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Hangar Group launches second car condo project in West Palm Beach
12-acre, 68-unit development is 70% pre-sold
Local developer Scott Cunningham is staying in his new lane with another luxury car condominium project underway in West Palm Beach.
Cunningham’s Hangar Group broke ground on its second garage condominium intended for collectors of cars, motorcycles, art and wine, he confirmed. The launch follows the completion and sellout of the Hangar Group’s first Hangar location in Riviera Beach, which was completed in 2019. This one is on pace to sellout, too, with 70 percent of the units already under contract.
“I don’t care if we don’t sell another unit for the next six months,” Cunningham said. “We were zero percent pre-sold at this point with the first one.”
Cunningham expects to finish construction next summer.
Cunningham bought the The Hangar at PBI site at 1114 North Congress Avenue for $12 million in 2021, records show.
The 12-acre development will include 68 garage units ranging in price from $780,000 to $1.6 million, per the company’s website. Garage units will range from 1,500 square feet to 4,500 square feet and include private bathrooms. Most owners do customized build outs of their units specific to their collections, Cunningham said.
“They’re bunkers,” he said. “When [owners] are gone during the summer they’re not worried.”
Cunningham, who’s previous development experience was with residential real estate, said he originally planned on building a second location in Boca Raton or Fort Lauderdale, but many of his first buyers were Palm Beach residents who wanted something close to the island.
“They said, ‘Boy, if you’d build something closer to the island that’d be great,’” Cunningham recounted.
So, he built closer to the island. The Hangar at PBI has a planned, complementary retail condominium dubbed Airfield Park that will be built next door, Cunningham said. The CEO found that luxury car service businesses moved into the business parks around the Hangar at Riviera Beach, wanting proximity to their customers with garage units there.
Airfield Park will have 16 units ranging in size from 5,000 square feet to 5,800 square feet, according to a press release.
One unit is sold so far, and prices range from $2.2 million to $2.6 million for the spaces. Cunningham requires a narrow scope for the businesses looking to move into the building.
“The only businesses are going to be aviation, automotive or art,” he said. “We’re not going to sell them to just anybody. It has to be complementary to the Hangar owner experience.”
Cunningham has more Hangar projects on the horizon, with eyes on sites in Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Sarasota and the Hamptons, he said.
“I adopted the Kevin Costner ‘Field of Dreams’ approach with the original location. If I build it they will come,” he said. By they, he means car guys, which are in abundance in South Florida.
Condos like Gil Dezer’s Porsche Design Tower and Bentley Residences, which include car storage and elevators, have proven popular among the car collector crowd. Car dealers have proven to be a significant buyer pool in the region as well. Luxury car dealer Michael Cantanucci set a $170 million price record in Palm Beach with his April purchase of an oceanfront compound. He sold his former island home for $32.4 million earlier this month. New Jersey-based car dealer Rodman Ryan bought a house on the island for $28.7 million in June.