Fort Lauderdale Just Cleared the Way for 4,200+ New Homes

The quick version

1. The Galleria becomes a neighborhood

The biggest of the three is the Galleria mall on East Sunrise Boulevard near the Intracoastal. A joint venture of developer Russell Galbut's family office, GFO Investments, along with InSite Group, Prime Finance and Atlas Hill Real Estate, bought the 31.5-acre property for $73 million in September 2025.

The plan calls for eight towers of about 30 stories each and 3,144 rental apartments, split into two halves:

• Galleria East: five towers, 1,981 apartments (1,181 market rate and 800 workforce housing), plus about 61,200 square feet of fitness space, 32,596 square feet of commercial space and a small restaurant space.
• Galleria West: three towers, 1,163 apartments (690 market rate and 473 workforce housing), plus a 170-room hotel, office space, restaurant space and retail.

Commissioner Steve Glassman told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the developer plans to remodel the mall itself as part of the first phase. Plans the developer presented in May included a redesigned Macy's, and Florida YIMBY reports the project includes more than 4,700 parking spaces.

Why there was no big commission vote

This is a Live Local Act project. Under that state law, a developer who sets aside enough affordable units can get approved by city staff, with no Planning Board or City Commission vote. The developer received the city's Certificate of Completeness, its administrative approval, according to city documents the Sun Sentinel reported on Thursday, Oct. 22.

That's why you may have seen headlines saying the project was "greenlit" even though residents never got a final public hearing. More than 200 people showed up to protest at a city meeting in 2025, and a petition collected over 1,000 signatures.

Who qualifies for the workforce apartments

Under Live Local, at least 40% of the units must be rented to households earning no more than 120% of Broward's area median income, for at least 30 years. Based on the current median of $102,500, the Sun Sentinel reports that eligible renters would earn roughly $82,000 to $123,000 a year.

That's a middle-income range, not the lower-income range most people picture when they hear "affordable housing."

It's approved, but it isn't a done deal

Approval doesn't mean shovels next week. Before the city issues the first building permit, the developer has to submit revised plans that match the traffic study dated Sept. 28, 2026. If the plan changes enough to affect traffic, a new traffic study is required. The approval also comes with conditions for utility coordination and phased permitting.

Mayor Dean Trantalis told the Sun Sentinel he isn't sure the developer will be able to meet all of them. Glassman said he wasn't sure when work would start and that he has to hope "the area is going to be able to handle all of the traffic."

Opponents, many of whom live nearby, have raised concerns about the impact on roads and on infrastructure like water and sewer pipes. No construction start date has been announced.

2. Two more towers on Federal Highway downtown

On Tuesday, Oct. 20, the City Commission voted unanimously to approve an amended site plan for 317 N Federal, a twin-tower project from Fort Lauderdale-based Merrimac Ventures, led by Dev and Nitin Motwani.

• Site: 1.8 acres at 317 N Federal Highway and 515 NE Third Street in downtown Fort Lauderdale, home to a Greyhound bus stop and a two-story retail building occupied by Sherwin-Williams.
• Size: two towers with 773 residences and about 7,820 square feet of commercial space. Under the amended plan, the west tower drops from 42 to 37 stories with 423 units.
• Timeline: The city's Development Review Committee approved the original site plan in July 2021, so this caps about five years of planning. No groundbreaking date has been announced.

It joins a growing list of downtown approvals, including a 30-story rental tower from 13th Floor Investments and the 249-unit Astor Progresso Village from Midtown Capital Partners, both approved the month before.

3. Cypress Creek gets up to 136 below-market apartments

The same night, commissioners approved a revised plan for The Cypress at 400 N Corporate Drive in the Cypress Creek area, next to the Westin.

• 340 apartments, with up to 136 (40%) offered below market rate. The original plan had 51 affordable units.
• The building drops from 12 stories to 8, which the developer attributed to construction costs.
• The developer is Fort Lauderdale-based Affiliated Development, which is under contract to buy the 6.6-acre site.
• The 298-room Westin next door stays.
• Vertical construction is expected to start in about a year.

The bigger affordable set-aside came with tax incentives. The city will reimburse 100% of the property tax the project generates for 15 years, and the county offers a 50% incremental property tax reimbursement over 30 years.

What this means if you live here

For renters: Up to about 1,400 below-market and workforce units are in the pipeline across these projects. That's real, but none of them are move-in ready soon. Plan on years, not months.

For homeowners: Fort Lauderdale's median sale price hit $605,000 for the three months ending in September, up 14.1% from a year earlier, according to Redfin. Redfin also rates the city's market "not very competitive," with homes getting about two offers on average, so prices are up even though bidding wars are rare. Thousands of new rentals give people another option besides buying. We dug into Broward's housing crunch in The Broward Housing Squeeze.

For drivers: If you use Sunrise Boulevard, Federal Highway or the Galleria area to reach the beach, expect construction traffic once work begins. For the Galleria, any change that materially affects the approved traffic study would require a new one.

If you want to weigh in: City Commission agendas are posted at fortlauderdale.gov, and public comment is taken at commission meetings.

The bigger picture

Like the redevelopment we covered in Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale is turning older commercial land into new neighborhoods. Here, two of the three projects used affordable units to get something in return: a faster approval for the Galleria and tax breaks for The Cypress. Whether the roads and pipes keep up is the question neighbors keep asking, and it's the one we'll keep watching.

We'll update this article when construction dates are announced.

Sources

• South Florida Sun Sentinel via Yahoo News, "Fort Lauderdale staff greenlights 8-tower Live Local project at Galleria mall," Oct. 22, 2026
• The Real Deal, "Russell Galbut's Fort Lauderdale Mall Redevelopment Greenlit," Oct. 23, 2026
• Florida YIMBY, "FAA Determinations Issued For Eight 342-Foot-Tall Towers At The Galleria Redevelopment," May 2026
• Florida Trend, Galleria workforce housing, Feb. 2026
• Hoodline, "Fort Lauderdale Greenlights Merrimac's Twin Towers as Home Prices Jump 14%," Oct. 2026
• The Real Deal, Affiliated Development's Fort Lauderdale rentals, Oct. 22, 2026
• The Real Deal, "Merrimac greenlit for downtown Fort Lauderdale resi towers," Oct. 21, 2026
• Redfin, Fort Lauderdale housing market (three months ending September 2026)

Last checked: October 29, 2026