Estate Companies’ Pompano Beach, Hollywood apartment projects advance

The Estate Companies is moving forward with two Broward County multifamily projects.

The South Miami-based company scored final approval for a 253-unit Pompano Beach development at 208 North Federal Highway, and also secured an $80 million construction loan for a 324-unit downtown Hollywood apartment building at 2001 Hollywood Boulevard.

The eight-story Soleste Pompano Beach will have studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, and live-work units, all at market-rate rents, according to an Estate news release. The project also will have a 367-space garage and 11 parallel parking spaces on the ground level, as well as 4,000 square feet of commercial space consisting of retail and live-work units.

Amenities will include a pool, an amenity deck with a gym on the sixth floor, and open space with a picnic area, the release says.

On Wednesday, the Pompano Beach Planning and Zoning Board unanimously approved the project for the almost 2-acre vacant site. Estate has the land under contract for an undisclosed amount.

Construction will start at the end of the third quarter and completion is expected in early 2024, according to the release.

For its other Broward project, Estate secured the construction loan for Soleste Hollywood Boulevard from U.S. Bank National Association, records show.

The eight-story development will include almost 30,000 square feet of commercial space and 475 parking spaces on 2.3 acres. Soleste Hollywood will incorporate the ground-floor vintage vault that part of the city’s first bank building on the property.

Estate paid $15.3 million in September for the development site, which also spans 2050 Tyler Street, as well as 115 and 121 North 21st Avenue. The property is in an Opportunity Zone.

The Pompano and Hollywood projects mark an expansion for Estate Companies, which previously focused on Miami-Dade County. Led by Managing Principal Robert Suris and Principal Jeff Ardizon, Estate transformed West Miami with the construction of several multifamily projects. It has sold at least five of them, including Almeda West at 6320 and 6290 Southwest Eighth Street to Dallas-based Westdale Real Estate Investment and Management for $82.9 million last year.

Westdale also bought Estate’s Blue Lagoon 7 at 5479 Northwest Seventh Street in Miami for $93.8 million last August, as well as Bay Village1 at 18301 South Dixie Highway in Palmetto Bay for $58.2 million last July.

In another sign the company is expanding beyond Miami-Dade, the developer paid $15.8 million for the 2.5-acre multifamily development site at 550 North Rosemary Avenue in downtown West Palm Beach in December.

Estate’s continued bet on apartment development comes amid a robust South Florida market. Skyrocketing home prices and an influx of regional newcomers created pent-up demand, allowing landlords to push rents to new heights.

South Florida rents climbed 45.8 percent in May, year-over-year, to a median monthly rate of $2,843, according to a Realtor.com report. In March, Miami posted the nation’s biggest rate increase, of 58 percent, for the two years since the pandemic’s onset.

The hot market has fueled both investment sales and construction activity. In Pompano Beach, The Benjamin Companies bought the Morea Apartments at 601 North Federal Highway for $145.5 million in February.

In April, Coral Gables-based Calta Group, led by founders and brothers Ignazio and Gaetano Caltagirone, as well as by Managing Partner Igor Blatnik, paid $9.5 million for the development site at 2215 Hollywood Boulevard. The Caltagirones, who are part of an Italian real estate family, left the family business and have been investing in South Florida since 2008. The Hollywood project is their first multifamily venture.