal location on so many levels,” Man said. “Atlantic Avenue is second only to Lincoln Road on South Beach in terms of vibrancy.”
Man added that the apartments are an opportunity “to define an area that needs development,” noting the Related apartments could be a catalyst to revive a part of the city that has not seen growth.
Man sees the area becoming an artsy community, particularly with the popularity of the nearby Kevro’s Arts Bar on S.E. 2nd Avenue. To help drive interest in the area, Related plans to feature art displays on the ground floors of the apartment buildings.
Construction on the apartments is expected to begin before the end of the year and will take about 14 months to complete, Man said.
Perez said although the properties will be apartments, a switch to a condo isn’t out of the question: “We always build to standards to convert to a condo.”
Perez is no stranger to Palm Beach County. Related Group has built several condominiums in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Boynton Beach. And Related recently took ownership of the unsold units in the downtown Boynton Beach condo formerly known as the Promenade. It has been renamed Casa Costa.
Although Perez plans new condos in Miami-Dade County, he’s also building rental apartments throughout Florida. Related expects years of rental demand due to decreased homeownership and apartment interest from “Echo Boomers,” the 15 to 29-year-old children of Baby Boomers.
Several Related Group apartments are under construction. Among them are six apartment projects, located in Plantation, Doral (in Miami-Dade County), Fort Lauderdale and Tampa. In addition to Delray Beach, new projects also are planned for Davie and Pembroke Pines and more for Doral, too.
In total, the apartment pipeline totals nearly 4,000 apartments in Florida and there could be more outside the state: Related plans a new project in Atlanta, too.

West Palm woman rented out neighbor’s foreclosed home

By Sonja Isger
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

A West Palm Beach woman is accused of commandeering her neighbor’s empty and foreclosed-upon home, renting it through Craigslist and collecting more than $13,000 in rent before the owner discovered the ruse and called the cops.
Nathalie Heil, 30, was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Friday. Facing charges of grand theft and fraud, she was released Saturday after posting $6,000 bond.
But Heil said she believes she has ownership of the house, stating that she filed what’s called “adverse possession” papers. The arcane Florida law, created hundreds of years ago, states that if a person claiming adverse possession stays in a home for seven years, paying taxes and caring for the property, they can take permanent ownership.
Andre De Palma Barbosa, the 23-year-old Brazilian now known as the “Boca Raton squatter,” used adverse possession to move into an empty foreclosed 7,000-square-foot mansion in Boca Raton in December.
As for Heil, she said the owner of the property at 314 Vallette Way abandoned the home more than six years ago.
She assumed that as soon as she filed her papers with the courts, the property was hers.
“Legally, I thought it was right,” she told the Palm Beach Post.
Heil said she’s received death threats since the story first ran on the Post’s website Tuesday afternoon.
“I’m freaking out,” she said. “I have a full-time job and I’m a single mom.”

Nathalie Heil is accused of commandeering her neighbor’s empty and foreclosed-upon home at 314 Vallette Way in West Palm Beach, renting it through Craigslist, and collecting more than $13,000 in rent before the owner discovered the ruse and called the cops. (Jennifer Podis/The Palm Beach Post)

West Palm Beach police were tipped off to the situation Friday morning, when they got a call from Kelly Keefner, who manages the 314 Vallette Way property for her father-in-law, Juan Cedeno. Keefner told police the home is in foreclosure, and for that reason she had not checked on the property in the last eight months. She said when she stopped by in late January, the place looked lived-in.
Keefner returned to the home with her husband and met April Wehle, 24, and Talia Williams, 25, who said they had been renting the home for $1,500 a month since mid-June. The women said they found the place through a Craigslist ad placed by Heil, who lives next door at 312 Vallette Way.
The women told police they’d paid a total $13,500 in rent by check to Heil and spent another $500 to make various repairs, according to Heil’s arrest report. The home sits south of downtown and just blocks south of the Mango Promenade historic district, tucked between S. Dixie Highway and S. Olive Ave. south of Okeechobee Boulevard.
After confirming Cedeno’s ownership — the county property appraiser lists him as the owner of record since 2007 — police said they confronted Heil when she went to the home to collect rent. Heil told police she had gone to the county courthouse and “completed paperwork giving her possession of the residence.”
Police said they found no such paperwork, and property records name Cedeno as the owner.
After her arrest, Heil said she was told to “show up for court with the paperwork.”
“I legally subletted my house,” she said, noting that Wehle and Williams still live there.
“There’s three sides to every story,” she said.
People who rent property from Craigslist should be cautious, said West Palm Beach-based Realtor Laura Pearlman, who did not speak specifically about the Heil case.
“Craigslist, that’s like a haven for scam artists,” Pearlman said.
Pearlman said she had to file a report with police last year after someone used Craigslist to list without permission a five-bedroom property that was being advertised by her company. She urged prospective tenants to research a property before renting.
“Don’t give money to anyone unless you know it’s going to the owner or the property management company or a realtor,” she said.

