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.

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

Babcock Ranch Nation’s First Solar City

PORT CHARLOTTE – Real estate developer Kitson & Partners announced a landmark agreement with electric utility Florida Power & Light to build the world’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant at Babcock Ranch, Florida, making it the world’s first city powered by solar energy.

The 17,000-acre city of Babcock Ranch will consume less power than the proposed FPL on-site solar facilities will produce, allowing it to become the first city on earth powered by zero-emission solar energy. The city of Babcock Ranch will also be home to an integrated “smart grid” that will provide greater efficiencies and allow residents and businesses to monitor and control their energy consumption. Read more

Florida Keys Marinas Bought By Summit

NORTH PALM BEACH – Summit Development said that it has acquired two prominent marina properties in the Florida Keys, namely Mangrove Marina in Tavernier and The Sombrero Resort and Marina in Marathon. Summit said in a press release it will undertake extensive renovations.

Summit Development is actively seeking office, retail, residential, hotel and marina opportunities throughout South Florida, and have wide-ranging experience in property acquisition, renovation and management. The company specializes in repositioning under-performing real estate assets.

Summit Development President Felix Charney said the two marina properties will require major investment. “While both are clearly in need of work, that does not diminish their inherent value in terms of their location and potential. We see tremendous opportunities with respect to the marinas. We have spent the last 15 months looking at under-performing assets in South Florida and these two locations stood out,” he said.

Robert Charney, who oversees Summit’s Florida operations, noted that Summit recognizes the importance both locations play in the Keys. “It is obvious that the deterioration of these two properties has been a cause for concern. We are well-financed and are confident that we can accomplish a repositioning of the two sites that will once again make them the valuable component of the Keys business community that they can and should be.”

Summit acquired the two sites from Sun Vest Communities, the successor to Cay Clubs. Robert Charney said: “We want to assure the Keys community and our visitors that under Summit’s ownership the two properties will be properly renovated so that they can regain their prominence in the community.”

• Mangrove Marina has 130 boat slips as well as rack storage, boat yard facilities, a fuel dock, boat launching ramp and a ships’ store. It is situated on the Inter-coastal Waterway and is protected on three sides by mangrove islands. Tavernier is about 12 miles south of Key Largo a
  30-minute drive from the mainland.
• Sombrero Resort and Marina is midway between Key Largo and Key West. It includes a 54-slip marina as well as 124 one-bedroom condo-style suites and eight detached villas, “The Latitudes,” a full-service restaurant, tennis courts and a poolside tiki bar.

“Redevelopment is something we do well,” Felix Charney said. “We are anxious to get started on the two marina sites in the Keys and we are actively pursuing other opportunities throughout Florida. These may include hotels, marinas, retail and office properties, and both for sale and leased single-family, multi-family and condominium projects.”

Orion Bank, which has 23 branches in Florida, is financing the acquisition and renovation.

Summit Development is based in Southport, Connecticut, and has offices in Chappaqua, New York, as well as North Palm Beach. Since its founding in 1981, the company has developed more than 4 million square feet of commercial space and more than 1,000 units of residential housing.

See www.summitdevelopment.net.

Eat Chifles Plantain Chips From Tampa

Tasty Chips from Plantain

TAMPA – If you like potato chips, do get Chifles Plantain chips the next time you are in Florida. They were created by Segundo Argudo, a native of Ecuador, where plantain chips are plentiful, and his wife Peggy in 1963.

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