The developer building 21 Key West-style townhouses at The Strand – a new 36-acre waterfront community just north of Palm Island Plantation in Indian River Shores – says construction will begin before the end of the year.
The townhomes, priced from about $800,000 to $1 million, will occupy 4.9 acres at the front of the development, adjacent to A1A. The Strand also will include 47 single-family homes that will be built on the remaining 31 acres, which extend back to the Jungle Trail.
“We have been pushing hard to get out of the ground,” said a spokesperson for the townhome developer, The Strand Beach Cottages LLC. The homes have been listed, pre-construction, with Matilde Sorensen since last summer.
“There has been quite a bit of interest in the development,” says Sorensen. “We have two reservations with deposits and 12 other buyers very interested. I expect that momentum to continue.”
While there will be no clubhouse in the community, the townhomes come with memberships paid for by the developer in the nearby Grand Harbor Beach Club.
The Strand Beach Cottages and Lennar, which will build the single-family homes that will be priced up to $2 million, are purchasing finished lots from The Patten Company, a national real estate development firm that bought the tract for $5 million in June 2017 and got an overall site plan approved by Indian River Shores last summer.
Patten hired Jon M. Hall, a surveying and site development company with offices in Orlando and Daytona Beach, to clear and prepare the property for construction, and site work is nearly complete at the development.
The Strand Beach Cottages LLC signed a contract to purchase the townhome section of the project a year ago.
There will be 5 townhouse buildings with both one-story and two-story units. The homes will have luxury finishes and features that include stone and hardwood floors, 11-foot ceilings, and high-end millwork.
The one-story townhouses will have 2,328 square feet of air-conditioned living space, with 2,872 square feet under roof. The two-story units will have 3,078 square feet under air, with 4,131 square feet under roof. Both models will include three bedrooms and attached two-car garages.
“We expect the first four units to be finished in about seven months,” says the developer. “It will be quick because the site work is already done.”
The Key West-style townhouses were designed by Vero Beach architect Jeff L. Ray of Atelier d’Architecture. They will be built by Phoenix Homes, a luxury homebuilder that has done extensive work on the island, building houses at Old Oak Lane, Tarpon Flats and other developments.
Lennar signed a contract with Patten in August and will be building all of the single-family homes in The Strand, according to Chris Leimbach, vice president of sales and marketing at Lennar Palm Atlantic, a division of the mega-builder that operates between the Space Coast and Fort Lauderdale.
“We will be offering one- and two-story homes with four floorplans ranging from about 2,600 to 4,000 square feet,” says Leimbach. “The houses will have three-car, side-entry garages with up to five bedrooms and four baths.
“We are in the permitting process now for a model home that will be done by next summer. In the meantime, we plan to list homes in the MLS and offer pre-sales beginning in early 2019. We’ll an in-house sales office at the model and will cooperate with local brokers. Typically more than half our sales are joint efforts, where local brokers bring the buyers.”
Leimbach says the “homes will have a lot of very nice design features with coastal flair.”
The Lennar homes do not include Grand Harbor memberships, but the fact that no clubhouse is planned will help keep HOA fees moderate, according to Leimbach.
“The location and community in itself are the amenities,” he says.
“It is a truly exciting community. When I stop by to see how things are going, it is hard for me to leave. The essence and beauty of the location are compelling. We think it is going to be a home run.”
