John Farina of U.S. Development: 5 Questions

As Pompano Beach, Fla., turns into a luxury condo market, U.S. Development has found success selling high-end units on the ocean.

The company has completed construction of Salato, a 40-unit project close to the shore at 305 Briny Avenue, and sold more than 70 percent of the units, which are priced from $2.4 million to $5.3 million.

Salato’s amenities and services include housekeeping with linen service, grocery pickup and stocking, spa and beauty treatments at the on-site Salato Spa, fitness classes, personal training and beach yoga, said John Farina, CEO of U.S. Development.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Commercial Observer: Pompano Beach wasn’t a luxury market for a long time. What prompted you to do a high-end project there?

John Farina: When we started looking at the South Florida market in general, Pompano Beach was really the next shoe to drop. It’s nestled between Boca Raton and Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale, and it was inevitable that this market was bound to really have growth.

And we weren’t the first to come in there. You saw the Ritz-Carlton came in right before us, and we saw that the opportunity was there. Pompano has always been a sleepy little town, but when you really take a look at it, you see some of the nicest beaches in southeast Florida. 

We said, “Wow, there’s some great opportunity here. The prices aren’t as high.” 

There’s a lot more buyers in our pool in Pompano Beach, and we really thought it was a destination that was up and coming, and it was a great opportunity for us.

What makes Salato unique?

What’s drawing a different type of buyer is that we’re really focused on privacy and intimacy. With only 40 units, we have four semi-private elevators. We have 14-foot-deep terraces, which you don’t really see in larger buildings. 

We have 20,000 square feet of amenities for only 40 units, and when you’re there, you really feel like it’s almost like you’re living in a single-family home, because it’s really not that dense. We have self-parking, which a lot of the other buildings don’t allow.

What’s been your biggest challenge with this project?

I don’t think we’ve really faced too many challenges. Pompano offered an opportunity for a lot of buyers that might have been priced out in Delray Beach. They might have been priced out in Miami, and we really saw a lot of influx of buyers that we didn’t expect coming up from the Miami market, from the local market. 

As for any negatives that we saw, maybe the absorption wasn’t as high as you saw during the COVID times. I think we’re really pleased with how we’ve done compared to a lot of the other competition in the market.

I’ve been surprised at just how long this South Florida luxury boom has gone on. I would have thought things would have cooled, but our experience and the experience of others is that it’s still going strong.

If you talk to people in the Northeast and people from outside Florida, they say things like, “Wow, Florida prices have dropped,” or, “The market’s gotten soft.” That’s a misnomer. 

What’s really happened is, there’s a lot more inventory that’s popped up, but the inventory is really a lot of the older product, and that was really due to the Surfside collapse, and the new condominium laws that have come into place. But savvy and sophisticated buyers understand the benefit of buying a new development. We carry reserves, and we don’t have the risk of assessments with certifications that come along every 10 years. 

So there’s confidence, there’s security in buying into new development versus buying in the existing condo market.

Any other projects that you’re planning in South Florida?

Not in South Florida, but we’re doing a Viceroy-branded residence in Clearwater Beach. It’s two towers, 86 condos, owners’ restaurant, over 20,000 square feet of amenities. 

We have a private beach club. We’re building our own private beach on the Gulf. There’ll be pool service, beach service, a full spa, hot and cold-plunge pool, sauna, steam rooms, club room, residence lounge, team center, golf simulator, three or four bars throughout the property. It’s really the first new development in about 20 years in the market, and it’s really something that the market’s not seen yet.

Jeff Ostrowski can be reached at jostrowski@commercialobserver.com.