PALM BEACH, FL—Archstone just started construction on a new multifamily property in Royal Palm Beach. The multifamily project is a joint venture with Futura Acquisitions Group.

Currently known as the Enclave at Wellington, the multifamily complex will feature 268 apartment homes at the corner of Highway 441 and Anthony Groves Road. That’s adjacent to the Anthony Groves Plaza shopping center.

“The community will be set back from the heavily traveled road and buffered by a new lake and a nature and fitness park,” Avery Klann, lead broker on the deal for ARA, said in a statement. “Residents will enjoy the quiet seclusion of a unique, luxurious and cultured country lifestyle, while benefitting from quick and convenient access to the many retail, entertainment and employment centers located along the State Road 7 corridor and nearby town centers, such as downtown West Palm Beach, located within a 20-minute drive to the east.”

The luxury multifamily community will offer direct access to the highway and reflect Royal Palm Beach’s commitment to open space. Plans include a recreational trail with fitness stations encompassed by a new park and lakefront, dog park and substantial green spaces.

CBRE’s South Florida Multi-Housing Group executive vice president Robert Given tells GlobeSt.com new multifamily product is needed. That’s because very little multifamily product has been built since 2000 that still exists as multifamily. Many multifamily assets were converted to condominiums, he explains, and there’s been a stranglehold on new multifamily development based on available land.

“When you look over the past four decades, there’s still only about half the amount of multifamily supply as the prior three decades each,” Given says. “That means in the current decade, from my perspective, we either need to continue to rehab multifamily products from the 80s and 90s and move them up to the current standards or build more multifamily than what we’ve historically built.”

ARA brokered the joint-venture transaction between the two development partners. ARA’s Boca Raton-based principals Klann and Marc deBaptiste represented Futura, as lead developer. Archstone, now fully run by Lehman Bros., will lead the construction management and lease up effort for the venture.