Branded buildings wade into the Fort Lauderdale…
Fort Lauderdale is finished being the center youngster of South Florida luxurious development.
Staking a declare to the wealth Miami and West Palm Beach have captured until now, the metropolis is getting into a new section of real estate ambition — rolling out branded towers, remaking marinas for megayachts and pricing condos at ranges that would shatter local information.
Some of the area’s largest builders are main the charge. A partnership that contains Miami’s Related Group is building a “mini-Monaco” at Bahia Mar, the metropolis’s largest marina, with plans for a $2 billion project that will deliver a St. Regis resort and residences, where a $3 million apartment is the beginning price. The marina itself is being remade for superyachts, with slips for vessels up to 350 ft — a nod to a seafaring lifestyle that routes between Monaco and St. Barts.
Change is in the air (and sea) at the Bahia Mar marina — including a new St. Regis Hotel & Residences. ArX Creative
Nearby, a apartment tower branded by Italian yacht maker Riva will deliver 36 boutique residences, capped by a penthouse that may record for as a lot as $30 million — double the metropolis’s current $15.4 million apartment sale price report. At the under-construction Andare Residences, set to turn out to be the metropolis’s tallest apartment tower, a Forty sixth-floor penthouse is listed at $16 million, a price that may also break the current report.
Fort Lauderdale’s Galleria mall was acquired last month for $73 million, with builders led by Russell Galbut’s GFO Investments planning a luxurious makeover of the 1980-built property that Saks Fifth Avenue left practically 20 years in the past. And there’s a 45-story Viceroy tower, promising high-rise seaside membership dwelling for prosperous downsizers, with over 200 models, the priciest at $7 million.
“This is the yachting capital of the world and there are very expensive and high-quality single-family homes — but what about those who don’t want to live in single-family homes?” said Miki Naftali, whose New York-based Naftali Group is building the Viceroy as its second South Florida apartment project. “There is no real alternative.”
The inflow of wealth to South Florida since COVID has redefined what qualifies as luxurious in Fort Lauderdale. In the second quarter of 2020, a “luxury” apartment — the top 10% of the market by price — was any unit that bought at $950,000 or greater, according to appraiser Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
A Viceroy tower will rise 45 tales. Hayes Davidson
Compare that with the second quarter of this yr, when the threshold for apartment luxurious was any unit promoting at $1.45 million or greater.
In September, consumers signed contracts for 16 condos in Broward County priced between $3 million and $4.99 million — up from just one a yr earlier, Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman data show. Condo offers at $5 million and above also spiked, with six contracts signed in contrast to only one in September 2024.
Fort Lauderdale condos priced above $5 million are half of “a niche that hasn’t been fully served,” said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel.
Developers are keen to fill that void, designing properties for yacht homeowners and jet-setters who choose turnkey dwelling to sprawling estates.
Buy at Bungalow East to access home constitution yachts. Merrimac Ventures
Merrimac Ventures’ Bungalow East is offering residences priced between $2 million and $7 million, each with non-public elevators and access to yacht charters, for those who don’t need the problem or expense of proudly owning a boat, managing accomplice Dev Motwani said.
Another project takes the nautical theme additional. Vertical Developments spent two years persuading Italian yacht maker Riva to lend its identify to a 20-story boutique tower with models beginning at $3.5 million, according to Fernando de Nuñez y Lugones, the firm’s CEO.
Condos at Riva Residenze will span from 2,000 to over 4,000 sq. ft, with interiors impressed by Riva’s yachts (one of which can be docked in entrance of the gross sales gallery).
Italian yacht maker Riva is building 36 residences. Courtesy of Riva Residenze
Amenities embrace a cinema, a wine room and up to eight marina slips out there for residents to buy. A two-story penthouse of over 8,000 sq. ft is also deliberate, with an asking price between $25 million and $30 million, de Nuñez y Lugones said.
“You’re not in a market that is price sensitive, because you are dealing with the richest people on the planet,” he added.
Early advertising and marketing of the models has taken him to yacht reveals in Palm Beach and Monaco and, so far, consumers have dedicated to about 18% of them. Construction begins next yr.
At Bahia Mar, the redevelopment will change the growing older DoubleTree with a 200-room St. Regis resort topped by 79 furnished condos, plus 4 stand-alone residential towers also branded under St. Regis. Several penthouses across the development (some with non-public rooftop swimming pools) will start at $20 million, said Nick Pérez, president of Related Group’s condominium division, which is developing the web site with Tate Capital and Rok Acquisitions.
A apartment at the St. Regis-branded property will start at $3 million — penthouses start at $20 million. ArX Creative
Of the models presently for sale — about 160 between the resort and the first stand-alone tower — about 25% are under contract, forward of a broader advertising and marketing push deliberate during this month’s Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Pérez said. Several consumers of the furnished resort residences are yacht homeowners who bought them for their crews to use while their vessels are in port, he said.
The redevelopment also reimagines the waterfront itself, including 88,000 sq. ft of retail and eating places, a public park, a pedestrian promenade and a marina retrofitted to berth superyachts.
“I fully stand by what I said about making it “mini-Monaco,’ ” Pérez said. “You know, that South of France vibe, if you will. I think we can easily replicate it here.”
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