UPDATED April 11 2:34 P.M.: Sergio Pino’s Century Homebuilders Group just closed on a $9 million land deal near Westchester and is about to break ground on a new townhome community.
The deal includes 9.6 acres of vacant land at along Southwest 92nd Avenue and Southwest 4th Street in the unincorporated neighborhood of Fontainebleau. County records show the seller was a limited liability company managed by Chateau Group’s Manuel Grosskopf, who’s developing several coastal projects like the upcoming Fendi Chateau Residences.
Pino financed his company’s purchase with an $11 million loan from Capital Bank Corp., and has also filed a notice of commencement to begin construction on 131 new townhomes on the property. The community is called Century Park Place: Pino told The Real Deal units will have three to four bedrooms and will range in size from 1,914 square feet to 2,251 square feet with four possible configurations.
Sales are expected to begin within the next week, with prices ranging from $339,990 to $372,990 per unit. Pino said groundbreaking will commence in the next 90 days.
Century is also developing Midtown Doral, a massive mixed-use project promising to deliver more than 1,000 condos, 230,000 square feet of commercial space and 100,000 square feet of offices to the rapidly changing city.
Grosskopf, through a company called Orot Flagler, bought the land plus a former Florida Power & Light call center from the utilities provider for $37 million in 2011. He then sold the six-story call center for $57.5 million, and has now sold the extra land to Century Homebuilders for another $9 million.
Pino said Grosskopf had gotten zoning approvals for an apartment community with 200-plus units, but Pino decided instead to build townhomes after the neighboring communities were upset by the increased density.
“It really didn’t make sense when I ran the numbers,” he told TRD. “It turned out to be a really good thing; the neighbors are happy.”