Alta Developers lands $140M loan for Fort Lauderdale tower

Alta Developers has closed a $140.2 million construction loan for a 35-story, roughly 400-unit rental tower at 100 Southwest Sixth Street in Fort Lauderdale, with vertical construction now underway on a site the developer assembled more than four years ago.

The loan, structured through administrative agent JVP Management, assumed $10.4 million in existing debt on the property and increased it by $129.8 million, according to mortgage documents tied to the deal. Alta, led by Raimundo Onetto, bought the one acre parcel for $20.8 million in 2022, well before breaking ground this month.

Why it matters

The closing shows construction lenders are still willing to fund large rental towers in Fort Lauderdale’s urban core, even as some South Florida multifamily deals have slowed. The site sits just east of the Brightline tracks and about two blocks south of the New River, close enough to downtown Fort Lauderdale to draw renters priced out of nearby Miami and Fort Lauderdale beach product. Average asking rents in Fort Lauderdale run around $2,250 a month, per Apartments.com, a benchmark the project’s roughly 840 square foot average unit size appears built around.

The numbers

The tower will rise 35 stories with about 400 apartments and a nine story parking garage attached. Kaufman Lynn Construction is the general contractor. Completion is expected in the fourth quarter of 2028, more than four years after Alta closed on the land in 2022.

What’s next

With financing closed and construction started, the next marker to watch is vertical progress toward the Q4 2028 completion date, and how lease up pricing lands against Fort Lauderdale’s roughly $2,250 average rent once the first units come online. The project adds to a pipeline of large rental towers rising near downtown Fort Lauderdale and the South Florida rental market more broadly.