Ft. Lauderdale may be Florida's diamond in the rough. Or maybe you could call it the Sunshine State's lone bright spot.
However you want to describe it, less than 4% of the 5,100 condominium units built during the development boom in Ft. Lauderdale, both downtown and on the Atlantic Ocean, remained unsold as of Sept. 30, according to Condo Vultures, a South Florida-based consulting firm.
The number of unsold new units was reduced by 69 in the third quarter, leaving less than 180 units built since 2003 still under the developers control, Condo Vulture's Peter Zalewski reports.
"This is a extremely low ratio for the tri-county South Florida region, where most submarkets have at least 15% of their boom-time inventory still vacant," he said.
The unsold inventory does not include the yet-to-open 298-unit condo hotel that was to be the Trump International Hotel & Tower. New York Developer Donald Trump has ended his affiliation with the project, according to local news reports, and the project's developers, Stillman Development International and the Bayrock Group, have yet to file a declaration of condominium with the state.
Speaking of The Donald, Zalewski also reports the Trump name is on nearly half the 1,000 completed but unsold condo units in Sunny Isles Beach, an oceanfront city on a barrier island in Northeast Miami-Dade County. Nearly 500 of the 1,800-Trump condos built since 2003 in six different properties remain empty, the consultant said.
In Trump Tower III, not one of the 271 units have been sold as of Sept. 30.
But that doesn't mean the Trump handle is no longer an attraction. Overall, Trump-named projects have generated sales of nearly $960 million in Sunny Isles Beach, according to Condo Vultures.
