Luxury, wellness find a home on Singer Island

by Robyn A. Friedman

03/13/06

A Palm Beach Gardens-based development firm has announced plans to build a residential and hotel project on Singer Island that will bring a distinctive Eastern philosophy of living to the area.

The project called Amrit Resort & Residences will include 195 condominiums, six beachfront villas and a 100-room boutique hotel managed by Aveda Living.

Amrit, which means "elixir of life" in Sanskrit, will rise on a nearly seven-acre site at 3100 N. Ocean Drive on Singer Island, the barrier island section of Riviera Beach.

"This is a unique lifestyle which is not now available in northern Palm Beach County," said Dilip Barot, president of Creative Choice Inc., the developer. "We're combining luxury with integrated wellness."

Barot said he expects the project to appeal to both primary and second-home buyers who are into fitness and are seeking a balanced lifestyle. Residents of Amrit will have access to the onsite Center for a Balanced Lifestyle, which will offer services like Ayurvedic treatments, massages, diet and nutrition counseling, aerobics classes, yoga and meditation.

Amrit will consist of three, 20-story towers. The condos will range from 2,000 to 3,500 square feet and will be priced from $1.1 million. Also, there will be six beachfront villas, each averaging 4,100 square feet and costing about $5 million. The units will feature private home theaters, home automation systems and other luxury appointments.

Barot expects to break ground this spring and complete the project in about two years. He said buyers have reserved about 80 units. Barot has developed and managed more than 7,000 residential units in the past 12 years. And he recently worked on a 10 million-square-foot, mixed-use development in Asia.

Amrit faces stiff competition on Singer Island, a coastal community in northeastern Palm Beach County. Toll Brothers Inc., one of the nation's largest home builders, is building a 40-unit oceanfront condominium at 5050 N. Ocean Drive called Ocean's Edge, with prices ranging from $1.6 million to $4.5 million. Palm Beach Gardens-based Catalfumo Construction and Development Inc. is building 2700 North Ocean, a 242-unit project where 90 condos are still available at prices starting from $1.5 million. And WCI Communities Inc. still has a few residences available at One Singer Island and The Resort at Singer Island, its two projects there. There are plenty of condo resales on the market, too.

That's why one real estate agent familiar with the Singer Island market has concerns about how units at Amrit will sell.

"There are so many on the market right now, and they're not selling," said Sherry Temple, a broker-associate with Illustrated Properties Real Estate Inc. on Singer Island. "All the new developments were selling last year, but there's not a lot of high-end stuff under contract right now."

Temple said the market for new construction on Singer Island has "slowed considerably," but added that Amrit's positioning as a wellness community might help to distinguish it from the competition. Still, she said resales by investors are flooding the market.

There are 373 condos listed on the Multiple Listing Service on Singer Island, Temple said. For the past three years, the average has been 70 condos.

"The sales have dwindled off to a lower level than we've seen in a long time," she said.

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