From left: Landstar Development Group’s Virginia Cepero, Rosa Eckstein Schecter, and David Serviansky along with a rendering of Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens (Getty, Landstar Development Group)
Avenir’s master developer paid $56.7 million for 857 acres in the Palm Beach Gardens planned community.
Records show that Avenir Holdings LLC sold the acreage to Avenir Development LLC. Both entities are managed by partners of Landstar Development Group, a Coral Gables-based family-owned real estate developer.
Landstar was founded in central Florida in 1978 and has developments across Florida and Texas, according to its website. It is led by principals Bernard Eckstein, David Serviansky, Eduardo Stern, Roberto Horwitz, Rodolfo Stern, Rosa Eckstein Schecter, and CFO Virginia Cepero.
Landstar’s 4,752-acre Avenir has been in the works since 2016, when Palm Beach Gardens approved the development of 3,900 homes, 2 million square feet of office space and 400,000 square feet of retail in 2016. The development also includes a 2,400-acre nature preserve, a 300-key hotel and a golf club.
The site is a special taxing district, led by the public private partnership Avenir Community Development District, which is headed by five Landstar partners. The special taxing district is financing the construction of public infrastructure in the development.
According to records, Landstar established Avenir Holdings in 2012, and bought the land just north of Northlake Boulevard for $20 million that year.
Landstar has expanded the Avenir development site before, including adding 445 acres for $69.4 million in 2021. Another large plot of acreagee traded between the same entities for $95 million in 2018. Avenir Holdings also sold 2,287 acres to Avenir Development for $15 million in 2017.
Records show Landstar has funded Avenir Development’s purchases with financing from Avenir Holdings. In this latest deal, Landstar upped the mortgage between the two entities by an additional $51 million to $215.9 million, according to property records.
Other homebuilders have bought homesites at Avenir since the project’s approval. GL Homes paid $35.3 million for 337 home sites in December. PulteGroup dropped $21.7 million on 178 home sites at Avenir since 2021. Toll Brothers, Kenco, KHovnanian, Divosta, and Akel Homes are also building homes in Avenir.
Centaur Holdings, a Switzerland-based investment company that is developing Panther National Golf Club at Avenir, secured a $170 million financing package for the project from Monroe Capital in May.
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