New Boynton Beach Development Will Be Comprised of Rentals, Not Condos

Kyle Riva is pretty confident about the market for Las Ventanas, a 15-acre retail/residential development he’s planning in Boynton Beach.

How can he be so sure in a South Florida housing market flush with high-profile projects that have been repeatedly shelved, delayed and/or repriced in the past few months? Simple. Unlike those, Las Ventanas will offer its 494 residences as apartments for lease, not as condos for sale.

“The rental market continues to be very, very strong, and several of the rental communities that existed in Delray Beach and Boynton Beach have all been [condo conversions],” said Riva, president of Epoch Properties Inc., a developer of rental communities based in Winter Park, Fla. “We see a real need for rental units in the area.”

With the current shortage of affordable housing throughout Palm Beach County, so does Lisa Bright, executive director of the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency.

“Not only is it going to be a huge catalyzing project for that corner, but in Boynton, we don’t have any rentals,” she said.

Meanwhile, two pieces of prime, mixed-use Florida real estate, both touted for years as key pieces of the city’s downtown redevelopment, sit idle. One of them, 500 Ocean Plaza, this month asked the city for its second one-year extension for the site plan. Initially known as the Arches back in 2003, the proposed project has yet to begin sales or construction.

Similarly, Promenade hasn’t started building and late last year canceled sales contracts and raised prices, citing soaring construction costs, the City of Boynton Beach says.

While Epoch also has asked for a 12-month site-plan extension, Riva said he expects to begin building in 6-9 months if permits come through.

Las Ventanas will boast more than 43,000 square footage of ground-floor retail space at the corner of Woolbright and Federal Highway, with 70 loft apartments situated above that. There will also be 20 three-bedroom townhouses, two five-story towers with 404 apartments, three parking garages, three pools, a community clubhouse and a fitness center.

Rents are expected to range from $1,500-3,500 a month based on the size of the unit. Real estate analysts expect the project to do well, since condo conversions have shrunk the rental inventory so dramatically and the recent uptick in Florida home mortgage rates has made loans unaffordable for many looking to buy.

“We haven’t seen hardly any new rental projects to replace them because land prices were so high,” said Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research & Consulting LLC.

Today, folks facing the quadruple-whammy of escalating expenses — higher Florida mortgage borrowing costs, insurance premiums, property taxes and gas prices — might find renting an attractive option. Even at $3,500 a month, the development’s three-story, three-bedroom townhomes may be more affordable to residents, compared to many for-sale products.