Real Estate Views from St Pete

There  seem to be more Canadians than ever here in Guanacaste Costa Rica. Perhaps low fares are part of the reason: xxydeals.com shows round trip flights from Toronto to Liberia (LIR) Costa rica for $299, including taxes. From Liberia a 30 minute drive will have you on one of the many beautiful beaches of the Papagayo Gulf. Just 5 to 5-1/2 hours for a trip from Canadian cold to Costa Rica warm. Mornings in the low 70s, afternoons in the mid 80s - but with low humidity so it just feels comfortable and warm. 

Canadians are coming to Guanacaste because of its wonderful weather and because of the wonderful people. The Ticos (Costa Ricans) have been named the happiest people in the world. They are pleasant and welcoming. "Pura Vida" is the Costa Rican "Aloha". You can be as leisurely or as active as you want: laze by the beach or pool, horseback ride, scuba dive, golf, zip line or explore the jungle. 

It's a good time to buy real estate in Costa Rica, whether for a second home, an investment property, a now or future retirement home, or perhaps you just want to take a portion of your assets outside the country. Like anywhere else, though, it does depend on WHAT you buy and WHERE you buy. That's one of the reasons it's so important to choose the right real estate agent.

The Women's Tennis Association will keep it corporate headquartersin downtown St Peterburg Florida. They just signed a new lease at the City Center, which is also home to Northern Trust Bank and is across from Signature Place condominium. The WTA was founded by Billie Jean King in 1973 and is the organizing body for womens profesional tennis. WTA governs the WTA Tour whch is an international professional tennis tour for women. 

An $8.5 million renovation of the City Center, which includes a fitness center, has generated 65,000 sq ft of new leases, raising the occupancy rate from 45% to 70%.

St Petersburg just announced its new rebranding campaign - Surprising St Pete

Art scene.  Bay scene.  City scene. What a scene.

A haven for sports fans, art connoisseurs and serious foodies. The campaign touts the variety you can find in St Pete from helicopter rides to museums to great restaurants and lounges. Rodd up the streets at 9 pm? Hardly. Bars now stay open until 3 a.m. Just look at Tryst, next door to us, if you want to see activity.

Read more and see more photos.

The announcement was made in front of the Museum of Fine Arts, which is right across from our office. As Beach Drive has come alive once again, we're right in the middle of it all.

Sweet Divas Chocolates opened yesterday in downtown St. Petersburg. In addition to their specialty chocolates, they are open for early morning coffee, muffins and more at 400 Beach Drive NE, just around the corner on 4th Avenue NE.

Read more ...

Today is Free Museum Day in St Petersburg, Florida. 10 am to 3 pm today there is free admission to:

Museum of Fine Arts

St Petersburg Museum of History

The Dali Museum (sorry - this is free only for Pinellas County residents)

Great Explorations Children's Museum

Morean Arts Center Galleries

and more

The photo is taken from the front door of our officee, looking across some of the outside tables at Tryst looking at the entrance to the Museum of Fine Arts.  Don't we have a great location for our real estate office?

And did you know?  The American Style Magazine for the second year in a row designated St Petersburg, Florida is the #1 Top Arts Destination for a mid size city!   Come to St Pete and see for yourself.

Richard Iarossi posted about the iPad2 external keyboard. Since I couldn't add a photo to my comment, I'm adding a post:

This is a basic Apple wireless keyboard that works well with both the iPad and the iPad2. My son had bought it and didn't find any use for it, so I borrowed it from him. 95% of the time I use the screen keyboard and it works fine. If I'm going to be typing all day long, such as at a CyberStar or CyberPro conference, or when I plan to spend a couple of hours steadily writing/typing, then I'll use the external keyboard. Yes, it's an extra piece to bring along, but it's generally only when I travel, and I still take up less space with my iPad and extra keyboard than when I took a laptop, heavy charger, etc.  I haven't used my laptop since getting the iPad, which I find more indispensable each day.

Traveling? I'm ready to go, since my iPad is always with me.  I'll usually take my Kindle as well, but I wouldn't need to.

The Gift Box opened last week in downtown St Pete and this Gift Box bag has become the latest fashion accessory on Beach Drive. Not only has it appeared in our office, our homes, and on passersby - my latest spotting was in the lobby of the historic Vinoy Hotel. Shop for gifts and shop for yourself.

The Gift Box is part of the retail component of 400 Beach Drive NE (the shop is actually around the corner on 4th Avenue North) and is owned by Linda Albrecht (Image Creations of Florida) and Judy Bailey (Brandi’s Interiors). They promise a continuous change of items on display so stroll through whenever you’re downtown.

