Woodfield Development sold a 223-unit apartment tower in downtown West Palm Beach for $87 million.
The deal marks a slight uptick in South Florida multifamily sales after a drought of deals due to elevated interest rates and other economic headwinds.
Greenwood Village, Colorado-based Griffis Residential bought the 15-story tower at 345 Banyan Boulevard from Raleigh, North Carolina-based Woodfield Development and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The buyer borrowed a $57.7 million Fannie Mae loan for the purchase.
Woodfield completed development of the tower, now called Griffis West Palm, with 3,100 square feet of retail in 2023 on a nearly 1-acre site, records show. In 2021, the firm scored a $47 million construction loan for the project from Northwestern Mutual Life.
Woodfield, a multifamily and mixed-use development firm founded in 2005 by Mike Underwood and Greg Bonifield, initially focused on North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as the Washington D.C. area, according to its website. It eventually expanded throughout the Eastern Seaboard, completing its first Florida project, the 251-unit Oversea at Flagler Banyan Square in West Palm, in 2020.
It’s unclear why Northwestern Mutual Life was a co-seller of Griffis West Palm. The lender recorded no judicial foreclosures against Woodfield.
Griffis is a multifamily owner and manager with a portfolio of 26 communities spanning 8,00 units across 10 national markets, according to its website. It’s co-led by Ian Griffis and David Birnbaum.
South Florida’s multifamily market has slowed compared with the bonanza of 2021 and 2022 when an influx of out-of-staters fueled record demand and rental growth, as well as a slew of investment sales. Over the past two years, the market calmed due to a slowdown of newcomers and record new apartment deliveries, which tempered demand and rental growth.
Also, higher interest rates, skyrocketing insurance and retrenching lenders curbed investment sales.
Deal activity experienced a slight boost this year when Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega’s Ponte Gadea dropped $165 million for the 44-story Veneto Las Olas at 201 South Federal Highway in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
In other deals, the Toledano family’s BH Group paid $83 million in February for the 338-unit Wake Biscayne Bay apartment complex at 7501 and 7525 East Treasure Drive in North Bay Village.
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