Miami-based Related Group will start leasing apartments at Icon Las Olas in downtown Fort Lauderdale on June 1 for monthly rents as high as $7,000.
Rents at the 45-story apartment property, the tallest building in Fort Lauderdale, will start at $2,500 for a 960-square-foot unit with one bedroom.
The first tenants are expected to move into their apartments by September, marking the end of Related’s 18-year effort to build Icon Las Olas, originally conceived as a condominium.
All of the building’s 272 units will have marble floors in bathrooms and Italian cabinets in kitchens. Icon Las Olas will feature three restaurants and two swimming pools , plus a movie room, wine room, exercise facility , spa and concierge.
Jorge Perez, CEO of Related Group, told the Sun-Sentinel that no other rental property in Florida can match the high-end finishes in the apartments at Icon Las Olas.
Perez also told the newspaper that Icon Las Olas, a $200 million development, conceivably could be converted to a condominium in the future. Related owns Icon Las Olas together with Rabina Properties and Perella Weinberg Partners.
Related initially submitted plans for Icon Las Olas to the city in 1999, triggering a lawsuit by preservationists who feared the development at 500 East Las Olas Boulevard would be hazardous to Stranahan House, a historic property next to the high-rise apartment building.
The city government approved Icon Las Olas in 2005, and the legal fight with Stranahan House supporters continued as Related started reserving units in the building for condo buyers.
But the housing market crash in the late 2000s led Related to suspend pre-construction sales of units at Icon Las Olas, and even after an appeals court dismissed the suit by Stranahan House supporters, the development site remained vacant.
About two years ago, Related finally started construction of Icon Las Olas and ultimately decided to market the property as a rental apartment building. [Sun-Sentinel] – Mike Seemuth