Dublin firm involved in $80m Orlando scheme

Sunday Business Post - Overseas Property Supplement - April 15 2007

Dublin-based firm Investor First has announced a finance deal worth $80 million for a condo-hotel development in Orlando, Florida.

The first phase of the Emerald Cay project, which is due for completion in September 2009, contains 110 units on two acres, while the second comprises 90 units on 2.56 acres.

The dual hotel and residential development is centrally located within Orlando’s ‘Golden Triangle’, close to Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios.

‘‘The location would be the equivalent of Jurys in Dublin,” said James Carroll, managing director of Investor First, which sourced both the private equity and mezzanine finance to support the development.


Carroll said that most of the $10 million equity finance was coming from one source, and having that in place early allowed Investor First to then bring in additional investors.

‘‘We first brought in one lead Irish investor and subsequently a number of smaller investors came on board,” he said. ‘‘Subsidiary investors would have come in for around $500,000.”

Carroll said that although the US and, particularly, the Florida property markets had experienced some turbulence in the last few years, high potential opportunities remained for Irish investors.

‘‘In some ways a crash is not a bad thing because it brings a bit of sense into the market,” he said. ‘‘It can be easier to make money in the hard times, because there is not every idiot trying to buy the same land for ridiculous prices.”

Florida remains particularly advantageous, said Carroll.

‘‘America is like a funnel. The baby boomers are moving south.”

Carroll said that the size of the US property market meant it could ride out temporary ups and downs.

‘‘America is the biggest economy in the world. It is surprising how many Irish people seem to equate, in their own heads, a shopping centre in the equivalent of Foxrock in Bratislava with a shopping centre in the Foxrock of Chicago.

‘‘They are just not the same in terms of risk profile. America is the most sophisticated and the most competitive property market in the world, “ said Carroll.

Investor First opened an office in Charlotte, Florida, four years ago. It is partnered with Capital Sales Center, a Floridabased residential sales and marketing company, and the Landsmith Group, which is currently developing more than 700 units spread over various other Orlando projects, in the Emerald Cay development.

‘‘We have developed a relationship with number of local developers, which makes planning, development and entitlement work much easier,” said Carroll.

‘‘America is no different than anywhere else - if you do not have local knowledge to show you where the best place to buy is, and when the right time to buy is, you will take a hammering.”

Investor First recently sourced the Philadelphia Airport Business Complex, a $33 million industrial and office site, for the Irish development group Castleway Developments.