Avenir developer in Palm Beach Gardens pays $69M for more acreage

Deal for 445 acres breaks down to $156K per acre

Avenir Development's Rosa Schechter and the Avenir project in Palm Beach Gardens
Avenir Development's Rosa Schechter and the Avenir project in Palm Beach Gardens

The massive Avenir mixed-use project in Palm Beach Gardens just got bigger with the master developer’s purchase of additional acreage for $69.4 million.

Avenir Development bought 445 acres north of Northlake Boulevard and east of Coconut Boulevard, records show. It plans to set up infrastructure for single-family houses and some commercial construction before other developers come in to build the homes, according to Rosa Schechter, principal of Avenir Development. The infrastructure is to be finished in about a year.

Avenir Holdings, led by David Serviansky, sold the land, records show. Avenir Development obtained $62.5 million in financing from the seller.

Although the seller and buyer share executives, they are not the same company, according to Schechter.

Serviansky, principal at Landstar Development Group, also is vice president of Avenir Development. Manuel Mato of Avenir Development is vice president of the seller, Florida corporate records show. Schechter is the registered agent for both the buyer and seller.

Avenir Holdings in 2017 sold a 2,287-acre portion of the developable land to Avenir Development for $15 million.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

The entire 4,763-acre Avenir is approved for about 3,900 residential units, most of them single-family houses along with 250 multifamily units; roughly 1.8 million square feet of offices; 200,000 square feet of medical offices; a 300-key hotel; and 400,000 square feet of retail. A pending site plan for a town center calls for office and retail uses, with Publix as a grocer.

Read more

Avenir is about five-and-a-half miles west of Florida’s Turnpike and along Northlake Boulevard. Coconut Boulevard traverses the development site. More than half of the site will be conservation land the developer is restoring into wetlands.

Home construction is proceeding, with some of the houses already sold and occupied, Schechter said.

In March, national homebuilder PulteGroup bought 98 lots at Avenir from the master developer for $13.7 million, with plans to develop the Avondale single-family home community.

Toll Brothers is also building at Avenir. The homebuilder paid $31 million for a chunk of land in 2019, with plans for a 469-unit, age-restricted community.