Second Hollywood Beach condo tower completed this cycle

Villas of Positano in Hollywood Beach and Peter Zalewski
Villas of Positano in Hollywood Beach and Peter Zalewski

A second new condo tower has been completed in the Hollywood/Hallandale Beach market in Southeast Broward County, in this current South Florida real estate cycle that began in 2011.

Construction of the new seven-story Positano Beach with 17 condos — located across the street to the south from its sister project, the Villas of Positano — in the 3400 block of North Ocean Drive in Hollywood Beach has been completed, according toBroward County records.

To date, 11 new units in the Positano Beach project — developed by the Florida entity Hollywood Ocean Group LLC with Lon Tabatchnick — have transacted for a combined $19.6 million, for an average price of about $555 per square foot, according to government records.

During the last South Florida real estate cycle, the nine-story Villas of Positano with 62 units ultimately transacted for a combined $86.6 million for an average price of nearly $435 per square foot. Developer sales in the Villas Of Positano stretched out more than four years from July 2007 through November 2011 due to the South Florida real estate crash, according to an analysis of county records.

In this current South Florida cycle, the Hollywood/Hallandale Beach area is the second most active market for preconstruction condo units east of I-95 in the tri-county region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach as of Tuesday, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)

Based on the latest statistics, developers have announced 22 new towers with nearly 4,850 condos in the Hollywood/Hallandale Beach market, representing more than 11 percent of all new units announced in South Florida since 2011, according to the data.

In Hollywood/Hallandale Beach market, a dozen towers with nearly 3,500 units are in the development pipeline, and eight additional towers with nearly 1,300 units are currently under construction.

The development activity in Hollywood/Hallandale Beach is a key reason why Broward County has some 75 new condo towers with nearly 8,500 units slated to be built during this cycle.

Overall, developers in South Florida have proposed 336 new condo towers with about 43,200 units to be built east of I-95 in the tri-county region, according to CraneSpotters.com

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The Positano Beach is the second new condo tower to be completed in the Hollywood/Hallandale Beach market during this cycle.

The first new condo project to be completed is the 24-story Apogee Beach project, with 49 units that was built by the Related Group in 2013 on an oceanfront site at the intersection of South Ocean Drive and Hallandale Beach Boulevard.

In the end, the Apogee Beach sold out for a combined $58.9 million, for an average price of nearly $465 per square foot during a four-month period between September 2013 and January 2014, according to government records.

Currently, 11 units in the Apogee Beach are listed on the resale market at an average asking price of nearly $760 per square foot as of Tuesday, according to data from the Southeast Florida MLXchange.

Since being built, about five units in the Apogee Beach that were listed for sale have transacted at an average price of nearly $650 per square foot, according to the data.

It is worth noting that developers created 21 new condo towers with nearly 5,000 units in the Hollywood/Hallandale Beach market during the last South Florida real estate cycle from 2003 to 2010, according to an analysis of government records.

The Hollywood/Hallandale Beach market — which appeals to international investors and domestic buyers, alike — had the distinction of being the first of South Florida’s seven largest coastal markets to sell out of all developer condo supply during the previous cycle.

The unanswered question going forward is whether the Hollywood/Hallandale Beach market — with some nine months of resale condo supply available for purchase — can attract enough buyers in the months ahead to absorb all of the new and existing units that are currently being marketed for sale or are in the development pipeline in Southeast Broward County.

Peter Zalewski is a real estate columnist for The Real Deal who founded Condo Vultures LLC, a consultancy and publishing company, as well as Condo Vultures Realty LLC and CVR Realty brokerages and the Condo Ratings Agency, an analytics firm. The Condo Ratings Agency operates CraneSpotters.com, a preconstruction condo projects website, in conjunction with the Miami Association of Realtors.