STYLISH CONDO & LOFT LIVING

INSIDE:
            *UGO COLOMBO AND DIEGO LOWENSTEIN´S NEW PARTNERSHIP
            *MODUS VIVENDI GOES ULTRA-LUX WITH TEN

DEVELOPER
EPIC PROPORTIONS

Ugo Colombo and Diego Lowenstein´s partneship is an especially pragmatic one. Each has an air of confidence about him. And each gives credit to the other´s expertise-Colombo in condos, Lowenstein in hotels.

Their first collaboration is of, well, epic proportions. Colombo´s CMC Group, of Miami, and Lowenstein´s Lionstone Development, of Miami Beach, are building the foundation for the Epic Residences & Hotel, a 54-story tower with condos and townhouses, luxury hotel, private boat docks, spa and restaurants.

The site was once home to the old DuPont Plaza Hotel, a prime downtown spot where the Miami River flows into Biscayne Bay.

Lionstone completed the deal for the site in 2001, following what Lownstein describes as “quite an extensive negotiation.” After they bought the property, Lionstone had a lot of institutional developers knocking on its door with different game plans for the property.

At first, they envisioned rehabbing the old hotel, but, Lowenstein said, “We knew ebentually the building had demolished to make way for something great.”

About that time, “we met up with Ugo,” Lowenstein said. “This was a very swift ideal.
We wanted somebody who had a great track record.”

“I was looking for a great piece of land. They had the land,” Colombo sais, describing it as the best location in downtown Miami.

So, he arranged a lunch with Lionstone, Lowenstein´s family business. “We cut a deal with a handshake right then and ther,” Colombo said.

Now, they´re putting in the pilings andoperating a sales office from a construction trailer. Sales started in December, and they´re 60 percent sold, said Veronica Cervera, president of Cervera Real Estate and the broker whoñs handling the project.

“We don´t even have brochures yet,” Colombo said.
A snazzier sles center designed by Michele Bonan is expected to open in midMay, showcasing a project whose developers are quintessentially Miami.
Colombo, 45, came to South Florida more than 20 years ago to study business at the University of Miami. The son of a wealthy Italian family stayed on, seeing opportunity between the sun and the sea.

He went into real estate in a big way, setting the pace early on for Miami´s luxury condo development with the Bristol Tower and Santa Maria on Brickell Avenua. He´s also done the Grovenor House highrise by the bay in Coconut Grove.

Lowenstein, 38, is part of a Buenos Aires family that´s had connections  to South Florida for 40 years. The original Argentine business begun by his grandfather ranged from food service to restaurants and shopping centers and is now concentrated mainly on real estate and hospitality. Lionstone´s portfolio includes the Ritz-Carlton South Beach and property in the Caribbean.

“Toward  the late 90o, we were not too keen on where Argentina was headed,” said Lowenstein. They sold their holdings there, and he moved to Miami in 1999. “Its always been like a second home here,” said Lowenstein, who studied finance at Babson College in the Boston area.

Together Colombo and Lionstone are building a USS 370 million, high-end project with a lodging component that will be managed properties.

They´re undaunted by other projects on the market.

“we´re in the best location in downtown Miami,” Colombo said. “When people see these baths and these kitchens and all the details,” he said gesturing to a huge wall photos of the rooms, “it will stand apart.”

“Everybody´s saying the same thing,” Lowenstein said about how others´condos are promoted. “In the execution and delivery, that´s where you can tell the developments apart.”
“We have a USS. 15,000 tub in the batheoom,” Colombo said. What´s more, he thinks a lot of projects in the talking or planning stages won´t be built.

They acknowledge a lot of different market pressures, including the rising cost of construction.
“On the demand side, I think you´re going to have a much more discriminating buyer,” Lowenstein said. “We´re patient developers.”

“I want to know what I´m doing, what I´m said. “I have a construction company. So I know what I´m facing. Everything has been planned, and everything hs been budgeted.”
Customers are coming from the United States, Europe and the islands. “Miami is a brand,” Cervera said.

They´re not selling more than one unit to a buyer; they want 30 percent down instead of 10 or 20 percent;  and the contracts are not assignable. “We want to lnow that when we sell this building, it´s really sold,” Colombo said.

So when this done, will there be more Epics down the road? Epic, which Lowenstein said is a pretty sexy name, “could have legs. And who better to do it with than Ugo?2