13th Floor, Wexford REI Plan Downtown West Palm Rental Tower
13th Floor’s Arnaud Karsenti and Wexford’s Joseph Jacobs and Philip Braunstein with rendering of The Residences of Palm Beach West (13th Floor Investments, Wexford Real Estate Investors, Arquitectonica)
Arnaud Karsenti’s 13th Floor Investments and Wexford Real Estate Investors want to build a 25-story apartment building with a grocery store in downtown West Palm Beach.
The 372-unit Residences of Palm Beach West project would rise on a 2.6-acre assemblage between Fern and Gardenia streets, and between Quadrille Boulevard and South Dixie Highway. The Arquitectonica-designed project would include a 28,184-square-foot grocery store and a parking and retail podium, according to the developers’ submittal to the city.
West Palm Beach’s Plans and Plats Review Committee is expected to consider the proposal on July 14, followed by the Downtown Action Committee, which has final say. The city commission is expected to only consider the closing of an alley that transects the site.
Residences of Palm Beach West will offer studios, as well as one- to four-bedroom units, with all apartments rising above a six-story podium consisting of one floor for retail and five floors for a garage, according to the project plan. Two tower wings with glass terraces will come together at the corner of Quadrille and Fern to flank a public plaza. Aside from amenities on the roof of the garage and of the tower, the project would have two public open spaces fronting Fern and Quadrille, plans show.
Coconut Grove-based 13th Floor and West Palm Beach-based Wexford Real Estate Investors paid $26.1 million in September for the development site. New York-based L&L Holding Company also is a partner in the entity that bought the real estate and applied for project approval, according to state corporate records.
The assemblage consists of 415, 417 and 421 South Dixie Highway, 419 and 435 Gardenia Street, 418 and 464 Fern Street, 401 South Dixie Highway, and two small lots without addresses. All existing buildings, many of which are vacant and boarded up, will be demolished except the building at 401 South Dixie Highway. Built in 1965, the three-story office and retail property is being considered for historic designation and will be preserved by the development team, according to city filings.
Wexford Real Estate sources and manages private market real estate funded by its own capital and by that of outside investors, according to the company’s website. Wexford is led by Joseph Jacobs and Philip Braunstein.
13th Floor is a prolific commercial real estate developer with a residential division called 13th Floor Homes. This appears to be the developer’s first downtown West Palm Beach project.
In March, 13th Floor partnered with Jorge and Jon Paul Pérez’s Related Group to offer $500 million to buy out units at the Castle Beach Club condominium, built in 1966 at 5445 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. The offer came amid growing fears among aging condo dwellings about the safety of the buildings following the deadly Surfside collapse.
13th Floor’s other projects include the 22-story Link at Douglas apartment building with retail and offices next to the Douglas Road Metrorail Station in Miami, and The Boulevard rental and retail building at 5700 Biscayne Boulevard near the MiMo Historic District.
The Residences at Palm Beach West proposal comes as more developers are homing in on
downtown West Palm.
Among the investments: Stephen Ross’ Related Companies’ 360 Rosemary tower and the firm’s other hefty office purchases in the area.
Place Projects and NDT Development are partnering to develop the Nora District, a roughly 40-acre area between Quadrille and Palm Beach Lakes boulevards and from Dixie Highway to the FEC Railroad tracks.
Estate Companies made its downtown West Palm debut in December with the $15.8 million purchase of a multifamily development site at 550 North Rosemary Avenue.
