test: December 2013

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Apartment Living is Alive and Growing in the City of Boca Raton ~ Growing at 30% Rate 🌐 😎🌐 😎🌐 😎🌐 😎

Apartment Living is Alive and Growing in the City of Boca Raton, and Growing at 30% Rate. Boca Raton’s executive director of the Economic Development Board, mentions that today’s typical Young Upwardly Professional, today’s "Yuppy" wants an urban lifestyle, and today’s businesses want a young, college-educated workforce. Companies like Office Depot, GEO, 3C Interactive, Campus Management, Major Banks and Insurance Companies, Major Retailers benefit greatly by apartment growth in downtown markets and particularly for the City of Boca Raton, Florida.

What’s a Yuppy. Here’s the etymology for the term Yuppy: An acronym for "Young Urban Professional" or "Young Upwardly-mobile Professional." Yuppy a term that refers to young educated professionals in or entering the upper-middle-class or upper-class, who are in their 20′s and 30′s. This term first came into use in the early 1980′s during the Reagan Administration, the 40th President of the United States.

This Image is a progress-photo of RAM Development’s 208 Unit Apartment project under construction, showing 5 floors of eventual 12 story building.

The scenario that the economic consultants give, is the 25-year-old yuppy these days likes to get up, get on a bike, go to Starbucks for coffee, back on the bike, and head to their office; walk outside for lunch, get on a bike and go to a park or beach.

Some young college graduates today are not necessarily excited about purchasing a car because of the price of a Car, the Insurance, Maintenance, and the Gas. Since graduating students are quite used to college campus environments, Apartments located in business districts are very similar to a College graduate’s way of life. I personally have friends living in NYC, Manhattan, that never owned a car. They walk, jog, bicycle, or take the Subways everywhere. If they want to "take a drive" out of the City, they’ll Rent a Car for the weekend.

This Image is a progress-photo of Camden Development’s 261 Unit Apartment project under construction, showing 6 floors of eventual 8 story building.

City Leaders are excited about the potential for a dense, pedestrian downtown; however, not all residents share this vision; many have said there will be too many apartments and too much traffic. It seems that there are a few that are opposed to any great ideas. Personally we, firmly disagree. A vibrant, viable City requires an established and growing base of urban dwellers and services (such has restaurants and retailers) to symbiotically live with each other.

All five apartment developments are near US Highway 1 and four projects are within walking distance to Boca’s Mizner Park entertainment district. The majority of the Apartments units will be one-bedrooms, and some developments are also offering studios apartments as well. The 500 to 1000 square foot Apartment is definitely where the Developers are focusing there attention today.

We have conducted an Apartment Rental Survey for the Boca Raton metropolitan area, in effort to quantify the Apartment Buildings that presently exist, the Condominium projects that have a significant number of "rentals" by the unit-owners, the new Buildings that being Constructed, and the Projects that have been presented to the City with favorable outcomes, where Development thereof is likely. Below are several graphics showing the Current Completed projects, Apartment Buildings that are being constructed, and Apartment projects that have been presented to one or more City Commission Meetings with favorable results.

The buildings may be taller, the occupants younger and the amenities more cutting-edge than anything downtown Boca Raton has seen. And if the developers’ and city leaders’ predictions come true, the new apartments going up in Boca Raton’s downtown will fill it with people willing to walk to shopping, entertainment, dining and perhaps even employment.

Think of Boca Raton as a relatively small city, as compared with more traditional urban areas like NYC, Atlanta, and LA. Lets view Boca Raton as a piece of the overall South Florida metro area, said Jay Curran, vice president of development for Archstone’s Florida division. Archstone is planning to build 378 apartments on Palmetto Park Road in 9 stories of apartments above 15,000 square feet of retail stores and restaurants at street level, plus structured parking. The project includes 25 town homes with garages that will face Boca Raton Boulevard.

We are Apartment dwellers living at Boca Raton’s Royal Palm Place a luxury 185 unit Building in the heart of down town, 101 Plaza Real South, one street East of Federal Highway, US 1, and one street South of Palmetto Park Road. And rest assured we are not Yuppies; think of us as Yuppy x 3.

Within only a few square miles, there are 14 Apartment or Rental projects that are Completed, Projects being Constructed, and Projects that are Eminent. In sum there are 2,486 Apartment dwelling units that Presently exist in the Boca Raton down town area; Add to this 469 Apartment units, two projects, that are under construction; and Four additional Apartment projects housing 1,153 units, that are to be built, where 558 units will Commence Construction by June of 2014.

