Developers advance 22-story condo project in downtown Hollywood

A development group advanced plans for a 22-story, 248-unit condo project called Star Hollywood just north of Young Circle in downtown Hollywood.

Prices for the condos would start in the $400,000s, Miami-based developer Alejandro Ensinck told The Real Deal.

Ensinck, who owns the 1.2-acre development site on North Federal Highway through a limited liability company, said he is part of the development group planning Star Hollywood. He declined to identify the other members of the group.

On Wednesday, the Hollywood City Commission unanimously approved amendments to a master plan of development for the site on the northwest corner of Federal Highway and Taylor Street in Hollywood.

Among other changes, the amendments raised the height of the development from 12 stories to 17 stories and increased the number of condos from 134 to 248.

“We fell in love with the [Star Hollywood] design at the last meeting,” Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy said at the commission meeting, referring to the commission’s initial approval of the amended master plan on first reading at its meeting on Feb. 7.

“We love the fact that it’s an ownership property that will allow people to move in and have an ownership interest downtown,” Levy said.

The city commission is expected to vote on final approval of a site plan for Star Hollywood at its March 20 meeting, Ensinck said.

Through a company called 1817 Taylor St Development LLC, Ensinck bought the development site at 410 North Federal Highway two years ago for $6.7 million, according to property records. The seller, JED Equities LLC, had acquired the site in 2013 for $1.1 million.  

“The site has been vacant for 10 years, if not longer. It has sat there underutilized for some time,” Andria Wingett, Hollywood’s director of development services, said at the city commission’s meeting on Feb. 7.

High-rise development has boomed in recent years just south of the Star Hollywood site along Young Circle, downtown Hollywood’s traffic circle where Hollywood Boulevard and Federal Highway merge.

Hollywood developer Chip Able recently announced that he is converting his Circ Residences, an apartment tower along Young Circle about a block south of the Star Hollywood site, to a condo building with unit prices ranging from $450,000 to $1.3 million. Abele’s GCF Development completed the 25-story, 386-unit building at 1776 Polk Street in 2019.