First new townhouse rental project in Flagler Village closes construction loan

Fort Lauderdale-based Ceiba Groupe just closed on a $9.2 million construction loan for ID Flagler Village, the first new townhouse rental development in the trendy Fort Lauderdale neighborhood.

Rendering of a townhouse

Records show Fifth Third Bank provided the financing for the 24-unit project at 113 Northeast Sixth Street.

ID Flagler Village broke ground in January and will be delivered by the end of this year, Adam Bedzow, managing principal of Ceiba, told The Real Deal. The townhouses are targeting “mostly people who are looking to live in the downtown area, are looking for space, and are not interested in living with 300 or 400 other residents,” Bedzow said.

Development is booming in Flagler Village, where more than 40 projects are in the pipeline. A number of those are dense apartment buildings, adaptive re-use commercial and mixed-use developments. Among them: ArchCo Residential and Bluerock Real Estate’s newly revealed plans for a 385-unit, mixed-use project; Edge at Flagler Village, which Houston-based Morgan Group sold in April for $114.3 million to pension giant TIAA; and the Morgan Group’s Morgan on 3rd Avenue, a 350-unit rental complex that’s under construction.

Developers and investors have zeroed in on the area partly due to its proximity to the new Brightline station and the Flagler Arts & Technology Village, or FAT Village.

ID Flagler Village, a group of three-story townhouses, is geared toward young professional couples and families. They’ll span about 2,000 square feet and each will have a private, two-car garage. The gated community will also be dog-friendly, Bedzow said.

Rents will tentatively range from the low $3,000s a month to the low $4,000s. The developer will launch a preleasing campaign before construction is completed. Bedzow said market rents for a three-bedroom are in the $2.50 to $2.60 per-square-foot range in the downtown Fort Lauderdale area, which puts the townhomes below that price range.

Records show a Ceiba affiliate paid $1.26 million for the four lots totaling 38,475 square feet in 2015.

“Zoning allows for, as of right, to go six or seven stories and with bonuses, go even higher,” Bedzow told TRD. “I think what was driving us here is an opportunity to do something different. [This project] doesn’t exist and the closest thing to that is very, very expensive.”