This image above is the street view of 101 Plaza Real South looking south, with Royal Palm Place apartment building is on the right side of the image

Therefore, a year from this Article, the Apartment count will increase from today’s level of 2,487 units to a total of 4,109 units in a year or two. This is a 165% increase in the number of Apartment units in a relatively short time-frame.

Businesses look for quality rental apartments in deciding where to locate, said land use attorney Charles Siemon, who has done extensive work with downtown Boca Raton, including Archstone and other apartment projects.

Boca Raton has thousands of employees that work in downtown Boca Raton but who live in Fort Lauderdale,” he said. “We need to make our city more attractive to businesses and young professionals, and that’s not renting a golf villa.

While granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and wood cabinets set the standard, the upscale appointments will come in smaller packages with some studio apartments coming in at about 530 square feet at both the Ram and Camden apartments. There’s a large supply of larger condos and apartments. Camden’s units are going to be a little bit smaller, said Chad Weaver, Camden’s vice president of real estate investments for the southeast United States. Camden will actually be delivering 522sf studio apartments. The apartments will range in size from about 522 square feet up to about 1,032 he said. Weaver believes demand will come from some people looking for a more comfortable living situation, such as moving out from their parent’s home or living alone after having a roommate.

You’ve got the view of the Boca Raton Resort, the Intracoastal and the ocean, and to be in such great proximity to downtown and the beach is a great opportunity. Not only do you get all these great amenities but great access to quality jobs.

The close proximity to downtown, U.S. 1 and I-95 are the reasons they are expecting to attract young professionals, and why they’re likely to improve Boca Raton’s business prospects, said people involved in downtown planning.

This is not your grandparent’s vacation rental. Indeed, the apartments, 1,197 of them downtown, will be small by the city’s suburban standards, and will be marketed to young professionals who don’t necessarily see buying a house in their immediate futures.

Because two of the four major downtown apartment complexes include ground-floor retail stores and restaurants, ranging from 15,000sf to 20,000sf, these projects also have the potential to enliven the lackluster performance of some of the existing retail and restaurant tenants on Palmetto Park Road and in the down town area.

Rents among these new Apartment buildings range from $1,050 for a studio apartment to $3,500 for a three-bedroom with garage. Apartment owners and operators use a figure of Rent-Per-Square-per-Month to determine how their "Rentals" compare to the competition.

In conversations with several Apartment Developers, rents for the 4 new buildings will be in the $2.00 to $2.15 per sq.ft./month, a very strong rent indeed. However, recall that the bulk of the new apartment units will be one-bedroom consisting of 550sf to 750sf in size, two bedroom apartments are just under 1100sf, relatively small floor plans

For example, Marilyn and I live at Royal Palm Place, a modern, high quality, 185 unit Apartment Building, built in 2003. Our Rent is $2350 for a 1400sf dwelling uint. This equates to around $170/sf per month, the figure apartment developers, real estate professionals and Commercial Bankers use as one measuring tool for the economics of rental units.

Therefor, assuming similar construction standards, location, and competitive amenity packages, the Rent/SF/Month is a common factor in comparing "rentals" Apartments to each other. Many of the new Apartment projects that are being constructed or soon to be built, are projected to rent at over $210/sf/Month. This rental level is at the very high-end of the market-place.

101 Plaza Real South, Apt 801 Balcony View

Hugo Pacanins, vice president of Ram Residential is currently building a 208 unit Luxury Rental Apartment building located one block east of U.S. 1 and one block south of Palmetto Park Road. This building is immediately North of Palmetto Place, a 256 luxury Condominium project developed in 2003 by Bill Morris (Southcoast Partners, a prominent local developer) through a Joint Venture with affiliate of Deutsche Bank who owned the entire 9.4 acre site.

The image above is a view from the 8th floor balcony looking at the spectacular common area Pool, Patio and Clubhouse that is elevated 70 feet above street level, resting at Level 6, above the parking garage of Palmetto Place. This 256 luxury Condominium project was developed in 2003 by Bill Morris, Principal of Southcoast Partners, a prolific South Florida developer.

We are assuming the new wave of Apartment dwellers are going to be mainly single and professional couples that either work in downtown or work in nearby areas of Palm Beach County and want to live closer to downtown, closer to where the action is… RAM will position the apartments 500 feet East and South of the Palmetto-Federal Highway corner, the SEC, leaving the prime corner for a future Commercial Building.

