25th new condo building proposed for Hollywood-Hallandale Beach market

Developer optimism is still growing in the Hollywood-Hallandale Beach market of Southeast Broward County where the 25th new condo building has been announced since this South Florida real estate cycle began 2011.

The latest condo building to be proposed for the Hollywood-Hallandale Beach area — situated between the booming Broward County market that is favored by domestic buyers with strong dollars and the slowing Miami-Dade County market that is preferred by foreign buyers with weak currencies — is the seven-story Luxuria of Hollywood project. It is slated to be developed with eight units on a vacant 0.3-acre site just west of the sand in the 300 block of Van Buren Street on the barrier island, according to city of Hollywood records.

Plans call for the new condo project — being developed by a Hollywood-based entity called DB Too LLC with Joann Katcher and Moshe Deri — to feature one- and two-story units that range in size from 1,900 square feet to 3,550 square feet, each, according to government records.   

With this newest project, the Hollywood-Hallandale Beach area now has more than two dozen new condo buildings with nearly 4,500 units announced east of I-95 as of Monday, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)

The total number of new units in the Hollywood-Hallandale Beach area would have been even higher if not for a decision in July 2015 to suspend the development of the 182-unit Gulfstream Park Tower.

To date, developers have revised plans to build nearly 20 new condo buildings with more than 2,800 units during this cycle. Most of the units in question were to be developed in Miami-Dade, according to the data.

Overall, South Florida developers have already completed 57 new condo buildings with more than 4,300 units east of I-95 in the tri-county South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. An additional 127 new condo buildings with more than 12,565 units are currently under construction in South Florida.

A combined 233 new condo buildings with nearly 32,775 units — about 66 percent of the total tri-county pipeline — are currently in the planning or presale phase of development in South Florida.

In the Hollywood-Hallandale Beach area, only three new condo buildings — the 24-story Apogee Beach, the 33-story Beachwalk and the seven-story Positano Beach — with less than a combined 370 units have been completed to date during this cycle.

An additional 11 buildings with more than 1,000 units are currently under construction in the Hollywood-Hallandale Beach market as of Monday.

The combination of units that are already completed and under construction represents nearly 31 percent of the total number of condos in the pipeline for the Hollywood-Hallandale Beach market during this cycle.

At least 11 more new condo buildings with more than 3,100 units are currently in the planning and presale phase of development in Hollywood-Hallandale Beach, according to the data.  

The Hollywood-Hallandale Beach market — composed of a blend of domestic and foreign buyers who tend to be value-oriented investors — is the second most active preconstruction condo markets for new buildings in South Florida after only Greater Downtown Miami, where more than 23,000 units are in the pipeline.

The Hollywood-Hallandale Beach area is said to be benefitting from the reportedly higher preconstruction prices being sought at projects to the south on the Miami-Dade barrier island as well as on the mainland in Aventura.

It is worth noting that at least 108 new condo buildings with nearly 6,800 units have been announced on the barrier island in Miami-Dade. An additional 21 new condo buildings with more than 3,060 units have been announced in the Aventura area.  

The unanswered question going forward is whether the Hollywood-Hallandale Beach condo market will be able to attract enough buyers to purchase all of the new units currently in the pipeline as competition increases during this South Florida real estate cycle.

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.