Calta Group Lands $54M for Florida Development

The Calta Group has obtained $53.7 million in financing to develop a 251-unit mid-rise apartment community in Hollywood, Fla. The property will be built in two phases starting later in 2025, with the first phase taking about 18 months to complete.

The project, Caltopia, will include a mix of studio and one- and two-bedroom units in two four-story buildings. Located at 2217-2239 Jackson St., Caltopia’s first phase, Caltopia II, includes 100 units with an average size of 751 square feet. Average rents at the first phase are expected to be $2,465 per month.

Caltopia’s second phase, Caltopia I, which will be at 2718-2750 Van Buren St., comprises 151 units with an average size of 740 square feet. Rents at that phase will run about $2,590 per month. Both sites are a few blocks west of downtown Hollywood and about a mile east of Interstate 95.

Common-area amenities will include a pool, barbecue area, fitness center and yoga room. The properties will also feature a dog spa, lounge and kitchen area and coworking spaces, along with a 24-hour package storage and pickup.

Coral Gables-based Calta Group is a multifamily specialist active in South Florida. The company is also at work on another Hollywood property, the 180-unit Hollywood Entertainment Center at 2215-2233 Hollywood Blvd., for which it obtained about $60 million in development financing.

Forman Capital, a private direct real estate lender, provided the loan for Caltopia, with Scott Mehlman and Ty Regnier representing the lender in the transaction. Caltopia is Forman Capital’s first closing in 2025; last year, the lender closed over $358 million in real estate loans, with a focus on $5 million to $100 million debt and equity deals in the Southeast U.S.

South Florida still active

Hollywood, Fla., situated between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, is currently experiencing a building boom, according to Forman Capital Managing Partner Brett Forman. He noted that Caltopia will offer a less expensive alternative to properties in those markets.

South Florida’s multifamily sector is among the strongest markets nationwide, according to Lee & Associates, and has been for a number of years now, including 2024. By various metrics, it has outperformed every other asset class in Florida.

Multifamily vacancy rates in the area ticked down quarter-over-quarter in the last quarter 2024, with vacancies coming in at 6.1 percent. However, that was higher than a year earlier, when the rate was 5.7 percent. Net absorption increased, which bodes well for 2025, posits Lee & Associates, with some 18,680 units absorbed in 2024.

Average asking rents in South Florida came in at $2,214 a month in the fourth quarter of 2024, up from the previous quarter, and up from $2,184 a month a year earlier. Even so, developers are building fewer units in the region: 41,327 were under construction in the same period, compared with 45,712 a year earlier.