We see a combination of a younger population, but also some of the older population moving away from the suburban locations who children have grown, where the "empty-nesters" simply do not need 3,500sf single family home with the grounds and pool maintenance costs coupled to $750/month utility bills.

Via Mizner, adjacent to the Boca Raton Resort, may see tenants who choose to rent rather than buy a seasonal place, said Pete Odorico, vice president of Development for Penn-Florida, which is developing the project at Camino Real and US Hwy 1. “It’s the views next to the club and proximity to the club that makes a difference for us,” he said. He expects phase one of the project to complement the entire project, which still includes a future phase of condos about 44,000 square feet of retail and a 118 room hotel.

North Boca Village, about five miles north, and includes 384 apartments in 19 buildings on 20 acres at the former Levitz Plaza. “This is more of a garden style, not a high-rise,” said Michael Ging, managing director of Broadstone Developers, which already has the first five-story building out of the ground. “We’ll have three-story townhomes with two-car garages, which we expect to appeal to families, and five-story buildings that we believe will appeal to the more mature demographic, mostly because it will look and feel like a condo. And then we’ll have your traditional three-story garden-style buildings.”

The thing that’s going to set North Bay Village apart is its clubhouse. It’s the most luxurious clubhouse that we’ve seen. It’s a two-story, 10,000-square-foot building with a cyber cafe, fitness center, yoga studio, demo kitchen, and wine and cigar rooms. The four downtown complexes all sit on space a fraction the size of North Boca Village’s 20 acres. Located between Mizner and Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue, North Boca Village expects to attract young professionals who might work north or south.

Unlike many of the condos that make up downtown Boca’s multifamily housing, developers don’t see the apartments being abandoned in the summer. We think it will be very good for the community and add to the year-round population.

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As many of my friends, family and students know, I am an avid iPad adopter since its release mid-year 2010. With Apple’s release of the Retina-Display iPad Mini, I will be changing to it soon with 128GB of Storage and Logitech’s UltraThin Keyboard Cover; however, the WiFi only model. My thought is there are so many WiFi zones available these days, investing in the $130 LTE Cellular chipset upgrade is mitigated by my iPhone 5S with its "HOT SPOT" capability. Therefore, if I have migrated into non-WiFi area, or I desire a more Secure Internet Connection, its very easy to Activate my iPhone’s Hot Spot, which serves as a mini-router, accepting up to 5 WiFi enabled devices, for internet connectivity.

Filed under: NEWS - Banking & Finance, NEWS - Politics, NEWS - Real Estate of Interest, NEWS of Public Interest Tagged: City of Boca Raton, Rental Apartments, South Florida Real Estate, Urban Developments

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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

iPad 6 + Next iPad-mini v3 ~ Slated to have Cryptographic BioMetric Finger Print capability, 10% Thinner, Narrower, 15% Lighter Than New iPad 5 (updated) 🍎🍎🍎⭐⭐⭐🍎🍎🍎

1⃣ iPad 6 and the next iPad-mini v3 are Slated to have Cryptographic BioMetric Finger Print capability (that is incorporated into the iPhone 5S). The next iPad to be 10% Thinner, Narrower, and 15% Lighter Than new iPad v5. The next iPad mini v3, will also contain the famous Retina Display resolution as seen first in mini v2, PLUS Cryptographic BioMetric Finger Print capability, as first delivered by Apple in their hugely popular iPhone 5S, PLUS other significant enhancements with the main processor, memory configurations, the Motion chip, and important energy efficiencies.

2⃣ The 6th generation iPad rumor mill has gathered significantly over the past few weeks; and reported a few days ago suggested that the iPad 6 release date could be as soon as June, 2014. The increased rumors and attention may be warranted.

3⃣ iPad 6 to also have BioMetric Finger Print capability creating secure Cryptographic Libraries to secure Personal Information, making way for best “Tablet” security consistent with Apple’s new iPhone 5S to have similar cryptographic security.

4⃣ Apple’s purchase of AuthenTec has played a major part for new iPad and iPhone innovations. It was a shrewd move that CEO Tim Cook made that has been largely unnoticed. This technology provides Apple with a very Unique New feature designed to virtually eliminate passwords. BTW, AuthenTec was a major supplier to Samsung.

5⃣ Nothing has been confirmed at this point, but leaked photos of redesigned internal components suggest that Apple is indeed again planning an overhaul of the internal geography to improve various iPad features and to likely make room for new components as well, namely the Finger-Print Scanner and its related digitizing processors.

