Kolter opens 10 models at Alton development

Kolter Group opened 10 models for Alton, a planned community of 1,300 townhomes and single-family houses under construction in Palm Beach Gardens.

The grand opening of Alton this weekend marked the launch of the project’s formal sales program. Kolter quietly began pre-construction sales in fall.

“This weekend will really be the gauge and give us a true indication of what people are thinking and wanting,” Margaret LaCalle, Kolter’s project manager, told the Sun-Sentinel.

Prices start in the low $400,000s for townhomes at Alton and range from the $500,000s to $1 million or more for one-story and two-story single-family homes.

The Alton models are located off Interstate 95 at Donald Ross Road,  near the Florida arm of the California-based Scripps Research Institute.

Alton occupies part of a 600-acre tract formerly known as the Birger property, located directly across Donald Ross Road from Scripps and the Abacoa development in Jupiter. Kolter acquired the land for $127.5 million more than two years ago, and since has sold part of it for office, retail, apartment and hotel development.

Mike Larson, an analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter, told the Sun-Sentinel that the Alton site is an attractive location, but consumer confidence has dipped in recent month amid stock market volatility and concern that mortgage lenders will tighten underwriting standards.

“You add it all up, and the environment is a little less positive than it was in 2014 and 2015, though not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination,” Larson told the newspaper. [Sun-Sentinel] — Mike Seemuth