30-day Challenge – Day 29

In the second half of this past semester at business school, I took an immersion course in real estate – the best course I have ever taken. The course not only exposed me to the business of real estate, but also introduced me to the nuances of an industry where success is not necessarily about reality, but your ability to create a perception, in which people want to participate.

Real estate can give you a means to exercise your networking, negotiation and selling skills. At the same time, real estate allows you to be very creative in realizing your visions of developing mixed use, multi-family apartments, commercial, or industrial structures. You can literally do anything and the next lines will show that.

Porsche Design Tower 

Plans are underway to start construction on a 57-storey luxury condominium complex in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida in Q1 of 2013. That announcement is probably no different from the many headlines we have been reading about property development. However, this one is unique because this luxury property will let you park your car outside your apartment.

Source: Porsche Design Group

Still think this your run-of-the-mill property? The tower, which is set to open in Q1 of 2015, is a collaboration between Porsche Design Group and Florida developer, Gil Dezer. It “uses rotating lifts and robotic arms” to take residents and their cars up to their luxury abodes.

Details

The complex will have 132 apartment units with sizes ranging from 3,800 to 9,500 sq. ft. The cost of the development is $560 million, but as with all things in construction, this could end up costing a lot more. Buyers, who will have to pay up to $9 million for a unit, will have between two and four parking spaces, depending on the size of their units.

You don’t have to leave your car until you are in front of your apartment

– Juergen Gessler, CEO of Porsche Design Group

Design

Porsche Design Group is known for products that, at their core, have a strong foundation of functionality.

If you analyse the function of an object, its form often becomes obvious

– Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, designer of the Porsche 911

The design of the Florida apartment complex serves both aesthetic and functional purposes. The building’s cylindrical shape not only ensures impressive views from the apartments, or the swimming pools and resting areas available on alternate floors. It also fits well for a structure that features a vehicle lift designed to go up to the top floor.

How it Works

Residents enter the property through a private entrance, where scanners and electronic key systems identify the car and its owner. Then, a robotic arm lifts both car and driver onto one of the elevator platforms, which takes its cargo up to its designated floor, at high speed. The elevator for this structure will not be a slow hydraulic lift that makes going home a lengthy experience.

Porsche Design Tower is car-friendly, regardless of the price of the car, but we are ensuring that vehicles with a low clearance, such as Ferraris and Bugattis, can be accommodated. The elevator is also designed to hold the weight of a Rolls-Royce Phantom, the heaviest, longest car made today.

– Gil Dezer, Principal at Dezer Properties

Once at the resident’s floor, a robotic arm lifts and places the car and its occupants in a designated parking space. So at this complex, your parking space is always waiting for you.

I don’t know if this project will come to fruition, but the innovative concept certainly draws attention. Real estate is a truly phenomenal space where you can create wonderful structures that emanate from something as transient as a fleeting thought. It is certainly a sandbox that promises a lot of excitement for those willing to take financial and creative risks.