Downtown Ft. Laud. skyline is booming!

Somebody recently informed me that Ft. Lauderdale's downtown skyline is the most rapidly changing landscape in America. I'm not sure if that's true, but there are approximately 10,000 residents being built in several high rise structures. This picture is looking west, down the New River. The rest of pics are random shots as we progressed down the river and through the downtown riverfront area.

Cave Dwellers!

Condo Commandos!

Vertical Homes

Sky Lounges

Cloud Houses

That's a very good question. Both, hurricane Andrew and hurricane Charlie, made landfall in areas (interestingly) that did not have sky-scraping condominiums. I can tell you this, with Charlie... most of the two story homes suffered significant damage, while the single story homes weathered the storm in better shape. This could be partially due to the fact that many the two story structures are frame on the second floor and CBS on the ground floor. Or... it could be greater wind force is realized at a higher elevation, which would make sense as there is less ground resistance.

The new condos are suppose to be built to withstand hurricanes (to what level I don't know). But witnessing the aftermath of each of these storms, I would be hard pressed to believe there would be any windows remaining, therefore the interior damge would have to be significant.

Would the structures still stand? I'd hate to find out...

The Realtors are making out like bandits for sure. However, they have some competition. The 2nd most issued license in the state of Florida is a real estate license!

I thought the builders were making off with the grand heist too, but the cost of materials has sky-rocketed over the past couple of years, resulting in profit margins... that are marginable.

The reason for the resurrection and re-development on the east side of Ft. Lauderdale is two fold. First, builders have run out of land to develope on the west side of the county. Second, the number of people moving to South Florida is outpacing the supply of homes.

Quite simply... there's no where to go, but... up!

The dock shortage scenario is one of the reasons that waterfront (deepwater) real estate has become SO expensive in Ft. Lauderdale. I'm sure in some cases that a dockslip might be part of a sale. One of the reasons that dock space is limited is not just due to the growth of the industry, but also the growth in the size of yachts. Bahia Mar recently underwent a major renovation that reduced the number of slips available, in order to accomodate the increasing size of yachts. When Bahia Mar was built (circa mid 50's?), the average boat or yacht was around 40-50 feet. Fast forward fifty years and the average length of a yacht has probably doubled.

I believe the old cliche that "Ft. Lauderdale is the yachting capital of the world" still holds true, but I would label it... "the idle speed capital of the world" or maybe... "the boaters with more dollars than sense" capital of the world.

I'm being scarcastic ofcourse, as every area has it's share of neophytes...