HOT, HOT, HOT for Fort Lauderdale Condos

The city is coming into its own, luring a younger set and foreign investors.

Today's Hallandale Beach and Fort Lauderdale are one of Broward's latest boom towns, with young professionals, families and international investors clamoring for new oceanfront condos.

With Sunny Isles Beach and Aventura built out, buyers are spilling across the Broward County line, where they can still find a beachfront condominium in one of the older buildings for $300,000.

''Everything's being grabbed up as soon as it comes on the market,'' said Abe Lenkov, an agent with DeRosa Realty in Hallandale Beach.

The buyers are coming from South America, Canada, and increasingly, Russia. And they're coming from the suburbs of West Broward, where buyers are tired of the long commute east.

The new development comes after a long hiatus in Hallandale Beach, whose last growth spurt came in the 1970s. After that, city leaders felt overwhelmed and put the brakes on construction.

Until recently, there were few new condominiums or real growth.

''There comes a point where you wind up choking yourself, and the city started depreciating in the last 10 years, going down hill. People weren't investing,'' Assistant City Manager Charity Good said.

REJUVENATION TOOL

Now a new, younger City Commission is pushing to change the city's image and sees new development as a tool for rejuvenation.

Three new high-rise condos are on the horizon.

The first tower of the Beach Club at State Road A1A and Hallandale Beach Boulevard has been built. When the $400 million project's other two towers are ready, the Beach Club will have more than 1,200 units.

All three towers will be built more than 40 stories tall on South Ocean Drive. Two-bedroom condos sell for $700,00 to $895,000, still much less than similar places in South Beach or Fort Lauderdale.

The Duo, a $70 million project with two high-rise towers holding 400 units, is being built behind the newly renovated Diplomat Mall. That is expected to open in about a year.

The 28-story Ocean Marine Yacht Club, to be built on the Intracoastal Waterway, will add another 283 units.

YOUNGER CROWD

Many of those buyers are professionals in their 30s and 40s, some of them families with children. Ninety percent of buyers at the Duo and most at the Beach Club are younger than 55.

''We've got a lot of younger people coming into these condos. We're not a sleepy little retirement community. We're coming into our own,'' said Kathi DeRosa, who owns DeRosa Realty in Hallandale Beach. ``We're walking distance to the beach and now we've got the Diplomat Mall. What more could you want?''

DeRosa said the Diplomat, renovated and renamed RK Diplomat Center with a Starbucks, two Italian restaurants, a Quizno's and some yogurt and ice cream shops, is a draw for young people.

The new developments also are attracting international investors.

''We have a lot of investors from Canada. I had one Canadian gentleman buy five units at The Duo,'' said Abe Lenkov, an agent at DeRosa Realty. ``There's a lot of Russians also.''

Gulfstream Park Development is looking into taking 80 acres of its property at the horse track for mixed use, with 1,500 residential units (possibly town homes), 600,000 square feet of retail space, and a 30-screen movie theater.

Gulfstream also is expecting a big boost from the arrival of slot machines, approved by voters earlier this month.

Mayor Joy Cooper said it will be a huge boost to tourism and property values in Hallandale Beach.

''Jobs alone will be so beneficial, '' Cooper said. ``It's a myth that it brings crime. Blighted areas don't have jobs for residents, so bringing in jobs would actually help fight crime by putting people to work.''

The southwest and northwest parts of the city, traditionally ignored by investors, are seeing a resurgence as well.

In the southwest, many are rebuilding homes. In the northwest, many homeowners are taking advantage of loans from the Community Redevelopment Agency. Single-family homeowners can borrow up to $6,500 to fix up their houses and only pay back half of it -- at 2 percent interest. Many have painted their homes and put in new driveways.

''In the northeast section, I'm going to say you go down east of Eighth Avenue and you will see the effects of that program,'' said Frank Durkin, code compliance and redevelopment administrator for the city.

Durkin said the base property values in the area have almost doubled, from $340 million in 1996, when the CRA was started, to $680 million in 2004. The money from the increase goes directly back to the area.

Developers are taking notice of the northwest and its need for affordable housing.

Miami-based Cornerstone Development has broken ground on Harbor Cove, a $20 million complex of four buildings containing 212 units off Ninth Court and Hallandale Beach Boulevard east of Interstate 95.

TRAFFIC CONCERNS

Cornerstone also is building Park Vue, a 13-story project with 147 units, just off U.S. 1 west of Gulfstream Park. Those units, selling for $250,000 to $400,000, appeal to single professional people or young couples tired of long commutes from out west.

That project should be ready in September 2006.

All this development will add as many as 3,000 units -- and up to 10,000 new residents -- by the end of 2006, bringing more traffic to an area that is already gridlocked.

Many of the old condominiums, for example, typically had one parking space for each unit, as retirees and snowbirds rarely needed more than that. But now couples with double incomes and two cars are moving in full time.

The stretch of Hallandale Beach Boulevard east of U.S. 1 -- where The Duo and The Beach Club are being built -- is busiest, with 48,500 cars a day and little room for expansion.

LOOKING AHEAD

''Traffic has increased at a frightening rate,'' said Armin Lovenvirth, who lives at the Towers of Ocean View. ``The City Commission will have to have real foresight to make the right changes.''

Cooper said work will begin in April on Hallandale Beach Boulevard, to include new medians and synchronized lights to help traffic flow. Other options to ease traffic are being considered.

Vice Mayor William Julian said the city might want to slow down again after 2006 or 2007, when many of the new projects will be done.

''We don't want to infringe on people that already live here,'' he said.

"We might decide we don't want to have any more growth for quite some time until we have more public transportation," he said.