Related to build Royal Palm apartments following $12.5M deal

Rendering of the 390-unit community (Inset: Related Group CEO Jorge Perez)
Rendering of the 390-unit community (Inset: Related Group CEO Jorge Perez)

Related Group is headed to the ‘burbs.

The developer just closed on a $12.5 million land deal in Royal Palm Beach, where it’s planning a new rental community that’s expected to open within the next two years.

An affiliate of Related purchased 29 acres in Royal Palm Beach, according to county records, located on the eastern portion of Acme Road. The sellers were a handful of limited liability companies that listed their managing members as Robert Shelley, the vice mayor of Aventura; Michael Tuttle; Erica Tuttle; and Nicole DeBehnke.

Max Cruz, Related’s vice president of development, said in a statement to The Real Deal that his firm now plans on building an apartment community with 390 units. The community, he said, is expected to open in the first quarter of 2018.

“We see this project as a continuation of the work Related has begun across Palm Beach County and look forward to building upon the area’s already high standard of living,” he said in the statement.

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Some of the firm’s other apartment projects in Palm Beach County include SoFa, a 172-unit rental community completed in Delray Beach last year, and the 224-unit Woodlake community in West Palm Beach built under Related’s affordable housing branch in 2014.

For this most recent deal in Royal Palm, the sellers are significant property owners that held more than a dozen land parcels prior to their deal with Related.

According to a September 2015 report from the South Florida Business Journal, they were also the leading proponents of Royal Palm Beach’s recently passed annexation of just under 90 acres where Related’s development site is located.

Suburban apartment communities like the one Related is planning have become a favorite among developers and investors in South Florida. A recent analysis by TRD found that during the first half of this year, $4 billion worth of rental properties traded hands in the region alone, much of which was located outside of urban cores like downtown Miami. Apartment complex’s stability, growth potential for value and steady cash flow are all cited as attractive features by industry players.