Signature Place condo in St Petersburg Florida

The Signature Place auction on March 7th of 35 condos really has downtown St Petersburg buzzing. Whenever we’re showing the units to clients and prospective buyers we find the halls busy and the elevators constantly in motion.

A frequently asked question is:  “Is there a 10% buyer’s fee charged at the auction in addition to the purchase price?” No.  Although that is not unusual at an auction, at the Signature Place condo auction there is no buyer’s premium charged.

Signature Place condos in downtown St Petersburg Florida

Signature Place reported 7 more sales in September, bringing the number of Signature Place condos sold in downtown St Petersburg to 59, according to the MLS statistics. 49 of the sales are in the tower and 10 are in the adjacent “lofts”.  Sale prices at Signature cover a wide range, from $224,250 for a 1 bedroom “loft” unit with 847 square feet to $1,237,500 for a 2,319 sq ft unit on the 34th floor.

The first closing were on June 24, 2009 and there are 244 condominium units in all. The current residents have a weekly “6 at 6″ happy hour gathering at 6 pm on the 6th floor. At the two I attended, the residents seemed very happy with their new homes and enjoying the new comraderie with their neighbors.

Downtown St Petersburg has seen the completion and opening of two condominium projects this year – Signature Place which began closings in June and Ovation which began closings in August.  Welcome, new downtown neighbors!

Signature Place is located on 2nd Avenue S, from 1st Street to 2nd Street. For buyer representation at Signature Place, please contact The Simms Team.

View from Signature Place

Over the past four years I have talked to many clients about downtown condos and Signature Place in particular.  Since it was finished in June 2009, I have shown a dozen clients the various floorplans and amenities available in the complex.  I’ve even had one on-site salesman defer to me as knowing more about the building.

About three weeks ago I received a call from an someone in town from Massachusetts who had visited Signature Place recently and wanted buyer representation.  We discussed the project for a while.  Then he drove over from Tampa and we looked at the building again.  He still loved it and after discussing the past sales we made an offer.  We were delighted when it was accepted.  This afternoon he closed on the sale. That’s my Sale #13 for this year.

After we were done and we were in his new home on the 15th floor looking out at Tampa Bay, seeing Progress Energy Field and the airport  I asked him, since you had already seen the building, did I, as a real estate agent, add value with your purchase.  He looked at me and smiled.  He said that because of me, he slept better and rested easy, knowing he had not overpaid for the condo and that Signature Place was the right place for him.  He had received a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from the developer to welcome him to his new home…he gave it to me as a thank you.  It is a nice feeling to help put someone in the right new home.

Statistics for downtown St Petersburg luxury condominiums really get skewed when you combine old and new condos.

For existing downtown luxury condos, so far in 2009 there have been 7 sales between $500,000 and $999,999 and 1 sale over $1 million. With  51 condos on the market that’s a 15.6 month supply of condos. When you break that down, though, there’s a 26 month supply of condos from$500,000 to $999,999 and a 10 year supply of condos over $1 Million.

Now – enter Signature Place. Signature Place began closing on their new condos on June 24th, and have reported 9 closings in the MLS – doubling the entire sales supply so far this year, both in total, and in units over $1 Million.

Combining new and old, inventory would drop by half, which wouldn’t be a true picture for the resale market. Keep in mind that most of the new sales went under contract 3 years ago.

Joel Cantor, developer of Signature Place in downtown St Petersburg Florida recently said thatGulf Atlantic Communities, Inc wanted to reward people who put their money up nearly three years ago by giving them a “significant” reduction on their pre-construction prices. This is a reflection of a readjustment to the market.

Kudos to Joel Cantor and Gulf Atlantic for recognizing the reality of the current marketplace and giving credits to those who believed in him at the start of the project. So many developers discount the unsold units, at significant detriment to early purchasers.

The percentage of these discounts has not yet been disclosed.  The 36 story architecturally significant condo is expected to welcome its first residents within weeks.