Third time lucky?
Long-delayed luxury condo project to break ground.
FORT LAUDERDALE – Twice before, developers announced plans for a luxury condominium along North Birch Road in Fort Lauderdale. The project stalled both times.
A third developer, SobelCo., bought the site in 2015 for $10 million and said last summer the 11-story building would be ready by early 2018. That’s not happening either. But Boca Raton-based SobelCo. insists the delays are over. Seven of the 23 units in the condo are under contract. The project at 321 N. Birch Road is due to break ground in 60 days and should be ready by mid-2019, according to Giancarlo Cuffia, exclusive listing agent for Engel & Volkers, the real estate firm hired by SobelCo. to market the property.
“It wasn’t the right timing,” Cuffia said of the previous failed attempts. “Now the units are selling. It’s happening.”
Prices for the two- and three-bedroom units range from about $2 million to $3.6 million. But the condos are big – 2,908 to 3,800 square feet – and offer views of the ocean and Intracoastal Waterway.
“The location is amazing,” said.
Amenities include a 2,500-square-foot gym and four slips for boats up to 70 feet.
Other South Florida projects built by SobelCo. include Galleria Lofts, a 48-unit condo near the Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale, two small townhome projects in Pompano Beach and a nine-unit condo in the Isle of Venice neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale.
The developer also is building single-family homes at the new Banyan Cay Resort & Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
It’s a good sign that SobelCo. has nearly a third of the 321 at Water’s Edge units under contract, said Ken Thomas, an economist and banking analyst in Miami.
Thomas said a small project like this will make buyers and lenders more comfortable. What’s more, the luxury market in Broward County remains strong, he said.
“There’s still demand at that price level,” Thomas said. “If [SobelCo.] is able to get it going, they should move on it because there’s some uncertainty with interest rates.” Cuffia
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