💸 Boca's Big Bet

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Happy Saturday Highest & Best! Here’s today’s rundown of the Florida real estate week:

🏗 Boca’s rental boom

💰 Miami millionaires are ‘flipping’ out

📚 South Florida developers get ‘schooled’

📣 News from the world of new condos

Also: Advertise with us! For inquiries, connect with me at [email protected]

Let’s get to it!

Boca Raton — Now Renting a New Identity

Boca Raton, long a stronghold of gated communities, golf courses and retiree-friendly condos, is suddenly in the midst of a rental boom.

Heavyweight developers known for luxury condo towers and sleek Miami office buildings are homing in on the Palm Beach County city with big bets on higher-density living.

About 7,600 apartment units are being planned or developed in Boca — more than four times what’s been delivered since 2022, according to data from Yardi Matrix.

Proposals for apartment communities — some with hundreds of units and one topping 1,000 — are popping up all over Boca: in business parks, next to the Tri-Rail station, on Office Depot’s former HQ campus, and even folded into the master plan for the new City Hall. 

Investors are betting the migration of people and companies to Palm Beach County isn’t slowing down — and that workers, many priced out of a housing market where values jumped 78% in five years (per Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman)— will find appeal in rental communities with pools, yoga studios, a walkable path to the coffee shop, or maybe even the office.

“We want all these amazing companies to come here, but we also want to provide the necessary housing for those companies to be able to thrive,” said David Martin, CEO of Terra, a Miami-based luxury condo developer that’s now on tap to build Boca rentals in the future City Hall neighborhood. “Workforce housing, or attainable housing, I think is a critical piece of the puzzle.”

🌴 See more in my NY Post story this week: “Bevy of new for-rent apartments bring younger vibe to Boca Raton”

🧐 Oh, and since that story dropped Tuesday, Boca’s rental tally grew by 243 units. Oak Lane Partners got approval this week to build an 8-story apartment building and five rental townhouses surrounding its Boca Raton office.

⏪ Catch up on recent Highest & Best issues:

• The Big Bounce, March 18, 2025

• Fresh-Squeezed Condos, March 8, 2025

• Closing Time, February 15, 2025

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Miami Millionaires Are ‘Flipping’ Out

What do you do with a Miami trophy property you’ve barely lived in — or never even finished? If you're in the high-end homeowner crowd, the playbook seems clear: list it for sale with a bold new price tag and see if the market bites.

💰 This week, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin listed his 9,200-square-foot unfinished penthouse at Miami’s One Thousand Museum for $23 million, the Real Deal reported. He bought the full-floor unit in 2021 for $18 million, and according to listing photos, it still has raw ceilings, concrete floors, and piles of construction materials. Sure, the building is designed by architect Zaha Hadid, but the question remains: are Florida vibes (and Miami views) enough to get Griffin a $5 million upside?

💰 Also hitting the market: a penthouse on Fisher Island, owned by Kayak co-founder Steve Hafner and his wife, Staci. The couple bought the 10,200-square-foot residence in 2021 for $40 million as an unfinished shell and spent the last few years building it out. Now it’s back — fully finished and asking $85 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The property, at 6802 Fisher Island Drive, includes a 7,300-square-foot rooftop with a pool, a spa, and views stretching from Biscayne Bay to the Atlantic. (Median prices on Fisher Island, by the way, are up nearly 65% year-over-year, according to Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman Real Estate).

💰 Meanwhile, over on the Venetian Islands, venture capital executive Amit Raizada just sold a waterfront spec home for $18 million. He bought the lot in 2021 for $6 million, and built a 5,600-square-foot retreat with five bedrooms and a pool, the Real Deal reported. The home hit the market in 2024 at just under $21 million.

South Florida Developers get ‘Schooled’

You can build all the gleaming office towers and luxury condos you want, but without schools, new families and tenants won’t follow.

🍎 This week, we learned that Stephen Ross, West Palm Beach’s largest developer (and Miami Dolphins owner), is planning a second private school in the area — a sign of how prominently education figures into his broader development strategy.

🤝 West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James is proposing to sell 55 acres of city-owned land to Ross for $120,500 per acre — well below the going rate of around $1 million an acre, according to the Palm Beach Post.

The city says schools are critical infrastructure — essential for attracting families, companies, and long-term investment to South Florida.

Also the city’s reasoning: it received two wildly different appraisals for the land… so it split the difference. And no, officials didn’t open the deal to other bidders. 🤷‍♀️

Ross told the Post that acquiring the site is part of his firm’s mission to “be stewards of smart growth.” It’s still unclear whether his company, Related Ross, will build the school itself or hand it off to an educational partner.

📚This would be Ross’s second school project in the West Palm orbit. He’s already partnering with school operator ElevateED to open a not-for-profit K–12 campus on a 70-acre site they’re purchasing from the Village of Wellington

📚📚Other South Florida developers are also trying to solve the schools puzzle, as the influx of new families is outpacing the region’s classroom capacity. Over in North Miami, the team behind SoLe Mia is planning a new outpost for Mater Academy — a tuition-free charter school that will span 90,000 square feet and serve up to 1,500 K–5 students. (See previous coverage here).

News from the World of New Condos

Let’s check in on South Florida’s ever-growing condo skyline, shall we?

🤝 14 ROC, a 32-story Downtown Miami condo tower where owners may lease out their apartments on Airbnb without limits, has secured buyers for 20% of its 283 units, developer GFO Investments announced. The project, at 125 NE 14th Street, is riding Miami’s continued investor demand for short-term rental-friendly buildings, with bite-sized apartments that can be used for leisure — or income. Units range from studios to two-bedrooms, with prices starting at $495,000, according to GFO.

Amenities at 14 ROC include a theater, yoga space, a karaoke room and a “fully equipped” podcast studio. For when your condo needs a content strategy.

The tower is scheduled for completion in 2027.

💰The Cipriani family is adding another address to its Florida condo portfolio — and units at this one will likely start at $25 million. Casa Cipriani Miami, will rise 17 stories along Miami Beach’s oceanfront at 3611 Collins Avenue, and will include just 23 ultra-luxury condos (and a 40-suite boutique hotel), according to developers 13th Floor Investments and Midtown Equities. The ultra-luxury project — which will replace the Westgate South Beach timeshare resort — will begin sales later this year.

💵 Sales have officially kicked off at Sereno Fort Lauderdale, a new 76-unit luxury condo project where prices start at $1.4 million.

Located at 2901 NE 9th Ct, not far from Fort Lauderdale Beach, Sereno will include one- to three-bedroom units ranging from 1,080 to 2,400 square feet. The usual high-end features are all here: floor-to-ceiling windows, Italian kitchens, valet service — plus a few extras like pickleball, storage for water toys, a cold plunge, and, of course, a pet spa. 🐕

Developers are Integra Investments and Flying Point.

That’s it for today!

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