13th Floor Investments and Rockpoint scored a $100 million construction loan for an apartment project near the Boca Raton Tri-Rail station.
The 340-unit development hit the pipeline as South Florida is feeling the sting of a multifamily supply overhang, as hefty completions and slower in-migration in recent years have led to lower rents and more concessions.
Coconut Grove-based 13th Floor and Boston-based Rockpoint will start construction this month of the eight-story Link at Boca building, with 24,000 square feet of ground-floor retail at 680 West Yamato Road, according to the developers’ news release. The project, on tap next to El Rio Trail, will include a 650-space garage for residents, shoppers at the retail and Tri-Rail users.
Santander Bank is the lender. Comras Company is pre-leasing the retail space.
Construction completion is expected in 2028, the release says.
Boca Raton officials greenlit the project last year, as development near major transit stops has taken hold across South Florida. 13th Floor will lease the development site from the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operates the passenger Tri-Rail.
13th Floor, founded in 2008, has completed more than 4,700 units in South Florida, including condos, and it has a pipeline of over 7,100 units, with the firm focusing heavily on public-private partnerships allowing it to lease and develop on publicly owned city hall and transit stop sites.
In 2024, 13th Floor won a request for proposals to redevelop South Miami’s city hall, at 6130 Sunset Drive, with 670 apartments across two 15-story buildings, plus retail, parking and a five-story municipal building. The project, called Link at SoMi, is near the South Miami Metrorail station.
In Miami, 13th Floor has been developing Link at Douglas mixed-use project on 7 acres next to the Douglas Road Metrorail station. It is developing the 35-story, 432-unit Cadence apartment tower on the site in partnership with Barings.
13th Floor and Adler Group completed the first phase in 2023 with the 22-story, 312 -unit Core rental building; the 37-story, 421-unit Cascade apartment tower; more than 30,000 square feet of retail space anchored by Milam’s Market; and $17 million in improvements, including of the Metrorail station and a public plaza.
Rockpoint, led by Tom Gilbane and Aric Shalev, is a real estate private equity firm that has frequently partnered on South Florida projects and investments. With the Pérez family’s Related Group, Rockpoint completed the 393-unit The Point at Miramar apartment building in the Broward County city in 2024, selling it for $161 million last year.
Also last year, Rockpoint was part of a joint venture that sold the One Clearlake office building in West Palm Beach for $45 million, marking a nearly 26 percent discount from what the JV paid in 2021.
South Florida’s apartment supply overhang is the result of developers seizing on the pandemic-induced influx of newcomers with plans for new projects. In 2024, they completed a record of more than 18,600 units, according to CoStar Group.
Developers with planned or under construction projects say that by the time their buildings are finished, between this year and 2028, demand will catch up. They are confident in the lease-up of the projects, arguing construction starts have slowed, which will allow for supply to be absorbed.
Last year, 12,718 apartments were completed in South Florida, according to CoStar. That’s fewer than the record in 2024 and the 15,426 unit completions in 2023, but still more than the 11,002 and 11,660 unit completions in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Multifamily construction financing has flowed in South Florida, despite higher interest rates. In December, Trilogy Real Estate Group landed an $82.3 million construction loan for a 247-unit project in Miami’s Edgewater, and Focus and Group Fox scored $250 million to build a 517-unit apartment tower in Brickell.
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