Luxury developer Fort Partners bought an aging bayfront apartment complex in West Palm Beach for $20 million.
The deal could signal that the firm, which owns all of South Florida’s Four Seasons-branded hotels and condominiums, will join a growing number of developers seizing on West Palm’s waterfront with high-end developments.
Fort Lauderdale-based Fort Partners, led by Nadim Ashi, purchased the 25-unit complex spanning nearly an acre at 3906 Washington Road and 3907 South Flagler Drive from Philips International, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The buyer borrowed $11 million from Old Greenwich, Connecticut-based Ellington Financial, originated by Hollywood-based Sheridan Capital.
The property at 3906 Washington Road consists of eight units in a pair of one-story buildings completed in 1955, records show. The adjacent property at 3907 South Flagler Drive has 17 units in a five-story building completed in 1972 and a two-story building completed in 1987.
Great Neck, New York-based Philips bought the complex in 2015 for $4.3 million, according to records.
Led by Philip Pilevsky, Philips has been a sporadic investor in South Florida. In 2022, the firm sold an 87-unit multifamily portfolio in Palm Beach County for $17 million. Philips also shelled out $6.6 million in 2018 for the Holiday Acres Mobile Home Park at 1401 West 29th Street in Hialeah.
Fort Partners’ South Florida holdings include Surf Club Four Seasons in Surfside, consisting of the modern additions of a 77-key Four Seasons hotel and 150 condos in three towers, as well as elements from the original 1930s social club. This year, Fort Partners completed the adjacent 34-unit condo project Seaway at the Surf Club.
Also in Surfside, Fort Partners plans the 11-story, 17-unit condo project Surf House at 8995 Collins Avenue, and landed a $110.7 million construction loan for it last month. In Miami’s Coconut Grove, Ashi is partnering with Ugo Colombo of CMC Group on the 20-story, 70-unit Four Seasons Private Residences at 2699 South Bayshore Drive. The condo project was approved last month by the city’s urban development review board.
Fort Partners lists the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach at 2800 South Ocean Boulevard as its only Palm Beach County holding until its recent purchase.
The firm’s plans for the West Palm apartment site are unknown. Fort Partners didn’t return a request for comment.
Developers are homing in on West Palm Beach with new condo projects.
Among them, Steve Ross, who this year launched Related Ross to focus exclusively on his South Florida holdings and projects, plans the 28-story, 199-unit Shorecrest condo on a synagogue’s waterfront site at 1901 North Flagler Drive. Last year, the firm launched sales of the 108-unit condo South Flagler House with a pair of 28-story towers at 1355 South Flagler Drive.
The Pérez family’s Related Group and the Toledano family’s BH Group paid $35 million in October for the development site at 2001 North Flagler Drive, records show. Related and BH also launched sales this spring of the 144-unit Ritz-Carlton Residences, West Palm Beach at 1717 North Flagler Drive.