6⃣ Apple’s next-generation iPad 6 is expected to feature the similar external design as the recently iPad Air, version5. Aside from the iPad external shape and edges, the iPad v6 will feature a significant internal redesign, to make room for the FingerPrint sensing apparatus, when the iPad v6 launches mid-year 2014.

7⃣ AuthenTec is a leading provider of mobile and network security, whose diverse product and technology offering helps protect individuals and organizations through secure networking, content and data protection, access control and strong fingerprint security. AuthenTec encryption technology, fingerprint sensors and identity management software are deployed by the leading mobile device, networking and computing companies, content and service providers, and Governments worldwide. AuthenTec’s products and technologies provide security on hundreds of millions of devices.

8⃣ BioMetrics and Finger Print identification are cool terms indeed. However, there is a lot of science that has to be packed into a small package for “Positive-Identification” to be consistent and assured in the creating of Secure Cryptographic Libraries. These graphics were abstracted from reports discussing the mathematics and logistics necessary to accurately refine and focus on one’s unique Finger Print. This process sounds really cool, but there are tens of thousands of man-hours behind the processes, the logistics, the imaging, necessary to assure very high-quality imaging consistency, necessary to delivery very high-level security, on the order of tens-of-millions of combinations, if this imaging security were compared to a traditional “cash-vault combination lock.”

9⃣ Having personally supervised the installation very sophisticated “Hand, Palm, Finger Print” identification systems costing on average $250,000, to secure commercial office buildings, the user set-up was quite simple. A user that has been permitted access, initially provides multiple digital impressions for each of their 10 fingers, plus 10 Palm-Print impressions on the “8″x12″ glass plated sensor, plus 10 impressions of the entire Hand-print; This assures the system to 1⃣ Record accurate, reliable, digitized images, 2⃣ Creates a secure Cryptographic Library for this user. 3⃣ User thereafter enters an 8 digit password twice; 4⃣ This PassWord (8-digits delivering up to 99 million combinations, may be used in the event this user has damaged, cut, or bruised their fingers causing the system to reject finger-print cryptographic access. What goes on internally “behind the scenes” is amazing and occurs in a few milli-seconds; The notion that this technology can be squeezed into iPhones and iPads, using a cryptographic enabled HOME button, covered with a “scratch-proof” Sapphire-Crystal-Lens for best finger-image transmission through to a 6mm CCD high-resolution imager for digitizing, boggles the mind.

🔠 Admittedly, with the last generation of iPad-mini-retina, I personally sold my iPad v4 to Gazelle.com and moved “smaller” to the iPad mini retina, and love the crisp display, new compact, carry anywhere, even in my pocket form-factor, even with ACME MADE of San Francisco thin slip-cover, and Logitech’s UltraThin Keyboard Cover. This combination renders an iPad mini retina into an amazing touch-screen ultra-compact “laptop.”

🔠 KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who tends to speak out with reliable information, has chimed into the debate once again, and although his June-September 2014 release bracket refutes earlier presumptions, Kuo does believe the next Apple iPads will be again dramatically thinner and lighter than iPad v5 Air and iPad mini v3 generations.

🔠 Kuo also estimates the iPad 6 will be 10% thinner and 15% lighter than the current flagship, a notion which is in line with suggestions of the popuar iPad Air. In fact, Kuo goes on to mention that the next full-size iPad will feature thinner bezels along the longer edges as per the iPad mini, which will in turn allow the device to be slightly narrower.

🔠 Kuo foresees the next iPad measuring in at around 7.5-8.0mm in depth, which is a full 10% thinner than iPad Air v5. At 500 grams, it takes more weight, off the current flagship, and although that may not sound like a big number, in tech terms, it is a very profitable drop in bulk.

🔠 Kuo mentions the next iPad will pack in an A8X processor, although predicts the cameras will have significant improvements with image quality. The 5-megapixel iSight of the iPad 5 was no great shakes, but then again, with very few people use their iPads for taking snaps, it makes sense for Apple to concentrate on some of the more important issues with its market-leading slab. It is speculated that these ext iterations of the iPad and her sister Mini will contain the superb 8MP imager contained presently in Apple’s iPhone 5S.

🔠 The next generation of iPad looks to be the biggest leap since the third-gen brought that Retina display, and with the iPad mini also set to see that very feature later on in the year, Apple’s continued dominance in tablet space will be difficult for rivaling vendors to falter.