Launch parties? This must be the top... I remember those launch parties during the dotcom era... =================== Salsa Dancers and Stunt Men? Must Be a Miami Condo Project By ABBY GOODNOUGH Published: May 23, 2005 MIAMI, May 22 - In the last month alone, you could salsa with dancers in fringed hot pants at Aqua, hear a drag queen D.J. at Cynergi or watch stunt men ricochet off a trampoline at Soleil. Nightclubs? No. Carnival acts? Not quite. These were launch parties for condominium projects, one of the stranger forms of nightlife in a city obsessed with real estate. Alcohol and music were abundant, but so were sales agents and brochures with statements like, "It is the impeccable aesthetic of textures and calming shades - limestone and blue marble - that further distinguish these voluminous spaces." Deep-pocketed developers, forced to be ever more creative in the pursuit of buyers for condos still years from being built, pay for these lavish affairs - another take on the "froth" in the housing market that Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, described last week. Though the parties emulate the club scene, most take place in hastily erected sales centers or parking lots near the future construction site. Guests encounter model kitchens and scan price lists while sampling mojitos and tuna tartare. "Everyone needs to one-up each other more and more with these things," said Jorge Luis Garcia, a real estate agent attending a party for Vitri, an unbuilt project in South Beach where prices start above $600,000. "The food's got to be better, the lighting's got to be better, the D.J.'s got to be really good. The new norm is the quarter-million-dollar party." No expense is spared because the stakes are high: about 70,000 condo units are planned, under construction or newly finished in Miami proper, home to fewer than 400,000 people. Builders need early deposits to get construction loans, so they work hard to entice the buyers they covet - image-conscious people, many from Latin America and Europe, with money to burn on a second home, a speculative investment or a status symbol. The bait includes small initial down payments, slick marketing - and parties. Usually held just before a project begins selling units, the events are meant to create buzz among brokers, who make up the bulk of invitees and bring clients and hip, attractive friends. Live with us, the parties say, and ooze wealth, sex, fitness and mystery. Jon Graney, who owns two condos in South Beach and is looking to buy more, said launch parties were beginning to rival clubs. "I mean, look at the women here," Mr. Graney said at the party for Vitri, a smallish project with about 70 units next to a busy overpass on Biscayne Bay. He gazed around the sales office courtyard. "Look at all these pretty women." He added, however, that he would probably not buy at Vitri because the building was too low. "If I spend six hundred grand," he said, "I want to go high." While the Vitri party whispered "gallery opening," with waiters padding about and artwork on display, the one for Paramount Bay, a much larger project in Miami, screamed "movie premiere." Guests walked a red carpet, mingled among models at martini bars made of ice and watched Star Jones of "The View" interview the architect, sales director and other luminaries of the project. The models and Ms. Jones were paid to attend. To stir up fresh interest in a project called Aqua, Craig Robins, the developer, held a party so sprawling that arriving guests got maps with their promotional packets. Aqua's 105 condo units sold out this month, but 46 town homes, which start at $2.65 million, have been a tougher sell. The theme was "A Day in the Life of Aqua." Dancers in fringed shorts coaxed some guests to salsa to a 10-piece band while other guests hovered around giant pans of paella and ropa vieja. A lounge singer belted out "Respect" in a model living room while chefs whipped up crepes in the model kitchen. Near a newly planted mango grove, guests drank mango caipirinhas and gazed at the Intracoastal Waterway. Marian Davis of New York City gushed as she showed other party guests the view from a penthouse unit she bought with her husband. "I think of this as Park Avenue or the Champs-Ãlysées," Ms. Davis said, "except you've got water in the middle of it." Some guests were overheard sounding less impressed: "A million eight? You've got to be kidding me." "Marble countertops are kind of over."
Continued page 2... ==================== Across the bay in Miami, where developers are snatching up land in scruffy neighborhoods being reinvented as arts districts, the parties have a funkier vibe. Cynergi held a launch party in April with a drag queen D.J., macaroni and cheese, inflatable lounge chairs and a blank canvas for guests to paint on. Soleil, a "sports-inspired" project in Wynwood, a gritty neighborhood just north of downtown, gave a party at its sales center last week with trampoline artists, karate demonstrations, masseuses, an aura reader, an oxygen bar and sales agents in tracksuits, with towels slung on their shoulders. Rita Gambardella, a real estate agent, brought her sister, Paula, and their friend Debra Carlson, visitors from Seattle who could not stop snapping photos. Both said they were thinking of buying at Soleil, a 43-story building with prices starting near $400,000. "I would come here probably four times a year and rent it out the rest of the year," said Ms. Gambardella, in a red dress and cowboy hat. "Shoot, I'd retire here," Ms. Carlson chimed in. Ricardo Aue, a financial adviser who said he has bought and sold about 20 condos and houses here over the last three years, was crunching numbers as he watched the trampoline act. "I bet you 70 percent of the people buying here are investors," Mr. Aue said, "so 70 percent of the units will be for sale again by the time this thing opens." "That's too much supply for this kind of building, such a high-end thing," he said of the overall market. Still, Mr. Aue said he did not regret attending the Soleil party, one of many that he checks out these days. "Maybe I meet someone who tells me about a project that's coming up that I like better," he said, "or a new mortgage guy." Or maybe he just soaks up another evening of real estate mania. As the light faded and dessert trays were passed, two men bounded through the crowd in antigravity boots, an update on pogo sticks. Guests drifted toward the valet parking line, cans of Red Bull (a sponsor) in hand, nose tubes from the oxygen bar draped around their necks. The refrain of the track-suited sales agents echoed: "Sales start June 6."
Ill second that... If I hear one more person bragging over here in so fla, that they are going to be "billionares" buying and selling homes/condos.... I swear all I hear is.. "why you trading stocks for a living, you can't make even close to what i am making buying and selling condo's and houses..... why..... why I bought 10 preconstruction units just yesterday...." bla bla bla
Been all around the USA, north to south east to west. The best feeling in the world is landing at MIA , because right when i get off the plane the chicks are everywhere. I will never leave here. PS. I married a fine ass cuban chick, but becareful the young generation are spoiled and got attitudes, but hey thats the price you pay for a fine piece of a s s.
BZH looks to be a play for California....but I have tried shorting twice only to get stopped out....tomm TOL announces earnings...but the housing numbers last week and this week seem to indicate market is still hot....check out the numbers tomm for TOL....exp..$1.81....all the builders are trading at all time high P/E's..but then again RE is scorching
Check out WCI 37 out of 50 developments in FL and "# of remaining tower sites" = 67 in FL not including 8 currently with units for sale. Hope this helps