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Publicly traded Tarragon (Nasdaq: TARR), based in New York City but concentrating its operations mostly in Florida, made one of the biggest moves on the Giants list, rocketing from No. 285 last year to 70 on production of 2,129 low-rise and high-rise attached units valued at $235.9 million. Most of that was rental apartments, but the total included 150 high-rise condos that sold for $41.25 million — a precursor of things to come.
Tarragon owns 20,000 apartments and 2.5 million square feet of commercial space, with concentrations in Florida, Connecticut, Texas and California. But it is in the midst of a major move to de-emphasize rental apartments at the expense of several forms of ownership housing.
“We now have an ownership housing division that produces three types of products,” CEO William Friedman explains, “new super-luxury high-rise condos, condo conversions of our existing rental apartment buildings, and condo townhouses and patio homes that will include facilities for senior citizens. We have a seniors project like that in Wayne, New Jersey, that will be 100 units, with a projected sellout of $30 million.”
The high-rise condo projects are mostly on the water in South Florida. A prime example is 42-story Las Olas Riverhouse, now under construction in downtown Fort Lauderdale, with 290 units (half of them already sold) that will bring in $260 million at sellout. The firm has two other waterfront high-rises in the pipeline.
| Las Olas Riverhouse, under construction in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is a 42-story, 290-unit luxury condo building due for completion in November 2003. |
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