Compass has assumed sales responsibilities for Savanna’s Olara condominium project in West Palm Beach, replacing Douglas Elliman Development Marketing after two years. The new sales team from Compass will include Alison Newton and Chris Deitz. Newton recently joined Compass after spending eight years at Elliman.
The Olara development, located at 1919 North Flagler Drive, is planned as a two-tower complex with 287 condominiums and 170 rental units across 26 stories. According to sources, the project is about 50 percent presold, which some market observers consider below expectations.
“You would expect to have better sales or sales further down the road at this point in Olara,” Erin Sykes of Sykes Properties told The Real Deal last month.
Developer Jeff Greene referenced Olara’s pace of sales when explaining why he has not started selling units for his own planned condo project designed by Herzog & de Meuron. “If Olara was at 75 percent, and South Flagler was 80 percent sold, of course we would just do whatever it takes [to launch],” he said.
Despite the current presale rate, lenders appear satisfied. In March, Savanna secured a $380 million construction loan for the project from Zeckendorf Development, Sculptor Real Estate, One Investment Management (OneIM), and Octo Capital.
Savanna enlisted Bernardo Fort-Brescia’s Arquitectonica as architect and Gabellini Sheppard Associates for interiors; EDEA is handling landscape design. The condos will range from two to four bedrooms and between 1,500 to 4,200 square feet. Prices start at $2 million. Amenities listed include a fitness center spanning 13,000 square feet, a juice bar, two pools, spa facilities including a Japanese onsen bathhouse, and buyers are being offered a one-year membership to concierge medicine provider Sollis. A restaurant operated by José Andrés Group is also planned for the site.
Olara joins more than twelve other condo projects currently proposed in West Palm Beach; over 2,000 residential units are expected along the waterfront Flagler Drive corridor.
