Inside Alex Akel’s Strategic Bet On A New South Florida Master Plan

Despite challenged market conditions for homebuilders nationwide, Palm Beach County, Fla.-based Akel Homes is betting that a newly-opened community’s top-tier amenities and relative affordability, in combination with South Florida’s strong active-adult demand, will navigate a narrowed path to traction.

With a product aimed primarily at less interest-rate- and price-sensitive 55-plus buyers and a compelling “neighborhood-of-your-dreams” market positioning, Akel Homes grand-opened its luxury, age-restricted community, Catalina Palms at Sundance, this month in Port St. Lucie. 

In a highly competitive local homebuilding market, Catalina Palms’ 56,000-square-foot clubhouse and outdoor amenities stand out as a key differentiator. Alex Akel, President of Akel Homes, said in an interview with The Builder’s Daily that the amenities are meant to give the community a “wow” factor, with hospitality design features woven throughout. 

Akel reports that the community jumped off to a quick start. The grand opening, held on January 24th and 25th, attracted 800 people, many of whom made reservations. The Akel Homes team is working to convert those reservations into contracts. 

Catalina Palms at Sundance, which is expected to ultimately include 1,100 to 1,300 homes, is part of the 2,500-acre Sundance master-planned community. Akel Homes plans to build several thousand homes at Sundance over the long term.

The area is uniquely positioned in rapidly growing St. Lucie County, which grew 18.7% between 2020 and 2024. The area’s population surge is driven by its supply of vacant land and relative affordability, compared with nearby Palm Beach County. Akel Homes recognized the site’s growth potential many years ago and acquired the Sundance property over two decades ago. 

“We’re an overnight success 20 years in the making, is what I like to say,” Akel remarked.

Serving South Florida’s amenity-driven buyers

South Florida’s 55+ buyers tend to be lifestyle and amenity-driven. Akel Homes designed Catalina Palms at Sundance to feel like a high-end resort experience and appeal that could compete toe-to-toe with, or outperform, any rival age-restricted communities in the area.

The future resident-only clubhouse, Club Catalina, will have an array of indoor and outdoor amenities. Outside, there will be a recreation area with several pickleball courts, a pair of tennis courts, and a bocce ball court. There will also be an expansive outdoor lounge area with a resort-style pool with cabanas, a shaded lap pool, and a hot tub. 

Inside Club Catalina, there will be a large central lobby and lounge space. A smaller lobby space will lead to a 500-person banquet hall, complete with a stage, a concessions area, a catering kitchen, and a demo kitchen for cooking classes. The hall would be ideal for concerts, movies, events, and entertainment. 

Rounding out the high-end amenities will be an arts and crafts room, three card rooms, a poker room, a billiards room, a space for arts and crafts, office spaces and a multipurpose room that can double as a movie theater.  A large indoor dining room with tables and booths, and an expansive outdoor dining and lounge area, will be located next to a bar and a full-service restaurant serving lunch and dinner. Additionally, a wellness area will have a nail spa, a hair salon, a cold plunge and mineral spa, multiple massage rooms, table tennis, men’s and women’s locker rooms with a sauna, a sports simulation room, a yoga room and outdoor yoga space, and a gym with cardio and weight equipment. 

Since community programming has become a non-negotiable among 55-plus homebuyers as well, an on-site fitness director, lifestyle director and trainers for the sports courts and gym will also be available to residents.        

“It’s a cruise ship on land,” Akel said. “We have to compete, and that’s your opportunity to wow them, by providing everything at their convenience within their community. That’s what makes this community so special…you don’t have to leave.”

Homes at Catalina Palms at Sundance price from the low $300,000s up to the $800,000s, and include a mix of attached villas and detached single-family residences. 

Many prospective buyers interested in the community are from nearby Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties, all of which offer significantly higher prices for far fewer amenities. Other prospects are from expensive Northeastern markets such as New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. 

“We kind of sucked the oxygen out of the market in such a short period of time because our pricing is really strong, our features are a step above the competition and our proposed amenities are some of the largest that have ever been built before for a master plan community,” Akel explained. 

Creating an attractive selling experience

Catalina Palms at Sundance now has a 12,000-square-foot sales center, but the sales experience starts at the front entrance. When prospective buyers enter the community, they are greeted by a multi-million dollar entrance feature with 260-foot-long fountains on each side of the entrance road. 

(Courtesy of Akel Homes)

Having a grand entrance and creating a memorable first impression were important parts of the community’s design and aesthetic. 

“Even before we got to the clubhouse, we wanted to take a hospitality focus to everything that we do. The community needs to look like you’re coming into a high-end, exclusive resort,” he said, 

From there, prospective buyers pass through a gatehouse before pulling up to the sales center.  Inside the sales center, there is a design studio, at least a dozen standalone offices, customer lounges, a “lifestyle wall” with a 55-inch micro LED TV, and a 3D model of Club Catalina. According to Akel, the sales center is designed to resemble a resort reception area rather than a traditional sales office. 

The community offers 29 plans, and 18 of them are now available for viewing as furnished models on-site. The rest of the floor plans can be viewed interactively in the sales center. 

“Even the floor plans…we have them on rotating pyramids so it’s kind of interactive, and people get up close and personal with the product, rather than just sticking some floor plans on the wall.”

The strength of the active-adult segment

Active adult communities are arguably the strongest segment in homebuilding right now, and Census data helps explain why. In 2010, less than 13% of the United States population was 65 or older. 

That share has continued to increase every year since, climbing to 16% in 2020 and about 18% in 2024, and is expected to continue to increase in future years. This is a trend that Akel has focused carefully on in Akel Homes’ strategic planning. 

“South Florida, obviously being a magnet for that demographic, is well-positioned to take advantage of that perfect storm. We’ve been sitting on this project for the last 20 years, so we’re looking at this as a long-term play, and we see it as something that’s going to be incredibly successful,” he said. 

Some of the public builders have seen a lot of success in the active-adult segment as of late. For example, PulteGroup CEO Ryan Marshall, during a Q2 earnings call in July, said that Pulte’s age-restricted, active-adult Del Webb communities had margins 400 basis points higher than the company’s entry-level homes and 200 basis points higher than move-up products. 

While 55+ buyers often have restricted incomes, they are typically more established, have already built home equity and are less constrained by affordability than younger and entry-level buyers. 

For Akel’s prospective buyers, the biggest challenge is getting sellers to list and close on their existing homes, as there has been some price pressure in South Florida over the last couple of years. That said, once sellers in higher-priced counties to the south settle on the sale of their homes, they often bring substantial equity with them when moving to Port St. Lucie.

“Everyone has expectations of what they think their house is worth. The market sets that, unfortunately. But for many of these people, who are 55-plus, they do have a substantial amount of built-in equity. Maybe they’re not going to sell it for as much as they thought they once could, but they’re still pocketing a tremendous amount of equity. And then where they’re buying, especially where I’m offering, they’re saving a tremendous amount of money,” he said. 

Driving meaningful growth

Akel Homes plans to build non-age-restricted homes in other Sundance communities over time and could ultimately build up to about 8,000-9,000 homes in Sundance at full build-out. Akel’s team is expected to increase from 100 homes per year to about 200 homes per year soon. 

Ultimately, Akel projects his company could sell as many as 500 homes a year once Sundance enters the later stages of development. He has passed on other land opportunities over the last few years, as he is focused on developing Sundance, which will also include shopping centers and public parks once completed. 

“This project is going to keep us quite occupied for the next 20 years. It’s kind of rare for a private, family-owned and operated homebuilder in South Florida to be in this type of a position with this many lots in an extremely exciting market,” Akel said.