The Related Group, the nation's largest condo tower developer, is attempting in the next two months to finalize plans to return thousands of unsold new units with debt of "roughly $1.5 billion" to the construction lenders, according to Miami news reports.

The admission comes just as the Related Group has agreed to relinquish ownership to its lenders of the remaining 381 unsold units in the 420-unit, 20-story CityPlace South Tower in Downtown West Palm Beach. Related had still owed about $119 million, or about 88 percent, of the original $134.7 million construction loan, according to South Florida news reports.

"We've had very good discussions over the last seven months with all of our lender syndicates," Related Group's chief operating officer Matt Allen told the Miami Daily Business Review. "Each syndicate is different. They have different goals they might want to achieve, and we expect in 60 days to have complete resolution and that resolution can carry many different fronts."

Related developed or converted dozens of highrises with several thousand units throughout Florida, ranging from the Apogee in Miami Beach's South of Fifth neighborhood to the Trump Hollywood in Southeast Broward County,  the Oasis in Fort Myers on the Gulf of Mexico to the ICON Brickell complex in Greater Downtown Miami.  

In Downtown Miami alone, the Related Group built during the condo boom about 5,550 units, of which the company is still in possession of more than 2,400 units, or about 44 percent, according to the Official Condo Buyers Guide to Miami™ published by Condo Vultures®.

Specifically in Downtown Miami, Related built seven projects with 12 towers and more than 5.8 million gross livable square feet. An eight project proposed for 495 units and 389,000 gross livable square feet was shelved before construction began, according to Condo Vultures®.

Even if the Related Group's chief executive Jorge Perez is able to successfully return thousands unsold units that he built or converted, don't expect the longtime developer or his company to go away.

"Related is not going anywhere," Allen told the Daily Business Review. "Jorge is not going anywhere."

An avenue that Related Group is pursuing is contracting to take on the management, maintenance, and broker activities for the projects that it has built, according to the Miami Herald.

''We feel we are very close to getting all loans worked out,'' Jorge Perez told the Miami Herald. ``We are close. . . . My aim is to out from under the loans so the corporation has no more liability and continues to be a successful corporation, and continues to hopefully manage all assets and wait for a better day.''

Better times do not appear to be anywhere near for developers, especially in Greater Downtown Miami.

The pace of new condo closings in Greater Downtown Miami slowed by half in the second quarter of 2009 to 2.7 sales per day, down from an average of 5.2 per deals day in the first quarter of the year, according to a new report from Condo Vultures® LLC.

Buyers purchased 246 units in the 60-block stretch of Greater Downtown Miami between April and June. In the two previous quarters, buyers closed on 466 new Downtown Miami units between January and March, and 441 units between October and December, respectively, according to the Condo Vultures® report based on the Official Condo Buyers Guide To Miami™. 

Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures® can be reached at 800-750-0517 or by email at peter@condovultures.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Don't forget to sign up for our weekly Market Intelligence Report™ for detailed condo reports. Looking for a property at a deep discount? You are encouraged to take a peek at the Vultures Database™ or view our Video Gallery. Our new books, the Official Condo Buyers Guide to Miami™ , Miami's Great Condo Crash: A Chronicle of the Boom and Bust™ , and the First-Time Home Buyers Guide To South Florida™ are now available. Want to see every foreclosure filed in South Florida since 2007? Check out our Foreclosure Database™. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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