South Florida Luxury downtown living.

Introduction

Florida is the Sunshine State, and with it comes hundreds of miles of beaches, intricate waterways branching off the Intracoastal, and spectacular tropical foliage, tall palms, oaks, banyans, and cypress groves growing prolifically everywhere. Nature preserves, and parks abound; in some areas, wall-to-wall golf courses define the landscape.

So, with all that in the mix, the most compelling residential driver and emotional motivator in every real estate decision circles back to lifestyle. But of course, investment value invariably plays into it, as does monthly upkeep - two primary monetary considerations. Also, the acquisition is a second or third home away from home, and for many since COVID-19, it represents significant relocation from other states like New York and California. Nonetheless, lifestyle is upfront, with A to Z possibilities for every taste and budget. 

With a clean slate and every opportunity on the table, home buyers face a buffet of options such as (to name a few):

• Country clubs (equity and non-equity) and estate homes
• Ungated neighborhoods, historic districts, and modern resort-style enclaves.
• Pre-2000 amenity-filled communities and low/mid/high-rise sky homes with extensive tower-provided facilities.
• Boating suburbs with 100' boat docks in the backyard (and no fixed bridges to ocean outlets).
• Ranches on multi-acre spreads.
•  Active Adult complexes with all the bells and whistles.
• Dedicated townhome compounds in nature-centric settings. 

Then, they can choose waterways or fairways, single-family (SF), Multifamily (MF) or mixed-use (MU), inland or by the ocean, or cities from:

•  Miami to Fort Lauderdale.
•  Boca Raton to Parkland, Highland Beach, Delray Beach, and Boynton Beach.
•  Lake Worth to Wellington, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, and Jupiter. 

Finally, a massive lifestyle overlay that fits almost every category above is the New Urban Living (NUL) attraction that's caught on like a fire in a dry cornfield - the focus of this article.   

What is New Urban Living?

In a nutshell, it's all about residential luxury and big-city convenience with a Capital B. Since remote working as a cultural workplace phenomenon hit communities countrywide, people realized they could have their cake and eat it. 

NUL lovers say goodbye to small apartments in freezing winters, two hours traveling to and fro from the office Monday to Friday, confinement to a three-by-three cubicle nine hours a day/seven days a week, and getting home too tired to enjoy quality family time. In contrast, they give a wholehearted "hello" to spaciousness with gardens, heated pools, basketball courts, and trails steps away with high-tech home offices and time for one's spouse and taking the kids to school. Also, they enjoy affordable gourmet kitchens, spa bathrooms, walk-in closets & pantries, and living space relaxation. And that's only half of the NUL narrative. Consider the following:

• Leaving the community and strolling, jogging, or biking to a nearby sophisticated infrastructure:
• Restaurants, bars, coffee shops, delis, supermarkets, bank branches, boutique outlets, national chains, ATMs, and beauty salons (you name it).
• Lively city entertainment, parks, regularly-held events, and festivals.
• Galleries, museums, and clubs 
• Living within a few miles of: 
• Golf courses, pickleball & tennis venues, clinics, and healthcare pros.
• Nearby highways to international airports. 
• White sand beaches, marinas for docking boats, and good schools.

So where are the two best NUL downtown (or near) neighborhoods in South Florida?

So many city sections qualify for NUL as described above (or 90% of it), including westerly projects that connect to fantastic recently constructed commercial centers adjacent to residential concentrations. We'll cover these in other articles, but our focus here is on the best of downtown services, similar to Manhattan in NYC, except with warm tropical weather all year around. Our two picks are:

Downtown Boca Raton (DBR) - Its one square mile of prime real estate contains contemporary and ultra-modern condo towers selling between $1,200 and $2,500 a square foot under-air (UA), such as Mandarin Oriental, Alina, Royal Palm Residences, and Tower 155 with mega-luxury features from corner to corner. 

A pricing step-down embraces buildings like 200 East, Palmetto Place, and Townsend Place. The common thread tying all of them is they're amid 100 fine-dining/casual restaurants and bars, high-end shopping at Mizner Park and Royal Palm Plaza, live entertainment, and a hop, skip, and jump from the Intracoastal, long beach stretches, and globally famous Boca Resort and Club (the Resort) with five-star leisure amenities. 

Then, on or near the Resort campus (anchoring BDR) are spectacular sky home opportunities Presidential Place, One Thousand Ocean, Mizner Grand, Luxuria, and Excelsior, priced from $4 million. Too expensive? Numerous neighboring pre-2000 MF residences of 1200 to 4000 square feet (UA) with 270-degree spectacular views start at $600 per square foot (UA) but include concrete reconstructions, roof replacements, and extensive renovations to tropical pools, sundecks, fitness centers, lobbies, and clubhouses. 

