Kips Bay officials are having difficulty finding a site near Palm Beach for the upcoming model home

It’s because of the decorative wire, according to organizers of the annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach, who have not yet secured a house for the annual Palm Beach County fundraiser scheduled to open for tours in February.

“If I don’t get something in two weeks, I’ll have to postpone the opening until March,” said Nazira Handal, director of special events and corporate sponsorships at Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in New York City.

A March opening would be “still in the season,” she told the Palm Beach Daily News in an Oct. 4 phone interview. But she added that the original opening date of Feb. 21 was far preferable because it coincides with Presidents Day weekend, traditionally the peak of winter social activity.

The eighth annual fundraiser is scheduled to include three-week tours in which the public pays to see rooms and gardens created by up to two dozen design professionals. Last season, the project saw its largest number of visitors ever, with more than 15,000 people taking tours, Handal said.

The model home is an offshoot of a similar project sponsored by the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx for many years. The Palm Beach County version benefits both the New York organization and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County.

Organizers typically look for West Palm Beach homeowners to lend them a home in neighborhoods near the Intracoastal Waterway. One such location is fairly close to the city of Palm Beach, where many visitors to the model home live.

“Most of our followers come from the island,” said Handal.

But city leaders in Palm Beach have always refused to grant permission to build a model home on the island, citing logistical, traffic and parking problems in residential areas.

The show house often takes place in a house that is for sale. Sellers and owners of investment properties often saw the project as a way to open their properties to thousands of visitors while updating kitchens and bathrooms — and even adding new flooring, Handal said. Those features could be selling points for the property once the fundraising campaign ends, she added.

The lack of success in finding a suitable location wasn’t for lack of trying, Handal said. She pointed to West Palm Beach’s troubled real estate market, which has struggled for several years to provide an inventory of large homes suitable to accommodate a model home.

“I’ve been contacting real estate agents probably since June,” Handal said.

A fairly large home is a must, she explained, as a model home must have multiple rooms to decorate as well as outdoor spaces to design. The ideal home would be at least 6,000 square feet.

But Handal said this year she would consider a smaller home, perhaps a little more than 5,000 square feet, especially if there was a guest house.

Agent Simon Issacs of Simon Issacs Real Estate agrees that it is currently difficult to find a large home suitable for renovation and on the market.

“There’s just very little available,” Isaacs said.

Whether the home is for sale or not, the project represents a significant commitment for the occupied owners, who must vacate the property for a few months to accommodate the decorators – and then remain off-site while the fundraiser for is open to the public.

Home sellers may also mistakenly think that the home must be taken off the market while the model home is being built, but that is not the case, Handal said. Real estate agents often gave their clients a tour of the model home.

“You can still show it off, especially when the show home is open to the public and beautifully decorated,” Handal added.

As for location preferences, a waterfront home is always a plus, she said, and it’s best if the neighborhood has relatively wide streets to handle traffic. The show home typically offers valet parking and up to 500 to 700 people can come through in a day.

Homeowners generally have the opportunity to purchase furnishings used in the show home after the closing.

Anyone with a suggestion about a property that could be considered as a site for the model home can email her at [email protected], Handal added.

[email protected]

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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly column, “Beyond the Hedges.” He welcomes tips on real estate news on the island. Email [email protected], call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared in the Palm Beach Daily News: Kips Bay model home officials are having difficulty finding a location near Palm Beach