By Miranda G. McLeod
Staff Writer
The scene at St. Augustine Beach has slowly changed over the past five years and its about to have one more change that will be more visible to the public.
Shutters Beach Club, composed of 48 one-bedroom, one-bath beach villas, is expected to break ground within the next eight months and is a unique concept to North Florida, according to the architect Roy Williams.
Shutters is called a condo-hotel, sometimes called “condotels” and “apartotels.” They are typically high-rise, luxury properties found in resort locations like Miami Beach, Orlando, Las Vegas, Chicago and the Caribbean. Condo-hotels are usually near beaches, golf courses, casinos, theme parks, and other vacation destinations, and operated by hospitality companies like Hilton, Starwood, Trump, Four Seasons, Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton and Sonesta.
“It’s not just another condo,” said Bob Hahnemann, principle of MAH, LLC, the developer. “It’s the wave of the future. They’re affordable, need no maintenance and there’s a potential for income.”
Williams said the project is a first for St. Augustine Beach.
“It’s a unique concept for North Florida,” said Williams. “It’s an upper-end facility. The architecture I chose for the project was Key West, low-country.”
Here’s how the condo hotel concept works, according to the Condo-Hotel Center based in Miami:
You purchase a condominium in a hotel or resort. Use your condo hotel unit when you’d like. When you’re away, place it in the condo hotel’s rental program and receive a portion of the revenue it generates. The condo hotel management company takes care of renting, cleaning and maintaining your unit. They also are to ensure the smooth operation of the hotel’s amenities and services. It generates rent revenue that offsets the costs of ownership. And it’s a real estate investment with appreciation potential.
The industry clames that prices for condo hotel units have been appreciating at a faster rate than traditional condos or single family homes, making them all the more attractive to real estate investors.
As of yet, pricing hasn’t been set, but Vidamour hopes to be signing contracts in mid-October and break ground by the beginning of 2007.