Breakers Hotel Owners Building Palm Beach County’s First Employer-Based Housing Dev
Flagler System Management just bought 2.5 acres along North Australian Avenue for the development
By Julia Echikson March 5, 2026 2:34 pm
reprints
As West Palm Beach becomes more unaffordable for locals, including those in service jobs, wealthy investors and employers are looking to add mixed-income housing. That includes the owners of the historic luxury Breakers resort located across the Intracoastal Waterway in the uber-wealthy island town of Palm Beach.
Flagler System Management — an affiliate of the Kenin family, descendants of oil magnate Henry Flagler, who founded the oceanfront Breakers hotel — bought a 2.5-acre assemblage for a combined $9.1 million.
In the larger transaction, the firm paid $8.5 million for a 1.3-acre development site between 2480 and 2508 North Australian Avenue, property records show. The seller, Palm Beach-based VDG Partners, had purchased the land for $2.5 million in 2024.
In tandem with that deal, the City of West Palm Beach approved the $600,000 sale of a 1.2-acre site directly south at 2410 North Australian Avenue to Flagler System Management and switched the land’s zoning from “recreation and open space and neighborhood commercial” to “multifamily high-density residential.”
The hotel operator plans to develop a multifamily property with 155 apartments, including 79 workforce housing units, making it Palm Beach County’s first employer-based workforce housing development, according to filings to the city. The development will also include a community pool and surface parking.
The plans come just as rents in the city are surging — up by 3.4 percent in the past year, according to Apartments.com — as high-profile finance companies such as Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase have signed office leases and moved their well-compensated employees.
The city’s transformation is happening due largely to Stephen Ross, a billionaire developer who is building offices and condos, and even hosting conferences catering to this high-end clientele. Now Ross, too, is looking to add mixed-income housing.
Last week, his firm, Related Ross, filed a proposal to build a 164-unit development closer to the city’s downtown, where rents will be calculated in line with the area’s median income. A representative for the developer has not yet provided additional details about the apartment’s pricing.
Representatives for the Breakers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