Ever forget an important occasion? Linda and Judy will be happy to remind you when these are coming up, either by phone or email. They may have gift suggestions as well since their customers can set up Wish Lists of things they liked but didn’t buy.

Into saving money? Stop by The Simms Team at ALVA International, Inc. real estate office at 238 Beach Drive (the red awning that says REAL ESTATE that’s across from the Museum of Fine Arts) and we’ll validate a card giving you 10% off on your first visit to The Gift Box.

Happy Birthday, Salvador Dali!  You'd be 107 today.

For any of you sharing Dali's May 11th birthday, you can have free admission today to the Salvador Dali Museum in downtown St Petersburg. The first 100 people in the door get a free gift. Family memberships are 10% off today. Cafe Gala has special treats. And for you creative ones, there's a giant birthday mural for kids and their families to complete. 

11:00 am - noon  and 3:00 - 4:00 pm there's Pin the Mustache on Dali. Tarot Reading and Palm Reading.

11:00 am - 3:30 pm  -  Donate blood and get a free T-shirt and keychain.

p.s.  The recent heavy rains revealed 29 pinhole leaks in the new building, all in the glass Enigma. They're only pinholes, caused by inadequate sealing.  No worries in the art area, this was over the gift shop and reported to be only enough to fill a teacup.  29 pinholes is still less than 2/10 of 1%, considering that there were 16,000 glass joints to he sealed. Each is reported to be a 10 minute fix - NOT counting getting the person up to the area that connection that needs to be sealed.

Meet Dale Chihuly here in St Petersburg tomorrow, Sunday, May 7, 2011. Chihuly will be visiting the Morean Arts Center's Chihuly Collection at 400 Beach Drive NE in downtown St Petersburg. He'll be signing his new catalogues (maximum one signing per purchase per person) from 1 to 2 pm. Over 100,000 visitors have been through the Chihuly Collection since its opening last July.

And while you're downtown, just around the corner visit The Gift Box, which just opened this week at 400 Beach Drive NE. It's a delightful place to shop for gifts, with a constantly changing display of attractive gifts. Most of the website links aren't active yet, so stroll through and find just the right gift, whether you play to give it away of keep it as a gift to yourself.

If you want to live in downtown St Pete and enjoy these things every day, contact The Simms Team at ALVA International, Inc. real estate, at 238 Beach Drive NE.

Mainsail Arts Festival 2011 is this weekend in St. Petersburg, Florida. It's April 16 and 17 at Vinoy Park in downtown St Petersburg. Wandering through this juried art show in a waterfront park in downtown St Pete is a great way to spend the weekend. $50,000 in prizes attracts a variety of great artists in various media.

The poster that I've photographed here was designed by Jim Holehouse of Winter Garden, Florida. You can buy the poster or a t-shirt with the poster on it at the show this weekend. Usually about 100,000 people visit the Mainsail Arts Festival. A wide variety of art for sale lets you buy for yourself or for a gift. Or just stroll around and see it you can guess who will be the grand prize winner.

This is the 36th annual Mainsail Arts Festival. You'll be able to see performing arts, listen to music and eat as well as view  the art. The festival hours are:

Saturday, April 16th  9 am - 6 pm

Sunday, April 17th  10 am - 5 pm

Admission is free and so is the trolley shuttle. Downtown St Pete is pet friendly but unfortunately, the festival does not permit pets.

St Pete is a wonderful place for the arts. If you're interested in living in downtown St Pete, contact The Simms Team at ALVA International, Inc. for all your real estate needs. We're right across from the Museum of Fine Arts, with the red awning.

It's Grand Prix time again in St Petersburg. Some of our downtown streets will turn into racetrack for the 2011 Grand Prix on March 25-27, 2011. Preparations are evident as barriers are put up along streets and trailer trucks block intersections.

People either love or hate the Grand Prix with its excitement, crowds and NOISE. Some of the downtown condos have prime viewing, such as Bayfront Tower and Signature Place. Condo owners will often either throw a party or leave town! There is also general seating and VIP seating. As you can see in the photo, some people choose to watch the St Pete Grand Prix from their yachts. 

Downtown St Pete is an exciting place to visit and a great place to live.

Security alarms in St Petersburg Florida must be registered with the St Petersburg Police Department, whether the alarm is monitored or not.  The annual alarm permit fee is $10.00 and it's time to renew now for 2011.

The reinstatement fee if you allow your permit to expire is $15. More important, though:

• Use of your alarm system without a valid permit will require a court appearance and a fine ranging from $100 to $500.
• Some alarm monitoring companies will not dispatch the police department to locations with no valud permit on file (that's according to the St Petersburg Police Department.

