Palm Beach: New Condo Project Proposed For Downtown Delray Beach Site

A developer is proposing a new mixed-use condo project - dubbed the Atlantic Plaza II - in Downtown Delray Beach in Palm Beach County, and in the process has boosted the total number of proposed units to nearly 13,100 in South Florida since the real estate crash began in 2007, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com. 

With the proposed Atlantic Plaza II mixed-use condo project to be located on an existing retail center on Atlantic Avenue immediately west of Delray Beach's popular Veterans Park, nearly 90 condo towers have been announced for the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties as of Nov. 20, 2012, according to the Preconstruction Condo Projects list compiled by the licensed Florida brokerage CVR Realty™.

Some five years after the South Florida condo market began to stall, one new tower has already been completed in the tricounty region and 12 other highrises - Aventura's Bellini At Williams Island; Greater Downtown Miami's 1100 Millecento Residences, Brickell Citicentre (two towers), BrickellHouse, and MyBrickell projects; Hollywood's Apogee Beach; Key Biscayne's Oceana (two towers); Palm Beach County's 4001 North Ocean project; and Sunny Isles Beach's Mansions At Acqualina and Regalia - are under construction as the post-crash development era gains momentum, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report.

CondoVultures.com is scheduled to profile condo trends in the third quarter of 2012 in the seven largest coastal condo markets in South Florida.   

Since the week of Oct. 15, 2012, the Condo Vultures® Market Intelligence Report™ has been publishing a seven-part series analyzing new condo sales trends in Greater Downtown Miami, South Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, Hollywood / Hallandale Beach, Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Beach, Boca Raton / Deerfield Beach, and Downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island.  

Plans call for the Atlantic Plaza II mixed-use project to feature six towers on a 8.65-acre development site that was assembled during a 15-year period at a price of more than in $26 million, according to Palm Beach County Property Appraiser records. 

The proposed Atlantic Plaza II project is slated to feature 442 residential units, 79,100 square feet of office space, 52,000 square feet of retail space, and 28,200 square feet of restaurant space, according to Delray Beach records. 

The residential units are slated to be comprised of rental apartments and 130 condos, according to the South Florida Business Journal.

Fueled by investors primarily from overseas, less than 3,400 new condo units remain unsold from a supply of nearly 49,000 units created since 2003 in South Florida’s seven largest coastal markets of Greater Downtown Miami, South Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, Hollywood / Hallandale Beach, Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Beach, Boca Raton / Deerfield Beach, and Downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island as of June 30, 2012, according to a CondoVultures.com report.  

A majority of the newly proposed South Florida condo units are not expected to be completed until 2014 when the unsold developer inventory from South Florida's last real estate boom and bust is projected to be sold. 

It is unclear how many of the other proposed towers could get built in the short term as construction financing is challenging - and expensive - to secure, industry watchers said.  

To overcome the obvious financing hurdle, most of the newly proposed projects are requiring prospective buyers to commit to deposits - to be paid in phases - of as much as 80 percent of the preconstruction contract price, industry watchers said.

During the most recent South Florida condo boom, preconstruction buyers were generally asked for deposits of about 20 percent, industry watchers said.