By Hortense Leon, Southeast Correspondent
A mixed-use development called the European Club, featuring 118 luxury condominiums and 170 condo-hotel suites, is slated for development in Hallandale Beach, Fla., a few blocks west of the ocean. The developer is V-Strategic Group, L.L.C., based in Miami.

Residential condominiums at the European Club are priced from the $600,000 range to more than $4 million, and the condo-hotel suites are priced from the low $300,000 range to more than $1 million. In addition, the project will include 91,032 square feet of Class A office space and 5,638 square feet of retail.

Those prices are close to the top of the market for the condominium units, said Guy Trusty, president of Lodging & Hospitality Realty Inc. in Coral Gables, Fla., although they are not as high as those in Miami Beach, where some units sell for more than $1,000 per square foot.

"If there is truly a hotel with a flag, a boutique chain," at the European Club, then the development would be different from the typical luxury condominium development, Trusty said. "The Hallandale Beach location is an appropriate location for a condo-hotel, because it is tourist area, and we have had a loss of hotel rooms in recent years, including on Hallandale Beach."

But Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research and Consulting, based in Deerfield Beach, Fla., is less sanguine about the project. "If these units were priced under $1 million, they would be easier to sell," he offered. "There are so many million dollar properties in South Florida and most developers are having trouble getting the funding. Only a unique location and a solid developer" has a chance of success.

"There's probably at least 75,000 condominium units between West Palm Beach and Miami Beach, which have been announced recently in addition to those which are already under construction, permitted and have financing," McCabe said. "Of those 75,000, less than 10 percent will actually get built."

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