Auction is scheduled for Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 11am, onsite.

This is a 28,977+/- SF 2-story multi-tenant office building – look to our upcoming auction section for more information

Both retired, they put their homes on the market two years ago to downsize their lives, buying condos on Hollywood Beach.

But the homes never sold. Now, unimpressed with the traditional luxury real estate market, the brothers are putting their homes on the auction block.

The homes, at 401 Ocean Blvd. and 229 Ocean Blvd. in Golden Beach, will hit the block on Thursday, Nov. 10 as part of an absolute auction. This auction carries a few caveats, said Lamar Fisher, president/CEO of Pompano Beach-based Fisher Auction Co    Fisher Auction Co Latest from The Business Journals Luxury homes hitting auction block as market recoversGolden Beach oceanfront estates to hit auction blockRothstein suits, sofas, shoes raise 2,000 Follow this company . The property will sell to the highest bidder – with no reserves and no minimums, he said.

“It goes from zero on up,” he said.

The sellers are among the first owners of ultra-luxury mansions to use the absolute auction method of selling a mansion in South Florida. These will be the highest-valued homes sold via absolute auction in Florida, according to marketing materials. It’s a trend is catching on nationwide. In fact, Bob Fox learned of absolute auctions reading an article about Cher selling her Hawaii home this way, he said.

Prequalified prospective bidders must submit $500,000 to place in escrow. They then can order their own inspections, but the homes are being sold “as is, where is and no contingencies,” Fisher said. The auction will be held at 401 Ocean Blvd. Bidders can bid in person, online or by phone. Winners must pay 10 percent of the purchase price at the auction, which can include the escrow deposit, he said. Closing must come in 30 days. …

Andrew Osinski felt the time had come to say goodbye to the waterfront home in Darien, Conn., that he had owned since 1994. His wife died eight years ago and his four children are grown up. So Osinski, a former managing director at Lehman Brothers, listed the five-bedroom, seven-bathroom property on Long Island Sound, which he bought for $1.52 million and then rebuilt, in May 2010 for $12.5 million. “After I listed the house last year, it quickly became stale,” says the 67-year-old former Wall Streeter. “I’ve been a trader all my life. There’s nothing worse than sitting on a stale position.”

To unload the property, Osinki turned to New York-based Concierge Auctions. The home, on which Osinki had a $5 million loan, eventually sold at auction for $8 million in June—at the low end of the range set by the company. “The market has changed,” Osinki says. “I asked too much, as we all do. I hung on for a long time. But this is it. It’s time to move on.”

Real estate auctions, long used in the sale of foreclosed properties, are becoming more popular among wealthy homeowners to drum up interest for mansions that have languished on the market. In exchange for a quicker sale, many sellers are accepting price cuts of 50 percent or more. Stacy Kirk Reich, president of Grand Estates Auction, based in Charlotte, says only about 12 percent of the auctions it runs are the result of financial distress. “Sellers will come to us for various reasons; maybe the death of a loved one or a divorce, but most frequently because they are reallocating wealth to other locations,” says Kirk Reich. Her company, which specializes in auctions of properties valued at $1.5 million to $10 million, gets an average of 276 inquiries per listing and 16 bidders per auction.

Homeowners are seeking new methods for selling their properties as the U.S. economy shows signs of sputtering and property prices show few indications of trending upward. The S&P/Case-Shiller Indices, a gauge of home prices in 20 U.S. cities, fell 4.5 percent in June from a year earlier.

The number of sales at Premiere Estates Auction, which specializes in luxury properties, rose 30 percent last year, says Anthony Fitzgerald, a broker with the Manhattan Beach (Calif.) company. “The actual dollar amount of homes auctioned off has also increased by about that much,” he adds.

Premiere Estates has been tapped to sell the beach property owned by William Chadwick, a managing director at investment bank Chadwick Saylor. The home sits on “Billionaire Beach,” a stretch of Malibu where Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive officer of DreamWorks Animation SKG, and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, also have homes. At an open house in early August, about a dozen people at a time toured the 10,500-square-foot, 9½-bathroom estate, which has five fireplaces, an ocean-view gym, a home theater outfitted with leather recliners, and a 75-foot lap pool.