A Rental Nightmare

By Michael Finch II

mfinch@MiamiHerald.com

It never seemed possible until the landlord came to deliver the grim news.
The place the Olivo family called home, a three-bedroom townhouse in Davie, had been sold and they needed to find a new place to live.
But putting aside money for the family of four to move was a problem for Lissette Olivo.
“Everything happened so fast,” she said. “I didn’t have time to save money to get my own place.”
Her job, helping people create resumes and cover letters at an employment agency, does not bring in enough cash to pay the first and last month’s rent and security deposit landlords demand.
Not even the personal finance classes she attends could prepare Olivo, 37, to fill the financial gap.
During the past five years, Lissette Olivo and her children Alejandro Olivo, 10, and Adrian Olivo, 15, Adonis Olivo, 18, and Ashley Suarez, 21, created a life in their home on Live Oak Place in Davie.
This summer, she took in her niece Stephanie Sanchez, 17, who’d been having trouble with her parents.
But with their rental sold and no place else for them to go, friend Elizabeth Berrios invited them to move into her two-bedroom mobile home in Davie.
“When my mom died, she made sure I had somewhere to go,” explained Berrios. Now it was Berrios’ turn to return the favor.
Despite the cramped quarters, the friends make it work.
“There is no other alternative,” Berrios pointed out.
The move uprooted Adrian and Stephanie from Western High School, where Adrian ran track and played football.
Now they attend McArthur High in Hollywood.
“Some of the school work seems a little bit harder,” Adrian said. “I’m working now to catch up.”
Now, they both attend McArthur High School in Hollywood.
It took a week before Lissette Olivo found Plantation Park Elementary School for Alejandro, who has a learning disability.
“I went to so many schools and I couldn’t find a school that had the programs he needed,” Olivo said.
Ashley and Adonis moved out two weeks before they were put out of the town house and are living together in another area of Davie.
Olivo understands how difficult moving around is on her younger children.
“I went to a different school every year and sometimes three different schools in one year,” Olivo said. “That affected me a lot as a kid. That’s why I try so hard to keep them stable.”
But the family can find humor in their daily struggles.
They laugh about jockeying for a seat next to the only two windows that can roll down in Olivo’s white 1989 Mercedes.
There is no muffler on the car, either.
Olivo turned to Hispanic Unity, a social services center in Broward County, to aid her with managing her finances. The organization nominated Olivo for the Miami Herald’s Wish Book.
“Some people are going through the motions, but with Lissette you can see the real desire and she is always positive,” said Lucienne Brutus, who oversees the program. “I think that she is going to get out of her situation.”
In the meantime, Olivo warned her children not to expect any gifts this holiday season.
“I usually tell them don’t expect anything because I don’t have any money,” she said.
It’s been a few years since the kids have gotten anything besides socks or underwear for Christmas, which usually comes from their grandparents.
“I just tell my friends that I told my mom not to get me anything because my birthday is coming up,” said Adrian Olivo. And when his birthday comes, well, they will have forgotten about it by then.
Lissette Olivo hopes their sacrifices will be viewed as a life lesson for her children.
“I would rather not celebrate Christmas or birthdays,” Olivo said “But at least I know we live in an area where the schools are good and they have a better opportunity.”

