Jean François Roy and renderings of the Fort Lauderdale project (OceanLand)
Jean Francois Roy plans to develop an eight-story multi-family building in downtown Fort Lauderdale after buying out the condo owners on the site through a bulk purchase.
Roy, founder and CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based Ocean Land Investments, will build Aviva Rio Vista, a 96-unit multi-family project on the south bank of the New River, just west of the Federal Highway tunnel under the river. .
The project will replace a three-story condominium, after national developer Trammell Crow failed to build a 21-story tower on the same site.
Roy plans to begin demolishing the 30-unit Edgewater House Condominium at 501 Southeast 6th Avenue by the end of 2021 to clear the 0.8 acre Aviva Rio Vista site, having acquired all condos later this year. this month. The condos were built in 1980. The two-year construction phase of the project is expected to begin in the spring of 2022.
The City of Fort Lauderdale Commission on Tuesday approved an application from the Edgewater House Condominium Association for a development permit for the construction of Aviva Rio Vista.
“We have a purchase agreement on each of the units,” Roy told The Real Deal. “It closes on June 30. He declined to disclose the purchase price of the Edgewater condo units, citing confidentiality agreements, but said the total cost of developing Aviva would range from $ 65 million to $ 70 million.
“We’re underwriting it as a rental, and during construction, maybe we’ll convert it to a condominium,” Roy said. “It’s an expensive project because the finishes are like those of upscale boutique condominiums.”
Most units will have two bedroom floor plans and will span 1,200 square feet. Overall, unit sizes will range from 937 square feet with one bedroom to 2,100 square feet with three bedrooms.
Roy declined to discuss the likely range of monthly rent at Aviva. If he converts the project to a condominium, unit prices would be less than $ 1,000 per square foot, he said.
Aviva’s facilities will include a rooftop pool, spa and fitness center, and approximately 8,000 square feet of retail space for a restaurant, cafe, and bookstore.
In 2018, the city commission rejected a proposal from multi-family real estate developer Trammell Crow Residential to redevelop the condo site into a 21-story, 181-unit tower called the Alexan-Tarpon River.
Aviva Rio Vista is designed to be about half the size of the rejected Trammell Crow tower.
“What we saw for the first time [from Trammel Crow] was not the right thing for the neighborhood and the region, ”Commissioner Ben Sorenson said at the meeting on Tuesday evening. “At the end of the day, I think we’ve got a product that’s going to be great and better suited to the region.”
Roy said residents of Aviva Rio Vista are likely to come from the neighboring Rio Vista neighborhood, a cluster of single-family homes across the federal highway from the Aviva development site.
He also expects Aviva Rio Vista to woo buyers of other multi-family projects he has developed on the Fort Lauderdale waterfront. Ocean Land Investments completed the 35-unit AquaBlu and the eight-unit AquaVue in 2018, the 20-unit AquaMar in 2017, the 16-unit AquaLuna in 2016 and the 22-unit AquaVita in 2015.
Ocean Land’s portfolio also includes larger projects, including Trump Hollywood, a 200-unit tower that the developer completed in partnership with the Related Group in 2007. Ocean Land also developed Ritz-Carlton Residences Singer Island, a 242-unit condominium with two 27-storey towers in Riviera Beach.
The Aviva Rio Vista project is part of a larger trend towards real estate investment and development in the area just south of the New River and the central business district of Fort Lauderdale.
This month, billionaire developer Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group acquired three blocks of land just south of the New River and downtown for nearly $ 63 million.
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