N e w s  

864 Sought-After Condominiums Sold
A lottery system was used to randomly
pick registrants names.
by Jason Geary
Staff writer-www.tcpalm.com
Ft. Pierce, FL – With a turn of a handle, the large wire tumbler mixed up the registration cards. Thousands of people watched and waited, hoping their names would be chosen.

About seven hours later, Harbour Isle, a $120 million condominium on South Hutchinson Island, was completely sold out – before a single one of its 36 buildings has been constructed.

A lottery system was used Saturday to select the owners of the project’s planned 864 units. Potential buyers were required to give a $5,000 deposit and will soon have to provide 10 percent of the purchase price.

The condos ranged in price from $169,000 to $329,000. Saturday’s total sales would be about $216 million, based on an average unit cost of $250,000.

Originally, plans were to only sell 240 units in the lottery, said developer Mason Simpson.

However, after reviewing the project’s long pre-registration list, Simpson raised the initial offering to 466 and later to 500 units. But people continued to register Saturday morning before the lottery.

“ We registered about 1,500 people to have a drawing for a place in line,” Simpson said. “We decided to put the entire project on the market because we had such a strong demand.”

The first units are scheduled to be ready for occupancy in June. The project will be completed in September 2005, Simpson said.

Saturday’s lottery came 10 days after the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency denied tax breaks to Harbour Isle. Simpson had requested nearly $13.2 million of the tax revenues that the condominium is expected to generate over the next 20 years be used for public infrastructure.

Although he did not have an accurate count, Simpson estimated that “a few thousand” people attended Saturday’s lottery.

Escaping the hot sun under several tents, people sipped water and listened for their names. Some traveled from across the state, including Stuart, Jensen Beach, Boca Raton, Miami, Coral Gables and Broward County. Others came from across the nation, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Oregon.

“ By the time I got there at 8 a.m., the street was filled with cars,” said Liberta Scotto. “They had a policeman directing traffic.”

Scotto, a Fort Pierce native and biologist, said she was interested in Harbour Isle because of its location on Seaway Drive along the Indian River. But despite pre-registering six months in advance, Scotto said every condo within her price range was already sold when her name was called.

Ed Dean, 49, a Queens Cove resident, bought a unit when his name was called. “I would have liked to have been number one so I could have had my pick of the litter,” Dean said.

Dean said he was willing to wait all day because Harbour Isle’s waterfront location and planned 63-slip marina were just too good of an investment to pass by.

Still, he was surprised by the size of the crowd Saturday.

“ It was incredible,” he said. “I’ve lived here my whole life and never seen anything like that.”

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