WishBook

Billionaire To Invest Millions in W.P.B. MultiFamily

By Andrew Abramson

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

WEST PALM BEACH —

Palm Beach billionaire and former U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene is snatching up properties in West Palm Beach, including vacant land behind The Home Depot on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, where he plans to build an apartment complex.
Greene said Friday he expects the apartments to be rented by employees of the Palm Beach Outlets shops that are to be constructed at the Palm Beach Mall site across Palm Beach Lakes.
A plan approved by the West Palm Beach City Commission on Dec. 10 includes 548 apartment units, a clubhouse and a bowling alley on land where the West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium once stood. The 548 apartment units are expected to be priced at about $950 a month for a single bedroom, up to $1,350 a month for a three-bedroom unit.
The plan will come before the commission for final approval on Jan. 7.
“It’s going to be an amazing state-of-the-art complex that will provide fantastic rental housing for people who want to live close to the new mall development, right near I-95, near all the office buildings on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, shopping and restaurants in a great community,” Greene said.
While the project was pitched to the commission as “luxury apartments,” Greene said the complex will fit in an area that he believes will improve once the old Palm Beach Mall is converted into outlet shops, which are expected to employ about 2,000 people.
“There’s no question if you go in a certain direction around the property it’s certainly not considered a luxury neighborhood,” Greene said. “But I think we’re building an upscale, nice apartment complex that’s going to be affordable.”
Greene, who purchased the 22-acre lot for about $6 million, said the area is near upscale neighborhoods, including the Land of the Presidents.
But Greene, a real estate investor who made a fortune on investments following the housing boom, isn’t stopping there. He also bought the foreclosed Comfort Inn at 1901 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. for $6.6 million and converted it into a Ramada Inn with a “a major remodel of the rooms.”
“That’s a couple of blocks from the new mall, so it’s just another commitment to the neighborhood,” Greene said. “I’m sure I’m not going to be the only one who is going to be improving properties adjacent to that mall redevelopment.”
City Commissioner Kimberly Mitchell, whose district includes the proposed apartment complex, said it all sounds promising but “first we have to actually get (the outlet shops) built.”
The first phase of the outlet shops is scheduled to open in the fall of 2013, but demolition hasn’t yet begun on the old mall.
Mitchell said she was unaware Greene owned the vacant land, and she said he was not at meetings to discuss it.
“It’s great that he has interest in the city, and, from what I read. he has lots of money,” Mitchell said.
Greene, who lost to Kendrick Meek in the Democratic primary for the Senate in 2010, said he also plans to build apartments or condos on land he purchased across from Currie Park. That parcel is north of 23rd Street between Flagler Drive and Dixie Highway.
In November, Greene purchased 165 unsold units at the City Palms condominium at 480 Hibiscus St. in downtown West Palm Beach for $34 million. He said he plans to rent the units.
While Greene’s bulk purchase surprised some real estate experts, Greene says West Palm Beach is “a bit of a secret among other South Florida cities and people don’t realize how cool this city is.”
“The urban planning here from (City Planning Director) Rick Greene’s department and the mayor (Jeri Muoio), everyone in the city has been just brilliant,” Greene said. “The zoning decisions made have encouraged these beautiful apartment complexes that have really made downtown West Palm Beach an amazing pedestrian urban environment.”
Greene said he likes that Palm Beach County is less congested than Miami-Dade or Broward counties, and he’s looking elsewhere in the county. Last year, he purchased the Omphoy Ocean Resort in the town of Palm Beach and he also spent $3.7 million on the island’s historic post office, which he converted into office space to manage his various companies.
Greene said he also has properties in Lake Worth and Jensen Beach.

TRG Shapes A Future For Boynton Condo

By Alexandra Clough

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

                            

The Related Group of Miami now is in control of the construction loan backing the troubled Promenade condominium, the Boynton Beach property that has come to symbolize the condo real estate bust in Palm Beach County.
An affiliate of the prominent Miami-based developer on Dec. 5 purchased the property’s $122 million note from a group led by Wells Fargo Bank, according to records filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

Real estate sources say Related paid less than half the value of the construction loan. A foreclosure auction for 323 unsold condo units is set for Thursday . However, no other bidders are expected to top the $122 million loan amount, so the property likely will remain in Related’s hands, the sources said. Related is expected to take title to the property Thursday from developer Boynton Waterways Investment Associates in what sources describe as a “friendly foreclosure.”

The construction loan’s sale puts Related in charge of the mammoth condo and frees the property from the uncertainty that has surrounded the Promenade since its inception.
“Having (Related) going into it will make a marked improvement (of the condo) when it comes to the perception of future buyers,” said Jack McCabe, chief executive of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach.

Read full article..

KW Property Management

 By: Oscar Pedro Musibay

Reporter- South Florida Business Journal

 

 KWPM has operations in various places, including Orlando, Tampa, Naples and Nashville, Tennessee - the latter at request of a current client. Association management is expected to be in higher demand going forward as condominium development is surging in Miami-Dade, specifically in the high-end sector.
The company’s focus currently is on large associations that have a substantial number of employees and provide a high level of service.
KWPM’s projected gross revenue for 2012 is more than $26 million; gross revenue was $24 million in 2011; gross revenue was $21 million in 2010; and gross revenue was $18 million in 2009.
  

