Faulkner not selling condos en masse
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business..._en_masse.html
By Creighton A. Welch - Express-News
A report surfaced Tuesday about FaulknerUSA and its partners attempting to sell a majority of the Alteza condos on top of the Grand Hyatt hotel.
The article, on the real estate Web site GlobeSt.com, says that the remaining 108 unsold condos are for sale as a single asset, but Mark Armstrong, CEO of FaulknerUSA, said that is not the case.
“Nothing’s changed,” Armstrong said. “We’re still conducting our own sales and marketing.”
Thirty-nine of the 147 condos have been pre-sold. Previously, a condo sales agent told the San Antonio Express-News that the Alteza was nearly half pre-sold.
Joshua Shatz, principal with Dallas-based Custom Properties LLC, said in a phone interview with the Express-News that he had an agreement with FaulknerUSA to market the remaining condos, possibly to a group of wealthy individuals, for corporate rentals.
Armstrong said they did sign an agreement, but that it was an agreement saying that if Shatz brings in a buyer, he gets a commission.
In other words, there won’t be any corporate rentals.
“It has been and continues to be Texas Riverwalk Residences,” Armstrong said, referring to the partnership that owns the condos. “These are private luxury condos, and they’ll remain private luxury condominiums.”
Shatz did not return a follow-up phone call.
FaulknerUSA has sold condos en masse before.
In 2004, FaulknerUSA sold 98 condos that are part of the 800-room Hilton Austin hotel. It’s a condo/hotel concept similar to that with the Alteza and Grand Hyatt.
The buyer for the Austin condos, BDA 555 Ltd., has since sold 94 of the units. Jeff Blatt, a partner with BDA 555, said FaulknerUSA, which is a designer and builder, sold them “presumably because they’re not involved in marketing condominiums.”
At the Alteza, the condos range from the $300,000s to $3.3 million for 808 square feet to 6,400 square feet, and take up floors 25 through 34 of the building, which also has 1,000 hotel rooms.
FaulknerUSA plans to finish the condos. The company has just two more construction deadlines for the hotel and condos: Jan. 31 to completely finish the hotel and April 21 to get the condos fully ready for construction on individual units.
Armstrong said that in about a month, FaulknerUSA will open a sales center and model unit on the site. Currently, the sales center and model are in the Tower Life Building.
“The guy is well-intended, but overzealous,” Armstrong said. “It’s nothing more and nothing less than a broker that we did an independent broker agreement with.”
Prev
Linear Mode
