GL Homes Buys Avenir Lots From Landstar Development Group

GL Homes paid $35.3 million for land at the massive Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens.

The Sunrise-based firm scooped up 337 home lots roughly at the northwest corner of Avenir Drive and Coconut Boulevard, according to records. The seller is the community’s master developer, Avenir Development, which ties to Coral Gables-based family-owned firm Landstar Development Group.

The purchase breaks down to roughly $105,000 per lot. GL Homes also is on the hook to the seller for $18,861 per lot for a completed and sold home, records show.

Avenir is among the massive mixed-use communities in the works that are adding single-family homes and commercial development to western Palm Beach County. Overall, Avenir spans roughly 4,800 acres and has approvals for a 300-key hotel, 200,000 square feet for medical offices, 400,000 square feet for retail, and 3,900 residential units, primarily single-family homes. The project includes a 2,400-acre nature preserve.

Several homebuilders have bought development sites at Avenir. In October, PulteGroup paid $8 million for 80 home lots, marking the firm’s second purchase at Avenir. Last year, PulteGroup paid $13.7 million for the 390-home Avondale at Avenir development site.

Centaur Holdings, a Switzerland and Bermuda-based firm, is developing a Jack Nicklaus-designed, 18-hole golf course and 218 single-family houses at Avenir. The project, called Panther National, scored a $170 million financing package in May.

GL Homes has already claimed a stake at other mixed-use, master-planned communities in Palm Beach County. In June, the firm paid $28.1 million for 209 homesites at Arden near Wellington.

Arden, which spans 1,209 acres on the northeast corner of Southern Boulevard and the L-8 Canal, has approval for 2,300 homes and is billed as an “agrihood” for the farming opportunities it will offer residents. The development also offers 175 acres of lakes and 500 acres of parks and playgrounds. Freehold Communities is the master developer. Lennar is among the homebuilders at Arden, paying $190 million for 927 home lots in April.

Also in Palm Beach County, Minto Communities’ master-developed Westlake spans roughly 3,800 acres along Seminole Pratt Whitney Road from Southern Boulevard to Northlake Boulevard. Westlake incorporated as a municipality in 2016.