Doubletree Miami Mart Near MIA

MIAMI - The Doubletree Miami Mart is a nicely run hotel with an exceedingly friendly staff, including a clerk who used to be a youth pastor and a chief bellman has been there for two decades.

This property near Miami International carries a West Indies style and has two restaurants. Frequented by pilots and flight crews, it has a departure board in the lobby. It is connected to the slightly odd “mall” of the Miami Convention Center, which is redeemed for having an Au Bon Pain in the center. Read more

Holiday Inn Resort Pensacola Opens in February

PENSACOLA – The Holiday Inn Resort Pensacola Beach is set for a February 2011 opening. The 206-room Gulf property will feature a full-service restaurant, 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a state-of-the-art fitness center, and lazy river pool with cascading waterfalls. See www.holidayinn.com.

Briefly: Holiday Inn Marathon New in 2010

MARATHON – The Holiday Inn Express & Suites opened Nov. 5. The hotel has 134 rooms with amenities including a marina with docks for guests, a large outdoor pool facility, a 5,000 square-foot tiki bar and 24-hour fitness and business centers. For reservations, call 888-465-4329 or www.hiexpress.com

Bluegreen Manages Sandhurst Hotel, Ft. Pierce

BOCA RATON – Bluegreen Corporation (NYSE: BXG) yesterday announced the expansion of its fee-based services business to include hotel management. Bluegreen recently commenced hotel management services for an existing client, South Mountain Resort in Lincoln, New Hampshire, and for a new client, The Sandhurst Hotel in Ft. Pierce, Florida. The addition of hotel management expands the Company’s portfolio of fee-based service offerings beyond its previous offerings of vacation-resort operations management and sales and marketing. Bluegreen launched its fee-based services business in 2009 at resorts in Arizona, the Bahamas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Virginia. For the year ended December 31, 2009, Bluegreen generated fee based services revenues of $20.1 million compared to no such revenues in 2008.

“In 2009 we announced that we would actively pursue growth through fee-based services. We couldn’t be happier with the interest shown in our services and the quality of properties we now have under contract,” said David Pontius, President of Bluegreen Management Services. “Now that we have expanded into hotel management at these particular locations, we can continue to broaden our service footprint, delivering the true Bluegreen service experience, from the moment our hotel guests plan their vacation, to the moment they leave the resort.”

The Sandhurst Hotel, located on Hutchinson Island in Ft. Pierce, Florida, is designed for leisure and offers waterfront accommodations just steps from popular area attractions and local businesses. Although Bluegreen owns, operates, or manages many other Florida resorts, this particular vacation destination extend Bluegreen’s specialized hotel management services into a boutique hotel location.

“We have continued to focus on ways to expand our business by leveraging our service and management expertise, while conserving capital,” says Bluegreen’s President and CEO, John Maloney. “We believe that the expansion of our fee-based services model into the boutique hotel arena validates both our ongoing commitment to and successful execution of these strategic initiatives. We believe that there is a sizable market for our style of hospitality services in the hotel business as well as in our core business of vacation ownership.”

Retirees Find Florida Affordable Again

We’ve seen it with our own eyes. The retirees are back.

And this time, they are a bit different than they were five years ago. They are coming to scoop up bargains and foreclosures and short sales, for prices that are a fraction of what they were a few years ago. Very often, a substantial house that was $250,000 or more is now less than $100,000. The best bargains are the houses that were abandoned during foreclosure, and got a little run down.

Read more at CNN.

Sponsor: Florida Timeshares: Florida is home to thousands of gorgeous timeshare suites, popular to individuals looking for inexpensive and comfortable lodging. These prime properties boast many high end amenities such as full gourmet kitchens and multiple bedrooms. Visitors can buy timeshare suites on the resale market for far less than the resort prices, and will still be able to enjoy everything the resort has to offer.

Great Deals In Florida’s Boca Grande

BOCA GRANDE – This town on Gasparilla Island, partly in Charlotte and partly in Lee County, is a happy little place devoid of the new money mansions that litter many once great Florida resort towns. Nevertheless, it isn’t backward, or frozen in time. The old Gasparilla Inn still rules the town.

There is nothing completely showy here, real estate wise; you will have to head up to Casey Key in Sarasota for that. Instead, there are some nice condos, great houses and lots of Northeastern bluebloods on golf carts.

Great Time For Sarasota Real Estate

This is a great time to look at Sarasota Real Estate under $200K. Some good stuff still out there.

Miami’s Storied Hialeah Racetrack Reopens

HIALEAH – The storied Miami Jockey Club racetrack, one of the great landmarks of the Roaring Twenties, will reopen November 28.

Hundreds of workers are preparing the racetrack for opening day. Read more

Find a Retro House in Sarasota

SARASOTA – For those of you who have dreamed about a glorious retro ranch house from the 1950s, terrazzo tiles and all, now is the time. Sarasota, home of the Sarasota School of Modern design, is the place you want to be looking. Other than Palm Springs, California, this is the place. Prices have dropped, and there are some great deals. Read more

Sarasota School Open House; Paul Rudolph Icon Open This Weekend on Siesta Key

SARASOTA – Admirers of modern architecture might want to be in Sarasota Sunday June 21 for an open house to see a Paul Rudolph gem. No, not the remnants of Riverview High School but the Cohen House.

The Cohen House was designed by Paul Rudolph in 1955, and it is back on the market and priced at $1.1 Mil. Read more

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