Fort Lauderdale has become the latest destination for New York real estate money. Developers from the city are wagering that high prices in Miami and a wave of younger residents will turn Fort Lauderdale into South Florida’s next luxury market.
New York firms now control 4.6 million square feet of downtown Fort Lauderdale’s development pipeline, nearly half of the total, according to a Bloomberg report published Friday. That is a dramatic jump from 2021 through 2024, when New York builders accounted for roughly 13% of completed projects. The new wave includes luxury condominiums, rental towers and large mixed-use complexes, much of it backed by Wall Street financing.
Brooklyn developers Isaac Schlesinger and Simon Dushinsky, who co-founded Dependable Equities, are among the most active. After building luxury condos in several Brooklyn neighborhoods, the partners are now working on three projects in Fort Lauderdale. The first, Ombelle, will feature two towers with 754 units and is expected to open around 2028. Schlesinger told Bloomberg that 45% of the units in one tower have already been sold. The development will also bring Fort Lauderdale its first Equinox gym.
The pitch to buyers is simple: South Florida living at a lower price and a slower pace than Miami. According to Redfin figures cited by Bloomberg, the median home in Fort Lauderdale sells for about $70,000 less than one in Miami. That gap has narrowed from roughly $120,000 a year ago, a sign that Fort Lauderdale prices are catching up.
Miki Naftali, whose New York firm is building more than 250 condos and a rental property in the Flagler Village neighborhood, told Bloomberg that some buyers have grown tired of Miami’s noise and crowds and want something a step quieter. He expects significant price growth over the next five to ten years, arguing that the city’s rise is “just at the beginning of the story.”
Geography helps make the case. Positioned between Miami and Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale gives developers a cheaper entry point into a region that continues to attract new residents and wealth. Getting around is also becoming easier. Brightline trains now connect downtown Fort Lauderdale to downtown Miami in about 40 minutes, and airlines have added flights at the local airport since Spirit Airlines shut down.
The developers are following a well-established migration path. A Citizens Budget Commission analysis found that more than 125,000 New Yorkers moved to Florida between 2018 and 2022, taking nearly $14 billion in adjusted gross income with them. About 41,250 of those transplants settled in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties, the last of which includes Fort Lauderdale. New York remains the top source of out-of-state arrivals to the city’s downtown, according to a local development group cited by Bloomberg.
The newcomers are also skewing younger. The number of downtown residents under 45 has grown by 25% since 2020, a trend that developers hope will keep demand strong for years to come.
