Estate Companies plans apartments in downtown West Palm, paid $16M for dev site

Site is near train tracks and newly anointed Nora District

The land at 550 North Rosemary Avenue in West Palm Beach (Google Maps, iStock)
The land at 550 North Rosemary Avenue in West Palm Beach (Google Maps, iStock)

Estate Companies has conquered several Miami-Dade County submarkets with its Soleste-branded multifamily developments. Now it will build apartments for the first time in downtown West Palm Beach.

Estate scooped up 2.5 acres of land at 550 North Rosemary Avenue for $15.8 million, with plans to build a multifamily complex, according to a news release. Project details remain to be hammered out.

Records show the sellers were WPB Residential and WPB Hotel, led by Antonio Orlando and Jose Rangel.

South Miami-based Estate, led by Robert Suris and Jeffrey Ardizon, has developed townhouses and single-family homes in West Palm Beach, but this will be the first Soleste-branded rental complex.

Downtown West Palm Beach has caught the eye of developers and investors over the past year, with much of the ballyhoo over the office market, which has attracted out-of-state financial firms.

In a statement, Ardizon cited this growth, saying the area will be “one of the largest financial hubs” in the U.S., and it is “literally in the second inning of this expansion.”

Stephen Ross’ Related Companies is the biggest Class A office owner in downtown West Palm, spending more than half a billion dollars this year on properties. New York-based Related Companies bought two towers, half of the ownership interest in a third and finished its own office high-rise.

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In November, Related embarked on the construction of One Flagler, aptly dubbed the “hedge fund tower” among the real estate community.

Still, parts of downtown remain less developed, although this is poised to change. Estate’s development site is just southwest of the newly anointed Nora District, a long-overlooked area that the city wants to transform by implementing a set of building regulations. The state is reviewing the development regulations overhaul, and if it approves them, the city commission is expected to take a final vote in February.

In September, Arnaud Karsenti’s 13th Floor Investments bought a full city block in downtown West Palm for $26.1 million, although development plans have not been made public.

Estate, founded in 2012, has multiple Soleste projects in Miami-Dade, including in West Miami and Palmetto Bay. Overall, the company has 4,000 units in the pipeline throughout South Florida, according to the release.

In November, Estate and PTM Partners completed the Soleste Grand Central development in an Opportunity Zone in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood.