Louis Vuitton moving to Aventura Mall

By Elaine Walker
The Miami Herald
March 28, 2011










Louis Vuitton is ready to redesign South Florida's luxury retail market.

Executives of the French brand known for its trademark handbags and accessories said they will leave the Bal Harbour Shops at the end of June and move to Aventura Mall where they will eventually more than double the size of their store.

Also on the agenda: opening a second store in the burgeoning Miami Design District by 2014.

The news is a blow to the dominance of the Bal Harbour Shops, which in 1965 created the concept of luxury retail in South Florida and has consistently ranked as one of the industry's top performing malls.

Louis Vuitton's arrival will help Aventura Mall continue to elevate its merchandise mix. For Miami's Design District, this could be the catalyst to turn the area into a fashion destination akin to SoHo or New York City's Meatpacking District. Expected to follow Louis Vuitton's lead are at least some — or possibly all — of the other brands owned by parent-company Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy that currently have stores at Bal Harbour.

Louis Vuitton's lease at the Bal Harbour Shops expires at the end of June. Louis Vuitton then opens a temporary store at Aventura on July 1, with plans to begin construction of a two-story flagship store at Aventura to open in fall 2012. Plans for the Design District are still being finalized.

Geoffroy Van Raemdonck, president of Louis Vuitton North America, said the brand decided it needed a bigger store in South Florida than Bal Harbour could accommodate and also did not want to be limited to one store in the market. Bal Harbour's leases prohibit tenants from opening a second store within 20 miles unless Bal Harbour's owners receive a percentage of the additional store revenue.

"We believe that this market deserves more than one free-standing store," Van Raemdonck said. "We feel that we are not reaching the customers if we have only one store in the market. We want to give them multiple chances to experience the brand in its full notoriety."

The move is particularly dramatic because Louis Vuitton was one of Bal Harbour's oldest and most successful tenants. The brand has been there for about 30 years, when it chose the site for its first U.S. location outside of New York.

Louis Vuitton's Miami-Dade presence beyond Bal Harbour had been limited to departments within Bloomingdale's in Aventura and Neiman Marcus at the Village of Merrick Park. Palm Beach County has three stores: Worth Avenue, Town Center at Boca Raton and The Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens.

Industry experts view Louis Vuitton's decision as a sign of things to come with luxury brands under pressure to grow.

"It may not be as sexy today to have Aventura on your bag as it is to have Bal Harbour," said Arthur Weiner, principal of AWE Talisman, a Coral Gables firm that handles retail leasing and development. "In these days, sexy gets put in second place. Sales and profitability get in first place. If Louis Vuitton trades a single-store strategy for a north and south location, there is no doubt that their sales would increase by three- or fourfold."

On a temporary basis, the Louis Vuitton store at Aventura will be located in the former Barney's Co-Op store. The permanent Louis Vuitton store will be more than twice the size of the existing Bal Harbour location, with a grand staircase connecting the two floors.

NAR: Sales of $1M-plus homes rise 4% in February

Russian venture capitalist pays record $100 million for California mansion

Post by Matt Carter, Thursday, March 31, 2011 - source Inman.com




The sale of a 25,500-square-foot limestone mansion in Los Altos Hills, Calif. to a Russian venture capitalist for a record $100 million is a dramatic illustration that high-end luxury homes inhabit a market of their own.

According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of homes priced at or above $1 million were up 3.9 percent in February from a year ago, while sales of homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000 were down 7 percent.

Million dollar-plus homes accounted for just 2 percent of sales, while homes in the $100,000 to $250,000 range accounted for 42 percent of sales.

Although $100 million is an impressive number -- besting the previous record of $95 million for the 2008 sale of a Palm Beach, Fla. estate owned by Donald Trump -- half of the Los Altos Hills mansion sale was seller financed, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Buyer Yuri Milner, 49, is the leader of Digital Sky Technologies, a Moscow-based fund that's invested in Facebook, Groupon and Zynga.

Sellers Fred and Annie Chan made their fortune in Fremont-based ESS Technology Inc., which designs video and audio semiconductors for digital media players and audio systems.

The couple also own a 5.4-acre oceanfront property in Hawaii that was on the market for $80 million but is no longer listed, the Journal reported.

Shari Chase, the founder of Lake Tahoe-based Chase International, said the "ultra-high-end" luxury market still presents an opportunity for "just the right buyer."

"The sales are not many but when they happen they make headline news," Chase said in an email."Activity is increasing with buyers in all luxury price ranges focusing on lifestyle and value."

Chase has her own $100 million listing -- a 210-acre property dubbed "Tranquility" on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe that completely encircles a private lake. That property went on the market in 2006.

