Welcome to The Dirt ! I’m real estate reporter Kimberly Miller with the latest developments in the sizzling market.
I was out last week at the Governor's Hurricane Conference and as the storm season picks up you may see less of me depending on what Mother Nature and La Niña have in store. But, for now, let's catch up on Palm Beach County's real estate melee whirlwind together! It will be fun! Well, about as fun as you can have on a Tuesday afternoon without a beach chair or adult beverage.
There's some new swank, glitz, and glam in downtown West Palm Beach as another luxury condominium is in the works. This one is the little sister to the Met Gala-worthy Bristol. It's called The Berkeley because like The Bristol and The Ohio State University the "the" has to be capitalized.
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On the other end of the housing spectrum is an affordable housing conundrum. Remember that $200 million bond everyone voted for in November to create affordable housing ? Yeah, well, it's facing some hurdles. Also, there was something gooey in the Lake Worth Lagoon where all the multimillion dollar condos are going, and a home sold for $50 million in Highland Beach. That's Highland Beach folks, not Palm Beach, not Manalapan — Highland Beach.
THE Berkeley is going to be family friendly in downtown West Palm Beach
Across from the sandy shores of West Palm Beach's drinking water supply — a large duck pond called Clear Lake — a tower will rise bright and shiny with a hint of The Bristol but geared toward families. That's families who can afford to buy a unit priced between $1.7 million and $4 million.
These are the families who will be following their companies to the promised land of Wall Street South . It's not the chairman of the financial firms that The Berkeley is targeting but the professionals working for the chairman. Got it. Noted. And understood that this is not for run-of-the mill professionals sitting in a cubicle at Belvedere and Dixie overlooking Starbucks.
You voted for 20,000 affordable housing units, you may get a lot less
Palm Beach County Commissioners were troubled last week to learn that the $200 million housing bond issue wasn't going to go as far as first envisioned. Firstly, the county's area median family income of $104,000 means that even discounted rents may be out of reach for many people.
Based on an equation written by Albert Einstein, rents could range between $1,827 for a one-bedroom apartment to $2,532 for a three-bedroom. Secondly, some developers were hoping the bond would finance nearly half of their total costs. Good for developers, maybe not so much for renters, commissioners said.
Multimillion dollar waterfront condos in West Palm Beach don't want red goo in the Lake Worth Lagoon
The Dirt doesn't like to say "I told you so" but ... the Lake Worth Lagoon, or Intracoastal Waterway, is now the waterfront view for some pretty expensive new apartments and condominiums along Flagler Drive. And those folks don't want to see toxic blue green algae or whatever the red stuff was that got dumped in the water earlier this month.
The U.S. Coast Guard couldn't find the source of the nefarious blob, which was just south of Florida Power & Light's Manatee Lagoon, but it didn't get there on its own. And, by the way, are all those moored boats really dumping their bilges in appropriate receptacles? Just curious.
Is Highland Beach the new Palm Beach?
A waterfront home in the Town of Palm Beach that sells for $50 million is barely an eyebrow raiser anymore, but when one goes for that price in Highland Beach , well, that's choke on my wine cooler and squirt it out my nose news. Highland Beach is a 2.5-mile stretch of sand 20 miles south of Palm Beach.
The seller was Steve Buchanan, who in 2021 sold Buchanan Energy and the Bucky's chain of convenience stores for top dollar. The buyer — and stop me if you've heard this one before — is a Delaware-registered limited liability company, which means we the buyer is a bigger secret than why I can't find Bartles & Jaymes anymore. Thank you for your support.
And live lightly.
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm Beach skyline to get another luxury condo as builders vie for Wall Street execs
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