Riverfront Condo For $27,900?

I was not a witness to condo boom in the area. The biggest number of condos in the area came in the 70s and at that time I was a young man living in the Soviet Union and not even dreaming about the US.

I wrote about The Pendleton Club Condominium a few times lately. The building came up in 1963. From my conversations with people, I assumed that it was an original condo, which would have made it one of the first condos not only in Daytona Beach but in the State of Florida.

I remember old-timers in Pendleton telling me that it was a posh building, and that famous locals lived there. Well, even today this is the only condo that still has a doorman, even though not 24 hours like it used to be even just a few years ago.

When I saw the old article in our local newspaper about converting The Pendleton to condominiums, it surprised me a lot. This was the last thing I could expect. But this was the reality.

I made some research and found the Certificate of Incorporation of The Pendleton Club Association dated April 19, 1971. That’s when it officially became the condominium.

Initially, it was built by FHA (Federal Housing Authority). In 1966 FHA sold it to Daytona Equities, a subsidiary of Management Investment Corp. And then in 1971 Daytona Equities converted The Pendleton Apartments to condominium, according to a 1971 article “Pendleton goes Condominium” by John Bloomfield, the News-Journal business editor.

Rewind it 47 years to 2018. The Pendleton Club is a thriving riverfront condominium. Maintenance fee is $391 for a 2-bedroom condo. In 1971 it was $55 a month. Price range for a 2-bedroom condo in 1971 was $27,900 – $34,900. You could buy it with 25% down and finance for 25 years at 7.75% interest. Now the prices for a 2-bedroom condo range from $129K to $159K. And these are very low prices as prices for a 2-bedroom condo in The Pendleton Club at the peak of the market a bit over a decade ago reached mid $200s.

Times change…

P.S. So, no, this was not one of the first condos in Daytona Beach and in Florida. There are 2 other condos built in 1963, and I am to find out whether they were built as condos, or were apartments later converted to condos.