Last June was a bleak month for Icon Brickell condo complex. Faced with empty units and failed contracts, two towers of the three-tower property were seized by banks, with no silver lining in sight for the 1,800 unit complex. This June, however, things are looking up.
Largely The work of Fortune International Realty, Icon Brickell is making a huge comeback. In the past year, over 900 condos have sold in the two bank-seized towers. The third tower, which houses the 148-unit Viceroy Hotel, was bought out by a Maryland company in May. Today, just two of the 520 units in that tower remain on the market.
Edgardo DeFortuna, president of Fortune International Realty, has lured in prospective buyers through heavily discounted prices and by generating international interest. The slashed prices are both effective and stimulating: just 250 units are left, and prices are beginning to rise as a result of decreasing inventory. The company traveled to Central and South America and even set up shop in Uruguay all to target wealthy potential buyers, which proved to be a very fruitful tactic.
DeFortuna expects to sell the remaining properties by the end of the year. His concoction of low prices and foreign wallets will likely turn his expectation into a reality, but the allure of budding Downtown Miami surely plays its part.
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