The minimum bid on the Chadwick property is set at $22 million. With an original listing price of $65 million in 2008, it is the highest-priced home ever to go to auction, says Fitzgerald. Chadwick did not respond to a voicemail left at his office.

While auctions usually result in a sale, they can bring about hefty price reductions from the original listing prices. Most auctions at Grand Estates have fetched between 80 percent and 120 percent of the tax value of properties sold during the past 18 months. However, tax values are often well below the prices real estate sold for during the peak years of 2005 to 2007. Jack Gerlach, who sold his Malibu home in an auction that was conducted by Premiere Estates last year after it had been sitting on the market since 2008, got $2.6 million for it—less than half the original listing price of $5.5 million. “During those two years my house was on the market, I was, in a way, at a standstill,” he says. “To use the auction process was a decision to move forward.”

Gerlach, 32, a residential real estate developer, is in the process of building a 10,000-square-foot Mediterranean home in Malibu for his wife and himself. To move ahead with the “dream project,” which he’s planned for six years, as well as two investment properties he is developing in the Hollywood Hills, he wanted to unload his loft-style house, which has floor-to-ceiling windows.

His loans on the property—which he bought for almost $1 million and spent $600,000 to upgrade with features such as white marble imported from Greece—were “significantly below” the value of the house, Gerlach says. So he decided to gamble on an auction sale. “Auctions draw in a huge amount of people,” says Gerlach. “You always have that dream that two people will walk in” and “battle each other to the top.”

The bottom line: Tired of waiting out the market, estate owners are putting their homes up for auction, even it if means accepting a 50 percent discount.

With Hui-yong Yu and Kathleen M. Howley

Brandt is a reporter for Bloomberg News.

Miami Beach entrepreneur Claudio Osorio appears to have narrowly avoided bankruptcy liquidation after some last-minute deal making. With little time to spare, Osorio reached a tentative deal with his reditors and the trustee in charge of his company to avoid having his personal and business Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases converted to Chapter 7 liquidations.

Attorneys for Osorio and his wife, Amarilis, their creditors and Chapter 11 trustee Mark Meland told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Mark on Tuesday that they agreed to a reorganization plan for Osorio’s construction firm, InnoVida Holdings.

The plan as negotiated would “achieve superior economic results for the creditors in Chapter 11 than what can be achieved in a Chapter 7,” according to Miami attorney Michael Budwick, who represents Meland.

Mark set a Sept. 15 deadline for the reorganization plan to be formally filed. Otherwise, Mark could still convert the cases to Chapter 7 liquidations.

Meland had asked Mark in May to convert the cases, asserting in court filings that Osorio “siphoned” millions of dollars from InnoVida to subsidize a lavish lifestyle. The trustee also blamed InnoVida’s troubles on Osorio’s “mismanagement.”

Budwick said during Tuesday afternoon’s hearing that Meland still believes those allegations to be true, but after about six lengthy meetings with attorneys for Osorio and his creditors, they determined reorganization “is a plan that we can support.”

Also during Tuesday’s hearing, Mark approved a request by Osorio’s attorney, Geoffrey Aaronson, to change the procedure for selling Osorio’s Star Island mansion. Originally, broker Jill Eber of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate was to be retained as the listing agent to sell the property. Now, the 15 Star Island Drive residence will be auctioned through Pompano Beach-based Fisher Auction. Eber will work with Fisher to coordinate the auction.

“To achieve the fair and best price, this is the way to go,” Aaronson said.

Interest from potential buyers of the nine-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion has been strong, he said. But multiple offers made recently for the home have since been withdrawn.

“There have been discussions of significant [sale prices], but the buyers are disappearing at the last minute,” Aaronson said. “The property has been shown on a daily basis … [but] there have been too many stumbles along the way.”

