SOUTH FLORIDA NEWS - August, 2026

West Palm's Biggest Office Project Rises on a $772M Loan

Related Ross's twin CityPlace towers, nearly a million square feet, already have four cranes up and marquee tenants like ServiceNow and Cleveland Clinic signed before a floor is finished. It is the clearest sign yet that West Palm's "Wall Street South" is here to stay.

Key Takeaways

• Related Ross is building twin CityPlace office towers, 10 and 15 CityPlace, totaling nearly 1 million square feet in downtown West Palm Beach.
• The project is backed by a $772 million construction loan, the largest ever recorded in Florida, with completion targeted for 2027.
• ServiceNow and Cleveland Clinic have already anchored the towers, proof the demand is real before the buildings are even finished.

For a few years, West Palm Beach's rise as "Wall…

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How Hollywood Beach Could Jump From 65 to 490 ft

The 490-foot number is tied to the "Grand Lady," a shuttered 1925 resort that Related and its partners have under contract for about $100 million.

Key Takeaways

• A proposed overlay district would let projects at the historic Hollywood Beach Resort rise to 490 feet, about 7.5 times the current 65-foot beach cap.
• The plan up-zones most of the barrier island too, allowing 150 to 200 feet in other precincts, with the resort as the tall exception.
• Related Group, BH Group, and Terra have the resort under contract for about $100 million and would benefit directly from the height increase.

Hollywood is about to decide how tall its beachfront can get, and the answer could reshape the barrier island for decades. According to The Real Deal, a…

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The 10 Most Exclusive Private Clubs in Palm Beach County

Palm Beach County is home to 59 billionaires with a combined net worth approaching $500 billion. Most of them belong to the same handful of private clubs. Here is how the top 10 rank.

• Initiation fees at the top clubs range from $130,000 to $500,000, with annual dues between $25,000 and $53,000.
• The most exclusive clubs are invitation-only with no formal application process.
• For buyers considering a country club home, touring the club and understanding the lifestyle is as important as seeing the property.

Palm Beach County's private club market is not one thing. Everglades and Bath & Tennis represent old Palm Beach social power. Seminole and The Bear's Club are serious golf prestige. Panther National is new-money exclusivity. And Boca…

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395 Apartments Coming to a Plantation Office Park

Suburban office parks built for a different era now have more land than they need. Developers are carving out the excess and building housing. Here is how it works.

• Intalex Capital paid $8.9 million for 5.26 acres of parking lot space at a Plantation office park, planning to build 395 apartments.
• The project follows a growing trend of converting underused office parking into multifamily housing across Broward County.
• Remote work has reduced parking demand at suburban office campuses, unlocking land that was previously off limits.

This deal is part of a broader shift in how developers think about suburban office properties. According to South Florida Business Journal, Intalex Capital acquired 5.26 acres at 1600 SW 80th Terrace in…

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Mandarin Oriental Plants Its Flag on West Palm's Waterfront

No hotel rooms. No tourists in the lobby. Just 87 branded residences with Mandarin-level service, Safdie design, and prices starting at $3.5 million. This is West Palm Beach as a primary destination.

• Mandarin Oriental Residences, West Palm Beach is a 31-story, 87-unit condo tower at 5400 North Flagler Drive on the Intracoastal Waterway.
• Great Gulf is the developer, with architecture by Moshe Safdie (Marina Bay Sands, Habitat 67) and interiors by Studio Munge.
• Prices range from approximately $3.5 million to over $20 million, with completion expected around 2029.

The Mandarin Oriental Residences in West Palm Beach show how far the market has moved. This is not West Palm as the cheaper alternative anymore. This is West Palm as a primary…

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304 Units Evacuated, Dissolved, and Sold: Inside Heron Pond

Deferred maintenance. Underfunded reserves. Structural failure. A Broward County condo community became uninhabitable, and the court had to finish what the association could not.

• Heron Pond Condominiums, a 304-unit community on 25 acres at 8400 SW 1st Street in Pembroke Pines, was dissolved by court order and sold to Integra Investments.
• The sale closed July 22, 2026, for $20.5 million, approximately $67,400 per unit or $820,000 per acre.
• Former owners received proceeds minus outstanding mortgages, liens, and legal fees, with some receiving little or nothing.

Heron Pond is one of the clearest examples of what can happen when deferred maintenance, weak condo governance, and structural problems collide. According to South Florida Business…

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How a $6.6M Scam Exploited Florida's Home Insurance Crisis

The last of five defendants in a home insurance fraud ring was just sentenced, ending a scheme that ran for years. They quietly swapped the force-placed coverage lenders put on homes, skimming the premiums while owners had no idea.

Key Takeaways

• A South Florida ring stole $6.6 million by faking paperwork to churn "force-placed" insurance, the coverage a lender buys when a homeowner's policy lapses, without the homeowners' knowledge.
• Lisette Patricio, the last of five defendants, was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison and ordered to forfeit $1.8 million.
• The scheme worked because Florida's insurance crisis, with high premiums and lapsing policies, makes force-placed coverage common and easy to hide fraud inside.

…

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Buying a Waterfront Home in Florida: 2026 Guide

Florida waterfront pricing turns on three things most buyers check last: bridge clearance, water depth at mean low tide, and the age of the seawall. Here is what to verify before you write an offer.

Quick verdict: what matters most when buying Florida waterfront

Waterfront in Florida is not one market. It is at least five, and they price differently. Oceanfront, Intracoastal frontage, deep-water canal with no fixed bridges, canal behind a fixed bridge, and freshwater lakefront each carry distinct values, insurance profiles, and buyer pools. Two homes on the same street can differ by seven figures because one has an open path to the ocean and the other does not.

Three things decide whether a waterfront home works for you. First, can your boat…

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Young Thug Skips Miami for a $5M Cooper City Estate

Rapper Young Thug just paid $5 million, all cash, for a brand-new two-acre estate in Cooper City, well west of Miami's waterfront. The purchase reads as a move toward privacy and space, less than two years after he walked free from the YSL racketeering case.

Key Takeaways

• Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, paid $5 million cash for a newly built, roughly 6,000-square-foot estate on a two-acre lot in Cooper City, closing July 8, 2026.
• The home sold at a steep discount, dropping from an $8 million construction-era asking price to $5 million, about 37.5% off.
• He chose a private, gated compound in a quiet western suburb over a Miami waterfront trophy: a choice that fits a pivot toward privacy after the YSL case.

When a…

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The Mastropieri Group Named to 2026 Inc. 5000 List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies

Inc. Magazine's annual Inc. 5000 recognizes the fastest-growing private companies across America. We are thrilled to announce that The Mastropieri Group earned a spot on the 2026 list at No. 4,574. Our Boca Raton brokerage posted a verified 37% three-year revenue growth rate over the qualifying period. That growth also puts us alongside past honorees like Microsoft, Patagonia, and Under Armour.

Broker Larry Mastropieri leads The Mastropieri Group across Palm Beach and Broward Counties. Very few real estate firms make the annual ranking, so the placement matters for South Florida. This article walks through what the ranking represents and the drivers behind our 37% growth. Whether you're buying, selling, or investing, later sections cover what our…

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