Pérez Family’s Related Sells Apartment Tower to LeFrak

The Pérez family’s Related Group sold an apartment tower on downtown Fort Lauderdale’s riverfront for $180 million, as deal flow persists despite a stubborn oversupply of apartments in South Florida.

New York-based LeFrak Organization bought the 36-story, 337-unit Harbour at New River Apartments at 401 Southwest First Avenue from Coconut Grove-based Related Group and New York-based Rabina Properties, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The buyer financed the deal with a $100 million loan from Northwestern Mutual, with a 2036 maturity date.

Related Group’s Jorge M. Pérez and his sons Jon Paul Pérez and Nicholas Pérez (Wikipedia, Related Group)

The purchase breaks down to about $534,000 per apartment.

Completed in 2024 on a 1.4-acre site, Harbour at New River consists of studios and one-bedroom to three-bedroom apartments, according to records and its website. Asking monthly rents for available units range from about $3,000 to $6,000.

The tower is offering one month of free rent on all available units as a concession to prospective tenants, the property’s website shows.

Harbour at New River is part of several apartment buildings Related Group has developed on and near the New River in Fort Lauderdale. In 2021, the firm sold the 26-story, 249-unit building at 400 Southwest First Avenue, adjacent to Harbour at New River, for $85 million to BJ Verde Properties. That same year, Related Group also sold the adjacent 230-unit building at 416 Southwest First Avenue for $115 million, according to records.

Family-owned LeFrak, led by Richard LeFrak and his sons, Jamie and Harrison LeFrak, has been steadily expanding its South Florida investments, perhaps the most notable of which is the massive SoLé Mia mixed-use project in North Miami. LeFrak is partnering with Jackie Soffer’s Aventura-based Turnberry on the master-planned 184-acre SoLé Mia. The developers have completed several residential buildings and, once finished, it will consist of 1.5 million square feet of commercial real estate and about 4,000 residential units.

Elsewhere, LeFrak is partnering with Related Group. Near the Douglas Road Metrorail Station in Miami, the pair, along with 13th Floor Investments, last year filed a site plan application for a mixed-use project with more than 740 apartments in two buildings with ground-floor retail.

South Florida’s multifamily market has felt the sting in recent years due to hefty deliveries just as the influx of out-of-staters slowed. This has led to slower lease-ups, more concessions and a drop in rents. According to Realtor.com’s March report, the average rent across South Florida fell 2.2 percent year over year to about $2,200.

A record 18,600 units were completed in South Florida in 2024, or 20 percent more than total leasing for that year, CoStar Group data shows. Although construction starts have slowed some, with developers and investors saying this will alleviate the oversupply, another 12,718 apartments were finished last year, still outpacing net leasing for that year by about 300 units, the data shows.

Despite all this, real estate firms have said demand for South Florida rentals will continue, fueled by the blue-to-red states migration and the region’s business friendly climate and lifestyle.

In March, Griffis Residential paid $78.5 million for a West Palm Beach apartment complex with 263 units. The prior month, Dermot Company bought the 340-unit The Quaye at Palm Beach Gardens in Palm Beach Gardens for $131.8 million.