Aborted Sale

Osorio faces a breach of contract complaint from Denver oil executive Thomas H. Morgan, who had a contract to buy the mansion for $10 million. In the complaint, Morgan asked Mark to award him $1.5 million and “reasonable attorney’s fees, court costs and interest.”

Another deal involving Osorio, the $500,000 sale of most of the assets of InnoVida, has closed, Budwick said Tuesday. The buyer is an affiliate of Inepar, a Brazilian telecommunications, energy and manufacturing conglomerate.

The Osorios filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. The filing came after Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Valerie Manno-Schurr awarded developer and former lobbyist Chris Korge a $4 million judgment.

Korge had sued the Osorios and InnoVida Holdings, to recover money he invested in the firm beginning in 2008. Osorio was chief executive officer of InnoVida, which promised to build thousands of homes in earthquakeravaged Haiti.

They were never constructed. He founded the company, a manufacturer of fiber-composite panels used in home construction, in 2007.

CDM Property Investments LLC acquired two office buildings at 3800 and 3810 Inverrary Blvd. in Lauderhill, FL from Horizon Lending LLC for $4.6 million, or about $38 per square foot.

The deal includes two four-story office properties that were constructed in 1984: a 71,000-square-foot building and a 50,000-square-foot building.

This property was sold at auction by Lamar Fisher of Fisher Auction Company.

For additional information, please see CoStar COMPS #2147465.

The Office buildings that previously housed the City of Lauderhill’s Mayor scheduled for the Auction Block on July 19th sold and closed prior to the auction date.

Lauderhill, FL (PRWEB) July 26, 2011

Fisher Auction Company announced today the sale of the “Corporate Park at Inverrary” for $4.6 Million in a deal that closed two days prior to the auction date. The two corporate office buildings are located at 3800 Inverrary Boulevard, Lauderhill, Florida 33319. An auction was originally scheduled for Tuesday, July 19th, 2011.

Lamar Fisher, President and CEO of Fisher Auction Company said “Our marketing efforts resulted in over 120 inquires from investors and brokers, over 60 signed confidentiality agreements and we had secured over 14 broker registrations the week prior to the auction,” Fisher continues, “Our prospective buyers came from throughout the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom in direct response to our marketing plan.”

Horizon Lending, LLC, was pleased with the closing of the sale of their property 2 days prior to the scheduled auction date.“We were quite happy that the Fisher Auction Company provided a qualified cash buyer to purchase and close on our office complex with an acceptable pre-emptive bid just 2 days before the auction date,” said Horizons’ spokesperson, “We hope in the future we will acquire more properties that will lend themselves to the auction process and to use the very effective, professional services of the Fisher Auction Company.”

Neil Saffer, head of Fisher Auction’s Business Development Group said, “We have a highly experienced team that put together the marketing, due diligence package, conducted tours and helped to keep our potential bidders constantly informed,” Saffer continues, “I think this is reflected in the strong response we achieved from experienced office investment groups and the commercial brokerage community.”

When asked about future plans for the office park, the buyer, Robert Siu of CDM Property Investments, LLC commented, “This was a good acquisition, the price was right for us and we plan to eventually renovate the space to make it a first class facility for use by the local business community.”

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Now, he has dozens of new neighbors at the Oasis, thanks to new ownership and a new push to sell homes at the high-rise condominium development.

Vangelakos has been out of town, but says he can’t wait to see the neighbors. Meanwhile, the Weehawken, N.J., firefighter and the developer remain locked in a bitter legal dispute.

“I’m coming there at the end of the month for just two days” on the way back to New Jersey from Miami, where he’s giving a deposition in the lawsuit, Vangelakos said.

“I have yet to see it. I’m looking forward when I get down there to asking all the neighbors how things are going,” he said.

The sales push, started with an auction Nov. 20, by new owner Oasis Associates LLC of 40 units to get sales going. Those units were sold at absolute auction, meaning the high bid took the unit with no minimum price by the seller.

Five months later, units have been selling steadily, said Wendy Payton-Enriquez, spokeswoman for The Related Group, which is still managing the project and handling sales.

