[aim*high]

Bob Shallit: Money may soon talk at condo projects
By Bob Shallit -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Story appeared in Business section, Page D1

Show me the money. That could be the motto of two high-rise condo developers ready to take "hard" deposits from buyers of their competing Capitol Mall projects.
For months, both John Saca and Craig Nassi have been collecting refundable deposits from prospective buyers. Now, in a huge boost for each, they say they have received state approval to begin accepting nonrefundable deposits.

First out of the sales gate is Nassi, the Denver developer planning a dramatic 38-story condo tower, at Sixth and Capitol, designed by acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind.



He's spending $250,000 on a gala sales event this weekend. Guests will sip Dom Perignon, dine on pricey Russian caviar and oysters and listen to a San Francisco Symphony string quartet while touring a furnished model that includes such standard features as floor-to-ceiling windows, Bulthaup cabinets, oak laminate floors, Miele appliances and subzero freezers that, Nassi says, "cost more than most people's cars."

By the end of the weekend, he says he expects to collect nonrefundable deposits - 15 percent of the sales price - for all 265 units in his Aura Condominiums project. Units will range from the mid-$400,000s to more than $1.5 million for penthouse and larger condos.

"It will be like a game of musical chairs," he says. In other words, some folks may be left standing without a condo when the symphony strikes its last chord.

Meanwhile, Saca, a Sacramento developer, is planning a similar sales event, a spokesman says, now that he's also received state Department of Real Estate approval for his much larger project - a twin-tower, 53-story condo and InterContinental Hotel project at Third and Capitol.

But Saca's spokesman Eric Rasmusson says the developer wants to wait until The Towers project is "out of the ground" before asking people to pony up nonrefundable dollars.

Both projects still lack some important elements, including financing. Nassi says he's close to a deal with a Chicago bank and says he's negotiating with a contractor.

Saca has a contractor, Turner Construction, which recently joined the project after switching over from Nassi's Aura. Saca's financing? Word on the street has Saca getting money from a public pension fund.