By Hortense Leon, Southeast Correspondent


In one of the first hotel-condo moves in the area, Casa Del Mar (pictured), a Clarion Collection hotel in Vilano Beach, Fla., is headed for conversion. The sell-out price for the five-year-old luxury property is estimated at $40 million and prices for individual units are between $329,000 and $1.8 million.

Vilano Beach is in the midst of a redevelopment jumpstarted by a 2004 change in the county's comprehensive plan for the Vilano Beach Town Center. As the land-use designations for the town center changed from commercial and residential to mixed-use, allowing condos to be built on top of commercial development, the area started becoming an upscale tourist destination, explained Laurie McIntosh, a principal at Casa del Mar broker Condo Hotel Sales and Marketing.

Robert Buckmaster, a commercial real estate broker with Premier Properties Realty Group, noted to CPN today that a condo-hotel project should do well in St. Augustine because income-generating properties allow buyers to defray the cost of a second home.

"But the question is, will you make enough revenue to cover the debt service and other expenses," he added, noting that it weighs heavily on the split between the condominium unit owner and who runs the rental operation.


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