A $119 Million Bet on Palm Beach Gardens Office Space, and What It Signals for North County Commercial Real Estate

Gatsby Florida has secured a $118.6 million construction loan from Cirrus Real Estate Partners for The Palm, an eight-story office and retail project at 11200 RCA Center Drive in Palm Beach Gardens, and it is moving forward without a single tenant signed. The project, reported by Traded at the end of August, will add about 200,000 square feet of Class A office space, 30,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and an 838-space parking garage on a five-acre site between I-95 and the Legacy Place shopping center. Construction is scheduled to begin this fall, with completion expected in 2028.

The deal in numbers

Gatsby Florida bought the land in 2022 for $17.5 million, about $3.5 million an acre. The new loan is a three-year, floating-rate, interest-only construction facility arranged by Charles Foschini, Scott Wadler and Shannon Wilson of Berkadia. On its own, the loan works out to roughly $515 for every square foot of office and retail space the project will deliver, before any equity the developer contributes.

The sponsor is not new to the region. Gatsby Florida, founded in 2019, bought the 800 Brickell office tower in Miami for $125.5 million that year and paid $80 million for Di Vosta Towers in Palm Beach Gardens in 2020. Its thesis for The Palm is that the financial firms, family offices and professional businesses moving into Palm Beach County will keep pushing demand north from downtown West Palm Beach. Foschini put the supply side plainly: new institutional-quality office development “remains extremely limited.”

What a speculative loan tells you about capital

A lender committing more than $118 million to an unleased building is a meaningful signal. It says that construction capital is available in Palm Beach County for well-located projects with experienced sponsors, even in a higher-rate environment. The terms say something too. Floating-rate, interest-only, three-year debt is a bridge to a finished, leased building, priced for risk. The developer’s return depends on leasing up quickly enough, and at high enough rents, to refinance into permanent debt in 2028 or 2029.

The contrast with industrial is worth noting. Speculative industrial construction in Palm Beach County has pulled back sharply, with about 811,000 square feet under construction at midyear, according to Cushman & Wakefield, down from more than 2.6 million square feet at the 2023 peak in CBRE’s series. Capital that was chasing warehouses two years ago is now selective, while capital for trophy office in the right north county location is still there.

Why it matters beyond office

The migration The Palm is betting on does not only fill office towers. Every financial firm and family office that relocates brings employees, households and spending, and those create demand for the businesses that occupy small industrial and flex buildings: contractors, HVAC and electrical companies, marine and luxury auto services, storage, and the distributors that supply them. That is one reason Palm Beach County’s office-service and flex space ran just 4.2% vacant in the second quarter, against 10.0% for large warehouse and distribution buildings, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

What this means for you

If you are an office tenant planning a move in north county, The Palm adds an option for 2028, but it is a future building with a future rent. If your timeline is sooner, existing Class A space will be tighter and more expensive, so start early and keep the new delivery in your negotiations as leverage.

If you own commercial property in Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter or Riviera Beach, the deal is a reminder that capital is pricing north county as a long-term growth market. Owners of small-bay and flex buildings that serve this population are in one of the tightest segments in the county. If you carry floating-rate debt yourself, the same math the developer faces applies to you: income growth, not falling rates, is what supports value.

If you are an investor, follow where construction lenders are willing to go. Today that means finished, well-located product and select development with strong sponsorship, not a broad return to speculative building.

AXCESS Commercial works with owners across Palm Beach County, leasing space, listing properties for sale and managing buildings so they capture the demand this growth is creating.

Talk to our team about leasing, listing or managing your Palm Beach County property →