The building, which houses the Ocean Villas condominiums, combines elegant art-deco architecture - curving terraces, white pillars, smoky- green glass - with interior refinements such as galleries and built-in wine refrigerators.

Owners of the 76 units at Ocean Villas can gaze at the ocean from the summer kitchens on their private terraces (600 square feet on average) or from the beachfront common area, which has an infinity pool, a meditation garden and a soaking tub.

This is the new Daytona Beach. For 10 miles on the Atlantic shore, the hurdy-gurdy vacation town is being transformed with buildings that defy beach condo cliches. Master bedrooms at Ocean Sands, for instance, come with whirlpool tubs and floor-to-ceiling windows framing the Atlantic. A golf course at Oceans Grand provides plenty of water views, and crown molding and granite countertops liven the spaces at DiMucci Twin Towers.

Although many projects are in Daytona Beach Shores, south of Daytona Beach proper, several are within whistling distance of the famous Boardwalk, where T-shirt and tattoo shops still reign, and the stores on Main Street that deal in biker and race-car gear.

First Hotel Built In 1874

It has been a long time since Daytona Beach has been associated with luxury. The first hotel went up in 1874, and in the next quarter-century or so wealthy Northerners, including John D. Rockefeller, owned vacation retreats in the area.

Starting in the early 1900s, the town became a center of stock-car racing and the huge crowds that watch it. Later, bikers started flocking to Daytona's beaches and bars. And over the past 30 years or so, students have made Daytona the alcohol-fueled center of spring break and year-round partying in general.

Today, the lights of go-kart tracks, kitschy motels, body- piercing parlors and even a drive-in church wink playfully near the ocean on Route A-1A.

But Daytona's long-held carnival cachet is fast vanishing beneath developers' wrecking balls. Builders are snapping up mom-and-pop motels (34 of which took a triple licking last hurricane season) and replacing them with low- and high-rise residences.

About 5,770 units in two dozen projects are proposed or under way on the beach, along the Halifax River and in gentrifying areas of town, said Jim McCroskey, vice president of development for the Daytona Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Downtown along Beach Street, where Rolex and crystal boutiques are slipping in among old-fashioned citrus stands, nearly 600 condominiums have been proposed, with an average price of $375,000. The city has approved a row of chic loft-style units within walking distance of a $26 million performing arts center being built beside the river.

Since early 2004, beachfront condominium prices have doubled and even tripled in some cases, as they have at the deluxe Ocean Villas.

That the area has become a veritable Wall Street of condominium sales and speculation is evidenced by investors such as Ces Lawton, who formed a limited liability company for those eager for a piece of the Daytona Beach action. Lawton, a private political lobbyist and fourth-generation Orlando native, has contracts or reservations on 10 Daytona condos and owner resort units (condominium buildings run as a hotel). Ground has not been broken for most, which is fine since `the point is to get in early enough to turn it over at least once,` he said.

The strategy netted Lawton $225,000 last summer, he said, when he sold two units at Ocean Walk Resort - Daytona's only completed beachfront owner resort - that he had purchased three years earlier, before construction. The value of his unit at the 19-story Ocean Sands, which is yet to be built, has risen $300,000 in the past four months, he said.

The Villas and the Sands are the designs of the Devlin Group, a Jacksonville developer. In August, when Ocean Sands and Ocean Vistas (another Devlin project that has since changed hands) opened for preconstruction contracts, `people started lining up and down Atlantic Avenue at 1 o'clock for a 5 p.m. release,` said Debra Riley, a Devlin spokeswoman.

Today, buyers interested in the Sands have a choice of fewer than 20 units that start in the high $500,000s, up $200,000 from their August asking price.

View Proves Irresistible

Of course, a view sometimes counts most, which is why Brad and Jaime Kernus, a couple from Leesburg, Va., bought a Villas unit overlooking Sunglow Pier and its Caribbean- flavored Crabby Joe's bar and grill. Where else, Brad Kernus asked, can you relax in Asian- inspired gardens, then stroll barefoot to an overwater fish shack that stashes condiments in tackle boxes?

The couple said they considered a second home on Tortola, a Caribbean island they visit frequently. But Daytona made the best investment sense all around, they said. `It's an hour from Orlando airport, one of the nicest in the country,` Brad Kernus said, `and an hour from Jacksonville and professional football games.`

Like the Kernuses, Lawton said he could not imagine spending beach time anywhere but Daytona. `As a Florida boy, being able to watch the space launch from your balcony is important,` he said.

Docking his boat is also a coup, which he and his wife, Sharon, could do at any of their five units at a planned complex called Marina Grande (where the Kernuses also have reserved a unit).

The area's largest planned condominium community, with a projected 972 units, Marina Grande's four 25-story buildings are scheduled to rise along the Halifax River north of downtown. The complex will be built by Swerdlow/Boca Developers of South Florida - responsible for $6.5 billion of Florida waterfront development - and could lend a sleek, Miami-like sheen to Daytona.

Each building will come with valet parking and a concierge. Hotel and resort development also is booming, including the new Shores Resort & Spa and Hilton Hotels' $20 million renovation of the old Adam's Mark Hotel on the Boardwalk, transforming it into the 742-room Hilton Daytona Beach Resort. Across the street, the convention center is tripling in size.

Meanwhile, Bike Week, Biketoberfest and spring break keep the party going.