NOTABLE QUOTABLE
"Today, Vanderbilt makes its commitment clear: We are all-in on West Palm Beach." — Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier.
The university says it has raised enough money toward its $300-million goal for its trustees to go forward with a graduate school campus in West Palm Beach focused on finance, AI and engineering. Diermeier said Vanderbilt will now raise another $250 million to further develop the campus, scheduled to open in 2029.
TRADE
Port Everglades, the Broward County seaport, set records for its three core businesses — cruise, cargo and fuel — in 2025, the first year all three set new volume records. The port moved 1.17 million cargo units amid demand from Latin America, the Caribbean and elsewhere. The state's top petroleum port moved 131.9 million barrels of petroleum product. Annual cruise passenger count rose 16% to 4.77 million. The port, the third-busiest cruise homeport globally, forecasts an increase this year as the season will number 40 cruise ships plus a ferry to the Bahamas.
PRIVATE EQUITY
Boca Raton-based, lower-middle-market private equity firm Millpond Equity Partners, through its Franklin, Tenn.-based portfolio company Galileo Education, acquired Putnam Classical Academy in Palatka and New Generation Christian School in Lake City as Galileo expands its private school network. It already has Montessori schools in Pensacola and Clearwater.
REAL ESTATE
Atlanta-based volume builder Pulte Homes will put 132 townhouses on the 21-acre former Margate Executive Golf Course it purchased at Atlantic Boulevard and Rock Island Road. Average selling prices are in the low $600,000s.
Miami-based Atlantic Pacific and the Boca Raton Housing Authority began construction of their $52-million affordable housing project, Residences at Martin Manor, on Dixie Highway. Numbering under 100 units, it's expected to be finished in fall 2026.
Developer PMG obtained $115 million in construction financing from GoldenTree Asset Management for its Sage Intracoastal Residences Fort Lauderdale, a 44-unit, 28-story condo project scheduled to be finished in 2027.
The one-time Mangonia Park jai alai fronton heads to courthouse auction in May after lender Palm50Acres obtained a $42.6-million foreclosure judgment against DK Arena and Fairway Enterprises. Boxing promoter Don King had hoped to redevelop the 52-acre property.
HEADQUARTERS
Texas-based air-conditioning, heating and refrigeration company Lennox International paid $16 million for the Health Network One office building on South Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale that will serve as a regional headquarters and training center for 80 employees. Lennox is closing Oakland Park and Fort Lauderdale offices to consolidate at its new site.
Napster Studios, the former Infinite Reality company in Boca Raton that acquired the rights to the Napster name, wants city approval to build a 162,000-sq.-ft. headquarters, including media production spaces, on a former industrial site in Fort Lauderdale.
PARKS AND REC
The city of Fort Lauderdale and the Orange Bowl opened the renovated Jimmy Evert Tennis Center at Holiday Park with a ribbon cutting for the Chris Evert Stadium Court. The $9.5-million project totaled 20 clay courts, including the 700-seat stadium court named in Chris Evert's honor.
'A Lot Going On Here'
Ashley Capital hopes to break ground this year on Martin Commerce Park in Palm City, an industrial project totaling 1.1 million square feet spread over 14 buildings. The first phase totals a 500,000-sq.-ft. spread over seven buildings. Meanwhile, it's continuing infrastructure installation for a 1,600-acre site called Sunrise Grove Commerce Center entitled for 5 million square feet. Long a bedroom community for Palm Beach County, companies moving into Martin, St. Lucie and the other northern Treasure Coast counties can tap that trove of workers looking forward to giving up their long commutes. "We do have a very vibrant workforce that gets overlooked," says Jill Marasa, Ashley's development director for the Treasure Coast. "There's a lot going on here."