Developer Raimundo Onetto plans a 466-unit wellness-focused condo project near the Hollywood Beach Golf Club, shifting from his previous plan for apartments, The Real Deal has learned.
Onetto’s Miami-based Alta Developers will build Gaia Residences as a pair of 18-story towers with 72,000 square feet of amenities on a roughly 2-acre site at 401 North Federal Highway, according to a company news release. The site consists of 12 adjacent lots between North Federal Highway and North 17th Avenue, south of Fillmore Street.
Fortune International Group, led by Edgardo Defortuna, will launch condo sales next month, an Alta spokesperson said. Gaia will consist of studios and one- to three-bedroom units.
Asking prices will start at $400,000.
Alta, which already has city approval for the project, will next apply for a building permit.
Construction of Gaia Residences is expected to start early next year, the spokesperson said.
Alta bought the development site for $23 million in 2021, with plans for a pair of 18-story towers with 452 apartments.
At the time, South Florida’s multifamily market was booming with an influx of out-of-staters, promoting unprecedented demand and record rent growth. After developers seized on the bonanza with plans for new projects, hefty completions in the past two years slowed leasing and created a supply overhang. This has prompted some developers to switch planned or under-construction apartment projects to condos.
This wasn’t the case with Gaia, the Alta spokesperson said. A more difficult multifamily financing market compared with still flowing construction lending for condos also didn’t play a role in the switch.
The firm opted for for-sale units because they are the better option in the area’s maturing market, the development firm’s spokesperson said. Hollywood Beach Golf Club is undergoing a $15 million renovation, and “well-known” food and beverage venues have opened in the area, the spokesperson said.
“The site, it calls for condos,” the spokesperson said, pointing out Hollywood’s central location between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. And Gaia’s prices are “very affordable,” compared with Miami. “It creates a different market that doesn’t necessarily exist,” the spokesperson said.
Designed by CFE Architects, Gaia will include a spa with dual plunge pools, a rooftop with two pools and a lounge, a deck with a resort-style pool and water garden, and a gym with Pilates, yoga, boxing and CrossFit areas, according to the release.
Alta is a condo and multifamily developer with projects across South Florida. In April, it launched sales of the 12-story, 174-unit Cassia short-term rental-friendly condo at 4011 Salzedo Avenue in Coral Gables. Prices range from $700,000 to about $1.8 million, Onetto told TRD at the time.
In Fort Lauderdale, Alta completed the EON Squared apartments with the 206-unit South Towers at 421 Northeast Sixth Street in 2019, and the 270-unit North Towers at 444 Northeast Seventh Street in 2021. German investment manager Union Investment’s real estate arm bought EON in 2021 for $226.5 million.
This month, Alta’s seven-story, 30-unit Alana condo building at 9901 West Bay Harbor Drive in Bay Harbor Islands reportedly received a temporary certificate of occupancy.
Alta also plans its first project in south Miami-Dade County, the two-phase Princeton Commons apartment complex with 534 units, combined, on the northwest corner of Southwest 127th Avenue and Southwest 248th Street in the Princeton neighborhood.
Other firms planning Hollywood condos include the Pérez family’s Related Group and the Toledano family’s BH Group, which launched sales last March of their 37-story, 350-unit Icon Beach Residences at 3210-3690 South Ocean Drive, across the street from the Diplomat Beach Resort. At the time, the developers’ news release cited prices from $825,000 to $2.8 million.
Also, a development group that includes Alejandro Ensinck plans the 23-story, 248-unit One Hollywood Residences condo on the northwest corner of Federal Highway and Taylor Street in Hollywood.