"We do have some good interest" in Tranquility, Chase said. "It's a magnificent estate and if the Los Altos sale is an indication, Tranquility is a great value just is waiting for just the right connection."

Condo inventory detailed in new report - 85% of boom era condos have sold

Developers have sold 85 percent of the condos built in South Florida during the building boom beginning in 2002, according to a report released this week by Bal Harbour-based consultancy Condo Vultures.

The report, which studies condo markets from South Beach to West Palm Beach, found that developers have sold 41,258 condos in the last eight years, with the largest chunk of sales taking place in downtown Miami.

``People are certainly taking advantage of the fact that [condos] are affordable and available both to live in and also to invest in,'' said Leo Zabezhinsky, manager of business development and real estate for the Miami Downtown Development Authority.

While many of the boom-time buyers were speculators , many of today's buyers are investors and vultures, hoping to capitalize on the troubled market by renting out the units.

That explains much of the shift in sales activity taking place between South Beach and downtown Miami, as rental demand is up in places like Brickell and purchase prices are lower in the city than by the ocean, said Peter Zalewski, principal at Condo Vultures.

``An investor comes in, they look in South Beach, and they get sticker shock,'' he said. ``If they want to be on the sand, they go up to Sunny Isles Beach. If they're looking for investment value, new construction, they go to downtown Miami.''

Spurred by bulk buyers and lender takeovers, condo sales in downtown Miami reached 3,675 in 2010, up 57 percent from 2009, according to the report, based on county records. Condo sales in South Beach totaled only 123 last year, up from 107 in 2009. At the current sales pace, it would take about a year to sell out the remaining developer inventory in downtown, and more than a decade to sellthe 1,300 new condos in South Beach.

Areas like downtown Fort Lauderdale benefitted from good timing, as developers completed most of their condo projects before their housing market crashed. There are only 160 new condos yet-to-sell in downtown Fort Lauderdale, where more than 5,000 units were built during the boom.

Condo Vultures focused its report on seven housing markets in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, concentrating on areas east of I-95 and near bodies of water. During the 8-year span covered in the report, 244 new condo projects were created in those markets, for a total of nearly 50,000 units.

The epicenter of the building, sales and developer default activity has been in downtown Miami and Brickell, where more condo units were built in the 2000s than in the previous four decades combined.

About 18,675 new condos have sold in the downtown area in the last 8 years, totaling about 84 percent of the inventory, according to the report, based on county records.

Developers ``built 23,000 condos, and when over 80 percent have been sold and occupied, clearly it tells you that this is where people want to live and invest,'' said Zabezhinsky. ``The condos have single handedly helped lead the transformation of downtown Miami into a 24/7 global city.''

via miamiherald.com

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Real Estate: South Florida's still a national leader in mortgage fraud

South Florida remains a national hub for mortgage fraud, as a new federal report shows the region led the nation in reports of suspicious activity in the third quarter of 2010.

BY TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA

TOLORUNNIPA@MIAMIHERALD.COM

South Florida's mortgage market had the nation's highest number of suspicious activity reports in the third quarter of 2010, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's third-quarter mortgage fraud report released Thursday.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties logged 3,039 reports of questionable mortgage loan activity between July and September, about 33 per day, and more than any other metropolitan area in the nation. Florida's 5,404 suspicious activity reports, or SARs, during that time period ranked it second in the nation, behind California. On a per capita basis, Florida ranks ahead of California.

Miami-Dade County had the lion's share of South Florida's fraud reports, with 1,784 in the third quarter, second only to Los Angeles County, which had 1,967.

Jonathan Heller, a Miami defense lawyer defending a client who he believes was a victim of mortgage fraud, said he is not surprised by South Florida's ranking.

``When you have mortgage brokers who are unsavory, who are fueled by irresponsible lenders, it's like the perfect storm,'' he said.

Nationwide, there were 16,693 suspicious activity reports in the third quarter of 2010, up 2 percent from the same period in 2009. Florida was responsible for 32.3 percent of the nation's mortgage loan fraud reports that quarter, the report found.

The top types of mortgage fraud reported were false statements, debt elimination scams, identity theft and money laundering.

Most reports of mortgage loan fraud occur more than two years after the original loan was made. Of Miami-Dade's 1,784 reports logged in the third quarter of last year, only 404 involved loans made after Jan. 1, 2008.

That is consistent with the national trend, as those reporting fraud are focusing more on older incidents.

In the third quarter, 76 percent of SARs occurred before 2008, compared to 54 percent in 2009.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/07/2004440/south-floridas-still-a-national.html#ixzz1AN8OfBbs

Short sales in region rose sharply in 2010 - Business - MiamiHerald.com

Short sales in region rose sharply in 2010 - Business - MiamiHerald.com

Short sales -- transactions where a home is sold for less than the outstanding mortgage amount -- increased 49 percent in South Florida last year, a new report from Condo Vultures shows.

