How do you amass the money to buy a $25.5-million estate in Wellington in Palm Beach County? Plastic brick-by-plastic brick in the case of Lego chairman and Danish billionaire Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, who, with his wife, Signe, a competitive equestrian rider, acquired a 7,086-sq.-ft. house and grounds with 27 horse stalls in Grand Prix Village near the Wellington International competition grounds.
TECHNOLOGY
- After acquiring the Napster brand, Boca Raton digital experiences company Infinite Reality rebranded itself as Napster and launched a Napster AI platform. The new Napster says it turns traditional websites into “intelligent, interactive web” experiences.
TRANSPORTATION
- Utah-based Breeze Airways will begin service in November from Fort Lauderdale, its 72nd U.S. city. Its first connections will be to Akron, Ohio, and Wilmington, N.C. Breeze was founded by JetBlue founder David Neeleman and has flown out of Palm Beach International since 2022.
- El Al Israel Airlines will cease operating from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and will move to Miami International the two weekly flights it flew from Fort Lauderdale.
BANKING
- Keith Costello, the chairman, president and CEO of Locality Bank in Fort Lauderdale, has been named chair of the Florida Bankers Association. The FBA advocates in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., on behalf of the banking industry. Costello cofounded Locality Bank in 2022 to address the decline in community banking across Broward County. In three years, the bank has grown to more than $300 million in assets by partnering with small and mid-sized businesses in the region.
HEALTH CARE
- Boca Raton behavioral health care software company Dazos raised $25 million from New York-based Radian Capital to speed product development and provide customer support.
RETAIL
- Atlanta-based Home Depot spent $20 million on several buildings on 4.7 acres on Hallandale Beach Boulevard in Pembroke Park west of Interstate 95 to bring to seven acres a site it’s assembled there. The company hasn’t disclosed plans for the parcel. The seller was a New York-based company tied to Joseph Edelman.
REAL ESTATE
- Miami-based Related Group and Italian design firm Pininfarina broke ground in Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas area on a 46-story condo tower, the highest residential building in the county at 540 feet. The 163-unit Andare Residences is scheduled for delivery in 2027. “We’ve spent years getting to know this market and contributing to its transformation, but it’s been 20 years since a property of this caliber has risen above Las Olas,” says Nick Pérez, president of Related’s condominium division.
- Billionaire Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross led a group that paid $40 million for the site housing WPTV on Clear Lake in West Palm Beach. Others on the buy side were Wexford Real Estate Investors and Key International. E.W. Scripps, which will lease the site for another 2.5 years, sold it.
- Atlanta-based Selig Enterprises wants to redevelop a Kmart shopping plaza on Palmetto Park Road in Boca Raton by adding 341 apartments, a Publix and retail tenant space. Under Florida’s affordable housing-enabling Live Local Act, 40% of the units will be workforce housing, easing the project’s governmental approval road.
- Also under Live Local empowerment, developers Brickbox Development and Newrock Partners want to build 257 units in a nine-story building, again with 40% set aside for workforce housing, on Powerline Road in Oakland Park.
Living Wage
(The hourly rate an individual with no spouse or dependents has to earn to support themselves by working full time.)
- Broward — $25.31
- Palm Beach — $24.74
- Florida as a whole — $23.41
- Martin — $22.82
- St. Lucie — $22.46
- Indian River — $21.99
- Okeechobee — $19.55
(Source: MIT)
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
“At this early stage we aren’t sure how this property will be developed in the future. The sellers expect a future owner to do something very special on this rare large oceanfront site and are giving a buyer the time required to work out the necessary government and other approvals.” — Robert Kaplan, executive managing director, Cushman & Wakefield, upon the firm being retained by the Russell family to sell the 147-room Beachcomber Resort & Club and its 5.08-acre site in Pompano Beach for redevelopment. Offers are expected to be north of $175 million.