Sunrise city commissioners have given GL Homes the green light to build a 294-unit apartment highrise on a 5.5-acre parcel within its sprawling Radius at Sawgrass development near Sawgrass Mills. The eight-story building will rise next to an existing lake on a property that sits southwest of the intersection of West Sunrise Boulevard and Northwest 136th Avenue, marking a notable shift for a homebuilder long associated with sprawling single-family communities rather than rental highrises.
The Sunrise City Commission approved the project’s site plan on Tuesday, along with minor amendments to the broader Radius at Sawgrass master plan, according to The Real Deal. GL Homes, led by president Misha Ezratti, did not respond to requests for comment on the approval, the outlet reported. The apartment complex will include one-, two- and three-bedroom units alongside amenities such as a fitness center, swimming pool, yoga lawn, dog wash and pickleball court.
A 32-Acre Master Plan Taking Shape
The apartment tower is just one piece of the 32-acre Radius at Sawgrass master plan, a site formerly known as Westerra Phase 1. The plan divides the property into five sections along the south side of West Sunrise Boulevard and allows for as many as 750 high-rise residential units in total, according to the same report. GL Homes acquired the bulk of the property from Stiles Corporation in 2019 for $34 million, a jump from the $15.6 million Stiles paid for it back in 2005.
The location sits at a heavily trafficked node in western Broward County. Marketing materials from GL Commercial show the site anchored at the SR 869 Sawgrass Expressway interchange, where that highway carries more than 105,000 vehicles daily and West Sunrise Boulevard carries another 47,000. It’s also adjacent to the 612-acre Sawgrass International Corporate Park, which The Real Deal has described as Broward County’s largest industrial and office park, bounded by I-595, I-75 and Sunrise Boulevard.
Atlas Air’s Possible Flight Training Center
Beyond the apartments, the master plan calls for up to 750,000 square feet of office space, 50,000 square feet of commercial space, and up to 300 hotel rooms — with 250,000 square feet of that office space and the hotel earmarked for corporate housing potentially tied to Atlas Air Worldwide, a New York-based air cargo carrier. Per the South Florida Business Journal’s 2024 reporting, Atlas Air may lease space at the development and could use a 300-room hotel for corporate housing while developing a flight training and simulator facility on-site. A city staff report cited by the outlet notes the office space is planned to include a flight training center…