13th Floor Homes closed on 120 acres of former golf course land west of Delray Beach, as homebuilders throughout South Florida continue their aggressive search for land.
13th Floor paid $5.6 million for the land at 6200 Via Delray Road, previously home to the shuttered Villa Del Ray Golf Club, according to a spokesperson. There, the developer is planning to build Delray Trails, a master-planned active adult community for residents 55 and older. The development will have 436 single-family homes and townhouses, and the first homes will be completed in 2021.
Delray Trails will be built near Avalon Trails, another residential community that 13th Floor is building west of Delray, on the former Marina Lakes Golf Course. That project, with 217 single-family homes, will host a grand opening of its model houses in late March.
13th Floor received unanimous approval from the neighboring Palm Greens community for Delray Trails.
The community will have a 10-acre recreational campus with pools, tennis, pickleball, bocce and shuffleboard courts; a clubhouse with a billiards room, cafe, library, fitness center and card rooms; lakes and canals, pocket parks, gardens and walking trails. 13th Floor will also invest in infrastructure and drainage systems, and buffer areas between the development and Palm Greens.
As the popularity of golf has declined in recent years, a number of developers have jumped at the chance to buy large swaths of land. Florida still has the highest number of golf courses in the country, with 1,146, according to a release. Less than 200 of those are in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
In October, Pulte Homes closed on 139 acres on a former golf course in Oakland Park to build 405 homes with nearly 50 acres of open space.
13th Floor Homes’ other projects include the 253-home Central Parc and the 239-home Manor Parc single-family home communities in Tamarac.