With an eye to the future, ZOM Senior Living and Watermark Retirement Communities bought two parcels of land in southeast Florida to develop a couple of seniors housing communities. Development has certainly slowed for a variety of reasons, like state and local orders, lack of financing or an abundance of caution from investors. After all, who can be sure how much lease-up projections may change in the next several years. Some developers willing to break ground today may benefit from the lack of new supply, but it will vary from market to market.
The ZOM/Watermark joint venture will first break ground later this summer on a 196-unit community in Coral Gables (Miami MSA), which will feature independent living, assisted living and memory care services plus around 50,000 square feet of amenities. PNC Bank provided the construction financing.
Then, also this summer, they will start building a 154-unit IL/AL/MC community in West Palm Beach with about 30,000 square feet of amenity space. M&T Bank will fund that project. MSA Architects and Lemay-Escobar Design designed both communities, while Verdex Construction is the West Palm Beach contractor and Kast Construction is building the Coral Gables property.
These projects will be the second and third communities in South Florida for ZOM Senior Living, which has another project underway in nearby Wellington. Meanwhile, Watermark has four total developments nearing completion, which will bring its portfolio to 63 managed communities across 21 states.
