Delray condo project to break ground soon at 50% presold

The developers of 111 First Delray plan to close on a roughly $18 million construction loan and break ground on the project over the next two months.

Developers Felipe Vergara, Manuel Vergara, Maria Vergara, Rafael Rincon and Daniel Rincon

Sofa Partners has term sheets from two unnamed banks and will pick up negotiations with them now that the project is about 50 percent presold, developer Felipe Vergara told The Real Deal. The development team also includes Manuel Vergara, Maria Vergara, Rafael Rincon and Daniel Rincon.

Sofa launched sales for the 68-unit, five-story building planned for 111 Southeast First Avenue early last year and is now about halfway presold to local buyers looking to downsize from larger, single-family homes and snowbirds, he said. Nestler Poletto Sotheby’s International Realty is handling sales of 111 First Delray, where prices range from the $400,000s to about $1 million.

Unlike the standard 50-percent deposit structure seen in Miami-Dade, the developer is requiring 30 percent deposits because the buyers are domestic, Vergara said.

Units range from one-bedrooms to three-bedrooms, and will feature community amenities like a pool with cabanas, a covered entertainment deck, a gym and covered parking.

Records show the developers paid $9.03 million for the 1.12-acre plot in downtown Delray Beach in 2015.

Sofa, which stands for south of Atlantic Avenue, is marketing the project’s walkability to the popular retail and restaurant corridor. Vergara cited the “slow and strategic growth” of the city’s downtown. Tenants like Urban Outfitters and Rocco’s Tacos have opened locations on the avenue, increasing commercial real estate values. Earlier this year, the owners of the Buddha Sky Bar building at 217 East Atlantic Avenue listed the property for $24.5 million, which breaks down to about $2,130 a foot. In June, the Urban Outfitters-leased building at 306 East Atlantic Boulevard sold for $8.3 million deal to Menin Development, which broke down to about $750 per square foot.

Vergara said 111 First Delray’s competition is the Metropolitan, a 48-unit, five-story condo project that just launched sales with Douglas Elliman. Prices for those units start in the $600,000s and will range in size up to 1,600 square feet, but he said that development doesn’t have a pool or gym.

“In any case, I think the market is big enough,” Vergara said. “The buyers we’re getting are very intelligent and will check out both.”

Sofa Partners is aiming to deliver 111 First Delray during the third quarter of next year.