VINTAGE AMERICAN CAR DRIVES PAST FOREIGN BUILT PROPERTY, 1999-06-10 (photo)

TO ACCOMPANY BC-CUBA-PROPERTY BY PASCAL FLETCHER - An unidentified man drives an old American car June 7 past Monte Carlo Palace, one of various new, foreign-built property constructions springing up around the Cuban capital as part of a slowly emerging real-estate market on the communist-ruled Caribbean island. Visitors to Havana are often seduced by its decaying charm. Large swathes of the historic Cuban capital are crumbling and scarred by a legacy of years of neglect and economic recession made worse by a U.S. trade embargo. But a closer look reveals a scattering of new buildings, construction sites and cleared lots punctuating the avenues of crumbling colonial mansions and faded Art Deco villas. This new construction bears witness to a budding real estate market some analysts believe may soon compete with tourism as a boom industry on the Communist-ruled island. AC/ZDC/JP