Boutique project in Coral Gables hits the market for $3M

A boutique development site in Coral Gables, approvals and all, is up for sale asking $2.9 million.

Palmcorp Development Group is listing 1091 Galiano, a 27-unit, six-story luxury condo project, broker Deme Mekras told The Real Deal.

The asking price breaks down to $107,000 per unit and $78 per buildable square foot, Mekras said. He’s listing the site with Elliot Shainberg, both of MSP Group. A Palmcorp affiliate bought the lots at 1091 Galiano Street and 44 Santillane Avenue out of foreclosure for $1.1 million in 2013, property records show. The site totals 24,200 square feet of land. 

Amid the condo slowdown in South Florida, developers have increasingly turned to boutique projects.

“They made a great purchase on the property,” he told TRD. “The thinking behind it is their development experience is in the single-family home sector in the $1.5 million to $2.5 million range – that’s really their sweet spot. They think it’s probably executed better by someone who builds vertically.”

Palmcorp, led by Gus De Ribeaux, is working on single-family home projects in South Miami, Pinecrest, Miami’s Upper East Side and other neighborhoods. The developer is also planning to build Battersea Woods, a project tangled in a battle between the city of Miami attorney and a Miami commissioner.

Palmcorp’s plans for the Coral Gables project were designed by Lawrence Cohan of BC Architects. The two- and three-bedroom units include 24 condos and three townhomes with an average unit size of 1,387 square feet. There are at least two parking spaces per unit, and the project features a pool deck on the ground floor, lobby and parking garage.

Mekras said a potential buyer would only need to pay the city impact fees of $369,000 to start building.

He estimates a $15.5 million sellout for the development with an average sale price of about $566,000. The target buyers are young couples and families priced out of the single-family home market in Coral Gables, Mekras said.

“If someone gets in at that price [of $2.9 million], we think that this is a roughly $4 million net profit,” he told TRD. “The returns are attractive enough to justify the price of the land.”