| VRX Appoints Michael Hannan to Board of Directors
Vancouver, B.C. | VRX Worldwide Inc. (TSX-V:VRW) announced today that Michael Hannan has been appointed to the company's Board of Directors. Mr. Hannan has extensive experience in the travel business having recently served as Executive Vice President of Intrawest Corporation, a world leading resort operator and developer; and as the President of Abercrombie & Kent, a former subsidiary of Intrawest Corporation. Abercrombie & Kent was voted the “World's Best Luxury Tour Operator" by Travel Weekly in 2004. Mr. Hannan joined Intrawest as Executive Vice President, Strategic and Corporate Development, in 2002 and was instrumental in the negotiation and successful acquisition of Abercrombie & Kent by Intrawest in 2003, increasing company revenues by more than US$200 million.
Condo projects bring unique selling points to Boca market
The South Florida condominium market may be languishing, but two local developers are betting their new projects in Boca Raton are so distinctive they'll be successful anyway.
"New construction is selling slowly," said Torm Martinson, a broker-associate at Campbell & Rosemurgy Real Estate in Boca Raton. "But because each of these projects has a uniqueness -- one has location and prestige and the other is a new product type for this market -- they should do OK."
The first project is One Thousand Ocean Beach Villas and Residences, a 52-unit project under development by Boca Raton-based LXR Luxury Resorts. This is not just another luxury oceanfront condo. Prices at One Thousand Ocean range from $2.7 million to more than $10 million for units ranging from 2,900 square feet to more than 10,000 square feet.
REAL ESTATE: Insurance, boom aftermath dim outlook
It doesn't take long for casual conversations on the Grand Strand to turn to how much insurance rates are going up and how much high-end development is changing Myrtle Beach's "blue collar" persona. And you'll often hear the local work force expressing dismay that they can't find an affordable home - especially with the price that $120,000 condo might cost to insure. And forecasts call for coastal insurance rates to continue rising - the Insurance Information Institute expects an increase of 20 percent to 100 percent in 2007. What happens in the legislature this year concerning insurance reform will play a key role in predicting the coast's real estate future - answering the question of whether Myrtle Beach is still affordable for buyers. As for the real estate market, there's more correction to come in the marketplace before sales and appreciation pick up, economists say.
Ga. island preserved for `average' folks under pressure from luxury developers
JEKYLL ISLAND, Ga. - For nearly 60 years, Jekyll Island has been Everyman's island. A 1950 Georgia law explicitly says the state-owned coastal strip should be accessible to Georgians of "average income." What constitutes "average income" is a matter of debate - there's one four-star hotel, and the many ranch-style homes built in the 1960s are worth more than a half-million dollars by virtue of being so close to the beach. But for the most part, this is a middlebrow, Rotary Club sort of place, with modest low-rise hotels like the Buccaneer Beach Resort and the Days Inn, both at $89 a night. Now, however, it's starting to look a little shabby, and the politically appointed keepers of the island are entertaining proposals from developers for luxury hotels and million-dollar homes - an idea that has some people worried that Jekyll Island will put itself out of reach to the common man.
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