There were 16,800 short sales in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in 2010, up from 11,300 in 2009, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. That was about 22 percent of all transactions.

Short sales -- which take longer to close than traditional sales because mortgage holders have to approve -- were able to sell at a faster pace in 2010. The average 2010 short sale was on the market for 195 days before selling, down from 203 days in 2009. The average time on the market for all sales was 121 days.

-- Toluse Olrunnipa

Source: Miami Herald - Residential Real Estate

4 Home Upgrades Worth the Tax Break

by Team IWP! on 25. Sep, 2010 in News, Real Estate














Both home owners and real estate investors are dying to find new, bigger, and better ways to improve their investments. In this case, we are specifically talking about property investments. This could be your personal home or even some of your investment real estate, the bottom line here today is all about tax breaks and saving money. Music to every one’s ears these days.
Our Government is very interested in stimulating this economy, therefore, there are some wonderful tax breaks and incentives out there to get you to spend money, put it into the hands of a business, have it trickle down to their employees, and they will give you some killer tax breaks as a result of doing this and improving your existing houses.
Specifically, there are 4 home upgrades that are worth the tax breaks offered that we want to share with you today. This piece was influenced by an MSN article here, which you can review for further information and ideas, but we are going to give you the crux of the matter here.

4 Tax Breaks to Consider

Here are the four home improvements that you should consider immediately in order to qualify for your tax breaks.

1. Adding Insulation

Believe it or not, adding insulation to your home can qualify you for a tax break and is a great idea. Insulation can save you as much as 20% on your energy bills, which is terrific, but it can really save you on your budget because this is the most inexpensive way to improve your home and still qualify for the tax breaks the Government is issuing to people. However, if your home is less than 5 years old, then it is more likely that you won’t need new insulation, but you could consider it.
We suggest hiring a professional to install your insulation, but if you want to go for it and be a do it yourself warrior, then you have our blessing considering you know what you are doing.

2. Replacing Windows and Doors

This tax breaks cap was raised from $200 to $1,500, which could be music to an homeowner or investor’s ears. Who couldn’t use this type of extra money? It could be yours with a few considerations. Your installments must have a label from the National Fenestration Rating Council with the U-factor rating on it that is no more than 0.30. This measures how well your improvement keeps heat from escaping the home. In addition, the label should have a list of the solar heat gain coefficient, or SHGC, of no more than 0.30 as well.
This improvement can be a bit costly as windows and doors are not very cheap, but very useful. As we are sure you are aware that the right windows and doors can help save another 20% on your heating bills as well this winter, which is always a welcomed site.

3. Installing Air Conditioners

The typical air conditioner will cost you about $2,000, which isn’t something to sneeze at, but they typically have a useful life of about 12 years, which can be a great investment. Like everything else, you will need an AC unit with specific standards in order to qualify for the tax break. And with the AC unit, you will need a seasonal energy efficiency ratio, or SEER (measures the efficiency of central air, of at least 16 and an energy efficiency rating, or EER, tracks how it operates once outdoor temperature reaches 95 degrees, of 13 at least.
If you are interested in finding out if your AC unit qualifies for this tax break, then visit CEE HVAC Directory.

4. Put on a New Roof

In my neighborhood, it seems like very one is adding a new roof these days. Guess they are taking advantage of the tax breaks, maybe we should get in on the act as well. You don’t have to create a green roof in order to qualify, although that would open you to additional tax breaks, but it is something that you might want to consider.
A new roof can run you anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000 depending on the size of your home and the type of roof that you are putting down. But after you hit the $5,000 cost, you would be eligible for the full $1,500 tax break from the Government. This is welcomed considering the cost of adding a new roof. However, if your roof is currently less than 15 years old, then you shouldn’t need a new one any time soon, but that should be determined on a case by case basis. Some roofs are leaking and need to be changed now, while others might last 20 years.
Nevertheless, if you are looking for some extra tax breaks this tax season, then don’t look any further than our list of four here. There are many more tax breaks out there to be taken advantage of, but when you have to make repairs to your home and investment properties anyway, this seems like a good idea and time to get them done, enjoy their benefits, and save a little extra money in the process.

Open House - Miami Beach - Gorgeous Waterfront Home

Join us for Mimosas and appetizers in this gorgeous Waterfront home in Miami Beach

Open House- Sunday, November 7^th, from 2 to 4pm

1471 Stillwater Drive, Miami Beach FL

Also, visit the Virtual Tour: http://www.Obeo.com/635079

Map to the property:

1471 Stillwater Dr, Miami Beach FL

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