Islamorada

For more than a decade, viewers of Home & Garden Television shows have had a recurring dream - winning a new luxury home that the cable network builds, furnishes and gives away each year. From Maine to the Rockies to the Georgia coast, HGTV's "dream homes" have showcased high-end style and high-end locations.

Now it's the Upper Keys' turn.

On March 18, HGTV announced that the 12th annual Dream Home Giveaway will award a new, fully furnished, custom-designed bayfront home to one lucky winner in February 2008. The HGTV home will be in The Shore, a new enclave of eight island-style luxury homes to be built on Plantation Key, just south of Islamorada's Founders Park and shoreward of the Rain Barrell artists village. Prices weren't available, but they likely in the multimillion-dollar category.

HGTV's house, according to the contest Web site, is designated "The Albright." It will have deep porches with views of the Gulf and the development's central pool. Marketing materials for The Shore show similarly styled bayfront houses, designated with famous sporting and fishing names: Hommell, Knowles, Navarre, Pope, Wightman, Brewer and Brothers.

The Shore's Web site says the development will have 275 feet of private sandy beach and boat slips for the exclusive use of homeowners.

The 2007 dream home was built in Winter Park, Colo., said Emily Yarborough, public relations manager for HGTV, and was worth more than $2.5 million. Viewers submitted more than 41 million entries for the drawing for that home, Yarborough said. The winner is selected by random drawing.

An hour-long show about the Islamorada 2008 dream house, which HGTV will probably tape in September, will premier on Jan. 1, 2008. The home will also be presented that day on the network's Web site, www.hgtv.com. "This is our first tropical location," she said of the Islamorada property. "We look for dream-like locations."

The sweepstakes period when entries are accepted will be Jan. 1 until Feb. 18, 2008, Yarborough said. People can enter the drawing online once a day during that time.


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