According to Lee County Clerk of Court records, 12 units at Oasis have been sold in the past two months. The price varied from $155,000 for a one-bedroom condo on the 15th floor to $284,000 for three bedrooms on the 23rd floor.

In Tower 1, where Vangelakos lives, 82 of 200 units are sold or under contract. With a bulk sale of 224 units in Tower 2 in February, that means “the project’s about 70 percent sold,” Payton-Enriquez said.

The riverfront condominiums are selling briskly, Payton-Enriquez said – and most buyers are paying cash.

It has been a turbulent year for Oasis.

Bank of America, which financed the two towers’ construction, filed for foreclosure a year ago on its $154 million loan to Oasis’ developer, Miami-based Related. Four months later, the bank assigned the mortgage to a company with connections to Related.

Most of the buyers are using the condos as second homes, although a few are living there full time, Payton-Enriquez said.

‘Things are selling’

Jeff and Carol Turcotte bought a three-bedroom unit on the 14th floor for $165,000 at the auction and now split their time between there and Bristol, N.H., Jeff Turcotte said.

“I think we ended up doing pretty well,” he said. “We originally looked at Oasis when this was pre-construction. We liked the plans but thought the price was too high. We ended up buying a villa home at Moody River Estates” in North Fort Myers.

Also, Turcotte said, they moved because of the spectacular views and the project’s location.

“We liked the way it was close to downtown Fort Myers,” he said. “We like the restaurants, we like the proximity to the city.”

Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson said he’s glad to hear that, and that he’s working to make the downtown even more of a magnet for the riverfront towers. They sprung up after the city hired Miami-based architect Andres Duany to draw up a plan to reinvigorate that part of the city.

Sales at the towers fell sharply, however, after the housing market imploded starting in early 2006. Units at Oasis, for example, now go for less than half their pre-construction prices.

“I’m a little guarded,” Henderson said. “I don’t want to get too optimistic, because things are going to taper off” after this winter’s tourist season ends.

But he said all the signs are encouraging. City officials are in discussions to get a Columbia Restaurant downtown – the Tampa landmark dates back a century and has an enthusiastic following in Florida.

Fort Myers-based commercial real estate broker Steve Luta said he sees a general improvement in downtown real estate. “Things are selling,” Luta said.

Payton-Enriquez said a lot of the buyers are Midwesterners, although Oasis is also getting interest from the West Coast and some European countries – notably Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The buyers tend to like the contemporary design of the building and also the assurance that the auction brought to pricing, she said.

“The effect was to jump start the sales process, which was the goal.”

With so many cash buyers, Payton-Enriquez said, Oasis’ stability is more assured. “There’s no foreclosures or short sales in there,” she said.

Hello, neighbor

Meanwhile, Vangelakos wants the company to return his deposit and let him out of his purchase of the unit he bought in December 2008. All the other buyers either accepted a swap for a Tower 2 unit or simply walked away from their deposits.

He and his family have vacationed at the condo, where they’re usually the only people in the building.

Vangelakos attended the auction but hasn’t been in town since then. He said he’s certain he’ll like the place more than in the years when he was the only resident and Related provided minimal upkeep.

He may not know his new neighbors yet, but they know him because of media coverage, Vangelakos said with a chuckle.

“At the auction, they all knew me,” he said.

We are planning for a smooth transition, but will experience unavoidable down-time on our mail server and telephones for a short time period.

This will NOT affect our website.

If you need to reach us during this time, please do not hesitate to call 954.931.0585 or 954.931.0644.

Thank you for your understanding – we are excited about our new location and look forward to serving you.

The Council oversees Broward’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan and makes recommendations to the County Commission for amendments.

The Council meets on the last Thursday of the month.

“I am truly humbled and honored to be able to serve in this position,” Fisher said. “To be chosen amongst your peers throughout the county is truly an honor.”

Fisher was appointed to the Council by Broward Commissioner Kristin Jacobs. His term runs concurrently with Jacobs’.