THE CHALLENGES:

• Demonstrating there was a better way to manage large-scale properties.
• Growing in a deliberate, smart-cost pattern.
• Widening management contracts from garden-apartment communities into high-rise projects.
• Developing a world-class IT infrastructure and a company culture.

LESSONS LEARNED:

• Eighty percent of new business is the result of poor financials from the previous property management firms.
• Customer service is paramount, yielding the company a client retention rate higher than 98 percent.
• An extensive portfolio of training programs is available for all levels of employees, with promotion from within whenever possible.




• Be flexible and adaptable to expand services from developer consulting and association management to acting as a property management receiver for lenders.

Equity Residential, Buys Archstone for $6.5 Billion

Equity Residential, a company run by Sam Zell, Robert Caplin photo for The NYT.

Equity Residential, which is based in Chicago and whose chairman is real-estate mogul Sam Zell, will acquire about 60 percent of Archstone's assets and liabilities. AvalonBay, based in Arlington, Va., will acquire about 40 percent. The deal includes $9.5 billion in Archstone's debt.
The company, based in Englewood, Colo., owns or has a stake in 181 developments with 57,948 apartment units, as of Sept. 30. Its apartments are largely in metropolitan areas in the Northeast, California and southeast Florida.
 

Archstone apartment building in Boston, Mass.

Miami Herald Reports On Downtown's Hot Rental Market

Brett Smith, a 25-year-old Brickell resident, stands on the balcony of his condo. His rent just went up 15 percent.

PATRICK FARRELL / MIAMI HERALD

By Martha Brannigan mbrannigan@MiamiHerald.com

Rents are rising in Miami, especially in the sizzling Brickell/downtown areas where vacant units are snapped up quickly amid strong demand for the urban lifestyle and amenities.

When Brett Smith rented a condo at Axis Brickell last year, there were still sweet deals to be found, but when the lease came up for renewal last month, he got a sour note: The rent was spiking 15 percent.
The three-bedroom, three-bath condo would cost $3,800 a month, up from $3,300.
“We actually looked around at other places, and most looked to be around the same price range,” said Smith, a 25-year-old construction project manager who shares the apartment with two friends. “We decided with the cost of moving, we would just stay.”
Smith, who loves the urban lifestyle — “It’s great, and it’s getting better,” he says — has lots of company.
In greater downtown Miami and Brickell, residential rental rates per square foot jumped 10 percent in the first nine months of 2012 from a year earlier, according to a study conducted for Miami Downtown Development Authority by Coral Gables-based Focus Real Estate Advisors.

Rents for the sizzling Brickell neighborhood leaped even more sharply. The average monthly rental rate for Brickell jumped 17 percent to $2,242 in the first nine months of 2012 from the same period in 2010, while the rent per square foot spiked 28 percent over that period, according to additional data from Focus Real Estate Advisors and MLxchange.
Fueling the price increases: Strong demand for rental units and the growing popularity of the downtown and Brickell areas as new restaurants and entertainment spots help mold an urban core that is attractive to young professionals and students but also to an increasingly diverse crowd.
“It’s become like a restaurant Mecca in Brickell,” said Denise Sicuso, sales manager for Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realty’s Brickell downtown office, which handles lots of condo rentals and sales in the area.

Read more....

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/23/3110169/allure-of-brickell-downtown-miami.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy

 

 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/23/3110169/allure-of-brickell-downtown-miami.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpyBy Martha Brannigan mbrannigan@MiamiHerald.com

Perk package: Renters enjoy upscale amenities

 By Paul Owers

When it came to amenities, apartment dwellers used to get stuck with just the basics: a swimming pool, a walk-in closet of a clubhouse and maybe a treadmill or two.
But today's renters are enjoying an array of unusual and high-end extras, from dog parks to vegetable gardens to wine tastings, as developers respond to increasing demand from non-traditional tenants.

Read more.....

Resident Rewards

Collecting Resident Data

South Florida rental rates increase

By Paul Owers

The costs of renting an apartment in Broward and Palm Beach counties are inching upward.
The average monthly rent in Broward is $1,097, an increase of 3.3 percent from a year ago, according to second-quarter data from research firm Reis Inc. Palm Beach County’s average rent is $1,077, up 2.7 percent.
Rental markets have been strong in recent years as foreclosures and price declines make many people wary of owning a home. Others are struggling to qualify for mortgages.