• Three of many in the above category are Beresford, Sea Ranch Club, and Placide, alongside the Sabal enclaves - Sabal Shores, Sabal Point, and Sabal Ridge - the latter two being Active Adult towers.
• A couple of miles north in Highland Beach on either side of the A1A with direct Atlantic or Intracoastal locations nestle the following:
• Starting at the top of the valuation scale - Ocean Place Estates, Ocean Place Villas, and ultra-modern Bel Lido Isle, many with SF private beaches selling between $2.5 million and $14 million.
• Toscana's three high-rise towers, 426 units from $550 to $1,100 per square foot (UA), with models ranging from 2,200 to 3,200 square feet of living space. 
• Numerous selections in buildings like Coronado (vintage 1980s), Villa Nova, Casuarina, and the Highland Beach Club, offering approximately 1500 square foot (UA) condos from under $1 million to $2 million (depending on the level of upgrades).

Finally, a few minutes drive from BDR are communities like Trieste (townhomes) and SF estate compounds such as Hidden Valley, Library Commons, Palm Beach Farms,  and historic suburb Old Floresta. The latter ranges between $600 (for a knockdown) to over $1000 per sq. ft. (UA) for modern construction in a regenerative wave east of the I95. 

West Palm Beach Downtown (WPBD) - Embracing a few blocks on Flagler Drive via Clematis Street and The Square regional shopping center covers everything described above under NUL and DBR. It's seamlessly accessible to WPBD residents, plus seven highly rated clinics and Palm Beach International Airport (almost in touching distance). In addition, they can bike ride to:

• Worth Avenue's high-end boutique outlets.
• Norton Museum of Art (with eye-popping displays of American, European, Chinese, and Impressionist masterpieces)
• The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, presenting a continuous schedule of concerts, plays, dance, and opera (minutes away from any WPBD address).

The NUL real estate profile encompasses mega-luxury sky homes (1,300 to 9,000 square feet UA) such as The Bristol, La Clara, One Watermark Place, Esplanade Grande, and Forte on Flagler. These units close at between $1,500 and $3,500 per square foot (UA) with 1000 to 2000 square feet terraces overlooking stunning city light-scapes at night and taking in stress-releasing water vistas by day. 

Then, for $600 to $1500 per square foot (UA), one can find unique accommodation packages in Trianon, Rapallo, Plaza of the Palm Beaches (formerly Trump Plaza), 101 Lofts, and Waterview Towers. 

Staying on the Intracoastal (across Flagler Drive), $450,000 to $900,000 budgets qualify for units in pre-2000 vintage complexes (with fantastic outlooks) in The Palm Beach House, Villa Lofts, Yacht Club Towers, and Flagler Landing. 

Flagler Drive also fronts:

• The Slade, Portofino, La Fontana, and others at prices $230,000 to $440,000.
• Ungated historic SF estate home neighborhoods that align perfectly with NUL, like:
•  Flamingo Park, Northwood, and North Shore Terrace (homes between 900 and 3,000 square feet under air @ $550 to $1,485 per square foot UA).
• El Cid - $1,800 a square foot (UA) to over $4,000, with some homes selling for over $15 million.
• Magnolia Court - a townhome development inside El Cid around 2,000 square feet UA, rarely appearing on the MLS, but selling for more than $1 million when they do. 

Condo towers circling The Square shopping center and Clematis Street represent the core of New Urban Living, with 10,000 residents staking their claims in mostly early 2000 vintage towers, with a massive renter community among them. Condo prices range from $300 to over $700 per square foot (UA) for units of 1,000 to over 2,000 per square foot (UA), the most popular being:

•  One City Plaza, Two City Plaza, and City Palms
• The Prado, City Place South Tower, and Metropolitan.
•  The Whitney, 610 Clematis, and The Strand.

Conclusion

NUL is here to stay, and many real estate experts believe it's only the beginning of a trend, also evident in Downtown Fort Lauderdale's (DFL) - the Galt Ocean Mile (GOM). The latter is a land strip 1,700 yards long (as the name suggests) and approximately 300 yards wide - directly on the ocean and a stone's throw from DFL's famous Las Olas. It warrants an article in its own right, home to thousands of residents living in the thirty or so high-rise towers that define GOM's skyline.  

The Sunshine State has many dimensions, but undoubtedly New Urban Living has made its indelible mark on billionaires, snowbirds, migrating families, remote workers, retirees, boaters, golfers, and every demographic one can think of. No matter what vertical you select, NUL is not far away.