Penn-Florida Companies has sold a 1-acre development site in Boca Raton for $27 million, resolving an ongoing foreclosure case. The property, located at 375 East Royal Palm Road, was originally intended for a 193-unit assisted living facility. Records show that the buyer is SobelCo, a real estate firm based in Boca Raton and led by Jeffrey Sobel.
SobelCo also acquired an adjacent 0.2-acre lot at 343 East Royal Palm Road for $3.1 million from an entity managed by McFillin of Delray Beach. Altogether, SobelCo paid $30.1 million for the combined 1.2 acres and secured a $10 million loan from Goldman Sachs to finance the purchase.
According to marketing materials, the smaller parcel is approved for a five-story luxury residential building with four units and a rooftop.
The original plan by Penn-Florida, headed by Mark Gensheimer, received approval from the city’s Planning and Zoning Board in 2017 but never moved forward to construction after demolishing an existing two-story structure on the site. Penn-Florida had bought both properties for $1.2 million in 2005 and later borrowed against them several times, increasing its loan balance to $5.7 million through three modifications between 2019 and 2023.
Last year, City National Bank of Florida reassigned its loan on the land to Safe Harbor Equity—a Miami Beach-based distressed debt investor led by Rafael Serrano—which then filed foreclosure proceedings after Penn-Florida defaulted when the loan matured in 2024.
Court documents show that following the sale of the site, Safe Harbor Equity, Penn-Florida, and Gensheimer notified Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Carolyn Bell that they had settled their dispute; Judge Bell directed them to file dismissal papers as part of closing out the case.
Neither SobelCo nor Penn-Florida provided comments when contacted about the transaction.
Penn-Florida has experienced financial challenges with several projects in South Florida due to rising interest rates as well as increased insurance premiums and construction costs—conditions that have caused many developers to pause or sell planned developments amid difficulties refinancing or paying off floating-rate loans while banks reduce new lending activity.
Another notable issue involving Penn-Florida occurred last year when Blackstone Mortgage Trust initiated foreclosure proceedings related to its affiliate’s apartment building at 101 Via Mizner over a $145 million loan default; bankruptcy filings delayed auction plans until federal court approved a $235 million sale of that property this July to a joint venture between Penn-Florida and Grant Cardone’s multifamily syndication firm.
