March 07–The Conrad Fort Lauderdale Resort & Residences, a long-delayed project once tied to developer Donald Trump, has begun to sell units as $35 million in renovations continues.
Work crews are rebuilding the lobby, adding a lounge and a gourmet market at the site, 551 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd. Plans also include a high-tech conference room, a ballroom for meeting space and a redesign of the 290 units.
Prices will range from $450,000 to $1.8 million, with three penthouses expected to fetch more.
Although the Conrad is a luxury condominium-hotel property, it also will be comfortable and casual — “not stuffy or overstated,” said Andreas Ioannou, head of a company that oversees the development for CFLB Partnerships LLC.
Buyers are expected to close on the first units in the next few months, and the two-building Conrad is due to be fully open in early 2015 — eight years after the Trump International Hotel & Tower was supposed to be ready.
The original developer, SB Associates, began marketing the project in 2005, at the peak of the housing boom.
The Trump development was meant to boost the image of the Fort Lauderdale beachfront, helping to transform it into a “glamorous destination for jetsetters,” said Peter Zalewski, principal of CondoVultures.com, a consulting firm.
But the 2007 opening never happened, and Trump pulled out after more delays, saying SB didn’t abide by terms of an agreement to license his name.
More than 100 buyers have sued to get their 20 percent deposits back, contending that they thought Trump was the developer. A trial for two of those buyers started this week in Broward Circuit Court, while most of the other plaintiffs will head to trial this summer. Pembroke Pines attorney Joseph Altschul represents buyers of 53 units.
“It’s finally being used as more than an empty, hulking 98 percent-complete building on the beach,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
In December, CFLB — a group that owns the Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort — bought the property for $115 million.
In a condo-hotel, units are professionally managed and rented to the public when the owners aren’t living there.
Some industry observers say the Conrad is coming to market at precisely the right time.
Demand far exceeds supply in Broward County because nearly all of the condos from the housing bust have been sold. Hundreds of units are being built, but most won’t be ready until after the Conrad opens.
Longtime South Florida housing consultant Lewis Goodkin doesn’t doubt the Conrad’s location or the lack of immediate competition.
But he said condo-hotels often have higher prices per square foot than conventional condos — and owners also must pay a fee to the developer for renting their units.
“It’s a tough sell,” Goodkin said. “Trying to make economic sense of it is not an easy deal.”
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