Developers score OK for 30-story Flagler Village rental tower

Steven Hudson and Charles Ladd Jr. are closer to embarking on the first of their two planned apartment towers in Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village neighborhood.

The Fort Lauderdale City Commission on Tuesday gave final approval to the duo’s 30-story Flagler Residences South.

The 320-unit building will have 31,000 square feet of commercial space, including a restaurant atop the garage podium, on 1.5 acres at 513-517 Northeast Sixth Street. Commissioners approved building floor plates of roughly 20,000 square feet on floors eight to 15, larger than the preferred maximum of 18,000 square feet above a podium, city records show. The building’s bigger floor plates allow for an “architecturally interesting” project, according to a city staff memo.

Construction is expected to start within a year and completion is slated for the third quarter of 2025, Ladd told The Real Deal.

The tower is part of Hudson and Ladd’s bigger project spanning 4.7 acres on the northwest corner of North Federal Highway and Northeast Sixth Street. It includes a second apartment tower and an almost finished office building with a restaurant.

The duo initially envisioned this as an iPic-anchored project, scoring pre-pandemic city approval for the movie theater and other retail to rise at 689 North Federal Highway. The property is immediately north of the Flagler Residences South lot.

After Covid threw into question the viability of the already struggling movie theater industry, and as Flagler Village grew into a coveted residential market, the developers scrapped the iPic plan.

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Hudson and Ladd have asked the city to instead approve a 30-story, 240-unit apartment tower with a grocery store and other retail on the lot previously slated for the iPic, Ladd said. He declined to identify the grocer expected to open on the ground floor.

Next door, the four-story office building underway at 699 North Federal Highway includes a ground-floor restaurant space, with a lease to North Italia pending, according to Ladd.

The developers assembled the entire development site from 2018 to 2020, paying from $25 million to $30 million, he said.

Hudson and Ladd have partnered on other Broward County real estate ventures.

Hudson co-founded Fort Lauderdale-based Hudson Capital Group with his father, Harris “Whit” Hudson. Ladd leads Barron Real Estate, also based in Fort Lauderdale.

In March, they expanded their East Las Olas Boulevard portfolio with the $7 million purchase of the adjacent two-story restaurant building at 1103 East Las Olas Boulevard, and the ground-floor retail and office space at the adjacent Villaggio di Las Olas condominium.

The duo also completed a retail building on the northeast corner of East Las Olas Boulevard and 10th Terrace, and plans a 138-key luxury hotel on the northwest corner of Las Olas and 10th Terrace.

In Oakland Park, they bought the Primavera Plaza at 830 and 840 East Oakland Park for $10 million and the Festival Centre at 3400-3570 North Andrews Avenue for $23.4 million last summer.

In October, they paid $40.5 million for the retail-and-office plaza South Harbor Plaza at 1300 Southeast 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale. Las Olas Capital Advisors and Foreward Management also were investors in that deal.