Kaplan Residential wins approval for 190-unit multifamily development in Wilton Manors

Kaplan Residential won approval for a six-story mixed-use development with 190 apartments in Wilton Manors, marking its first major project in South Florida.

The mixed-use multifamily development, to be called Generation at Wilton Manors, will be built on 3.6 acres at 1209 Northeast 24th Street, 1225 Northeast 24th Street, 1401 Northeast 24th Street, 2449 Northeast 13th Avenue, and 2430 Northeast 13th Avenue. 

It will include 9,031 square feet of commercial space.

The project probably will be finished and occupied by 2027, Morris Kaplan, president of Kaplan Residential, said at the Wilton Manors City Commission meeting Tuesday night.

In response to questions from a commissioner, Kaplan said financing the project probably will be more challenging for his Bay Harbor Islands-based company than buying construction materials to build it.

“Financing today is very challenging,” he said. “But generally, I think the supply chain is in much better shape than it was a couple of years ago.”

The site plan for Generation at Wilton Manors shows that about 4,300 square feet of the development’s planned commercial space would be leased as a restaurant or café, about 2,000 square feet would be leased as retail space, and about 1,400 square feet as office space.

“It’s a very nice live, work, play environment we’re trying to create with this project,” Michael Vonder Meulen, a consultant to Kaplan Residential, said at the commission meeting.

Among other actions during its meeting, the Wilton Manors commission voted unanimously to rezone part of the development site on the northeast corner of the intersection of the Florida East Coast railroad and Northeast 24 Street.

The city commission also agreed to vacate 1,000 square feet of public right of way on Northeast 24 Street and allow Kaplan Residential to incorporate it as part of the development site. The commissioners rezoned three parcels, including the 1,000-square-foot right of way and a 720-square-foot parcel formerly owned by Florida East Coast Railway from “limited industrial” (LI) to “transit-oriented corridor east” (TOC-E).

The commissioners also rezoned from “multifamily” (RM-16) to TOC-E a 4,201-square-foot parcel at 1401 Northeast 24 Street, occupied by a single-family home that will be demolished. Kaplan bought this parcel about a year ago for $425,000, according to property records.

Founded in New Jersey in 1952, Kaplan Residential moved its headquarters to Bay Harbor Islands in 2004 and has so far mostly developed in Georgia and the Carolinas. Its other Florida projects include Generation Venice and Generation Englewood on the state’s Gulf Coast.