Fort Lauderdale Beaches Attracting New Condo Developers And Buyers
Posted: June 29, 2018About 25 miles north of Miami Beach, on the same Atlantic Ocean but less hectic and much more affordable, much of South Florida’s oceanfront condo construction has moved to Fort Lauderdale.
Once most famous as the beach location for the 1960 movie, “Where the Boys Are” that helped launch Fort Lauderdale as a spring-time destination for thousands of beer-drinking and hotel-packing college students, the city has left its wet tee-shirt reputation in the sand and transitioned into one of South Florida’s most glamorous beach towns. Instead of rowdy partiers, the city is now attracting affluent condo buyers who are buying some of Florida’s most luxurious beach-area Fort Lauderdale condos at about half the price of Miami Beach.
At the northern end of the Fort Lauderdale Strip, one of the city’s prime beach destination for vacationers, Howard Johnson’s was one of Florida’s most popular spring break hotels from 1958 until 2005 when it was closed and vacant for years. A fond memory for aging baby boomers, the hotel was demolished in 2014 to make way for the Strip’s first new oceanfront condo project, Paramount, in over a decade. Since then, six other beach area buildings have launched sales and the oceanfront is lined with upscale outdoor restaurants, bars, boutiques and luxury hotels. Instead of Ohio State frat boys, visitors are now as likely to be affluent families and young retirees from the United States, Canada and Europe.
While many of Miami and Miami Beach’s new condo projects are struggling to find buyers, Fort Lauderdale’s developments are doing extremely well with sellouts at Paramount and Gale and about 80% sold at Auberge. The ultra luxury Four Seasons just began construction and is already about 40% sold. Paramount, Four Seasons and Auberge are directly on the Atlantic while Gale is a couple blocks walk. Prices ranged from about $400,000 at Gale for a studio to as much as $10 million for the Paramount penthouse. A bargain compare to the most expensive Miami Beach penthouse, Mansions of Aqualina, priced at $38,000,000.
A couple miles north of Fort Lauderdale, where ocean land is even more available and cheaper, a half dozen new Pompano Beach condo projects have launched sales or are in the pipeline including Arya, Aqua One and Pure. Pompano has been gearing up for an influx of new residents with a brand new beach, a three-mile strip of wide beaches, picnic shelters, play ground and even professional exercise equipment. Under construction are a state-of-the-art fishing pier and 40,000-square-foot beach complex of restaurants and shops.
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