Love your iPhone? Bet you don't use all the features and shortcuts it has ...

My iPhone 4 by Brad Miser is a great read and reference manual for the iPhone 4 (as well as 3 and 3GS). It's hard to write a computer book that meets the needs of both beginner and advanced users, but I think that this one does. Screen shots help after the description. Available in print for $16.49 and on the Kindle for $9.99

I've been using an iPhone (well, more than "an" since I keep upgrading to the newer model and passing down my older ones) for 3.5 years and I learned some great new tricks. It has both suggestions and warnings. 

Some like to read a book from front to back - you can also skip topics you're not interested in and come back to read them later if you become interested in a topic. 

This is good for beginners, as it explains basic words like "tap" and "drag" but does so concisely, so that it doesn't bore the advanced user who can benefit from things that aren't in the manual and aren't intuitive. 

Remember - with the free Kindle app on your iPhone, you can download this book to your iPhone and have the reference always on hand.

The Festival of Reading will be held in downtown St Petersburg this Saturday, October 24, 2010 from 10 am to 4 pm at USF St Petersburg. More than 40 authors, including Michael Connelly, will be reading and signing their books. The festival used to be held at Eckerd College but has grown a lot over the years. Visit the USF waterfront campus in downtown St Pete and take the opportunity to meet and talk with Florida authors and to buy books and have them autographed.

Correction:  Saturday is October 23rd!

The 25th anniversary celebration of the movie "Cocoon" in St Petersburg is scheduled for October 19 and 20 in St Petersburg. Tuesday night is a VIP Reception and Party at the Princess Martha Hotel and Wednesday is both a Tea Dance at the St Petersburg Coliseum and an Open House at the Mirror Lake Complex. The film won an Academy Award for special effects.

Not only do we remember the local scenes, but there was quite an array of start in the film: Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, Don Amece (who won an Oscar), Brian Dennehy, Wilford Brimley, Tyrone Power Jr and others. Barbara Harrington had helped recruit retirees as extras, and when the director saw them, he sent her out for older, more decrepit extras.

Hernando De Soto was looking for the Fountain of Youth in Florida back in the early 1500s ... so it made sense that in 1984 the retirement home residents were looking for the Fountain of Youth here, too.

Wouldn't it be nice if "Cocoon" was one of the movies being shown in the downtown St Petersburg parks this month!

The 3K Pet Walk in downtown St Petersburg Florida, sponsored by the SPCA Tampa Bay is this Saturday, October 16th, 2010. It starts at the Renaissance Vinoy Hotel at 8:30 am and covers 1.8 miles along the water, going east to and through Vinoy Park and then returning. Click for 3K Pet Walk details or a 3K Pet Walk map. Lots of doggie activities and contests, including costumes. Come to participate or just watch - it should be a beautiful morning.

When you're finished, stop by and see The Simms Team at ALVA International, Inc., a boutique real estate company at 238 Beach Drive NE. We're the one with the red awning across from the Museum of Fine Arts. We're dog friendly, keeping water out in front for our doggie friends and keeping treats inside for our doggie clients. 

The Fire Prevention Block Party in downtown St Pete will be Saturday, October 9th, from 10 am to 2 pm in Vinoy Park, at 701 North Shore Drive NE. The fire department will be setting up Safety Village where you can learn about safety. There will also be fire trucks on display, fire and rescue demonstrations, K-9 demonstrations, inflatable games and free food and drinks.

Contact the St Petersburg Fire and Rescue Prevention Division at 727-893-7218 for more information.

This Saturday, October 2nd, 2010, the Saturday Morning Market in downtown St Petersburg opens its 9th season. We've missed it during the hot summer and are glad to see it back. It's at the Al Lang Stadium parking lot at the corner of 1st St S and 1st Ave S and will be open from 9 am to 2 pm.

Come shop, eat, listen to music. 

Downtown St Pete is a hub for marine sciences and ocean technology. Employing over 1,600 people in downtown St Pete, the various new and old buildings are basically between the Albert Whitted Airport and Bayboro Harbor, in and around the University of South Florida St Petersburg (which now has 6,000 students). The Ocean Team members include:

• University of South Florida, College of Marine Science, Center for Ocean Technology & Research Foundation
• Florida Fish and Wildlife
• SRI 
• US Geological Survey
• NOAA National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
• IOI  International Ocean Institute
• Tampa Bay Estuary Program
• Florida Institute of Oceanography
• US Coast Guard St Petersburg
• USF St Petersburg
• Pier Aquarium