The Stiles real estate firm is building a second ultra-luxury apartment in downtown Fort Lauderdale, a 42-story tower designed to connect the city’s under-served Riverwalk area with the business and entertainment district along Las Olas Blvd.

Stiles Residential Group and joint venture partner PGIM Real Estate paid $17 million to buy a 1.41-acre parcel along the New River at 215 N. New River Drive East, public records show. The seller was an affiliate of Chicago-based Tribune Real Estate Holdings. PGIM is the investment management arm of Prudential Financial. Stiles and PGIM took out a $100 million construction loan from Wells Fargo for the new development.

Stiles said the new 380-unit multifamily project will have indoor and outdoor amenities, high-end finishes and floor plans ranging from 700 square feet to more than 2,100 square feet. With construction underway, the developer expects the first residents to be able to move in by the second quarter of 2020.

The rental is now known as Residences on Las Olas, but the developer said the name will change. Jeff McDonough, president of Stiles Residential Group, also said it’s too soon to discuss rental rates, but he indicated they will be in line with other buildings downtown.

He added that the apartments are designed to appeal to young professionals and empty nesters who want luxury living with an urban feel.

“This project is defiintely a key to reinvigorating the Riverwalk,” McDonough told CoStar News. “I truly believe the epicenter of Las Olas is right where our project is.”

The parcel is a parking lot behind the New River Center, a 20-story, 281,713-square-foot building at 200 E. Las Olas Blvd. that Stiles built in 1990. Stiles and Prudential acquired the building for $108 million in 2014.

Last year, Stiles sold Amaray Las Olas, a 30-story apartment building at 215 SE Eighth Ave., for $133.5 million. The average rent in the 254-unit building was close to $3,500 a month, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Stiles also is planning yet another rental downtown, a 348-unit building at 212 SE Second Ave. that the developer said won’t be as luxuruious as the other two.

Earlier this year, the Related Group of Florida opened the 45-story Icon Las Olas at 500 E. Las Olas Blvd., where monthly rents range from about $2,500 to more than $7,000.

Property Markets Group also is building a rental project in the area, on the site of the former Las Olas Riverfront west of Andrews Avenue. That project will add 1,200 apartments, but Property Markets has said many of those units will rent for less than $2,000 a month.

The Riverfront is considered a failed retail complex that became an eyesore in the middle of an otherwise bustling downtown area that is fast becoming a live-work-play destination.

Jack McCabe, a housing analyst in nearby Deerfield Beach, said Fort Lauderdale is becoming more desirable as Miami becomes more expensive. But he wonders whether developers are focusing too much on high-end projects.

“Fort Lauderdale definitely has undergone a dramatic change from the somewhat-sleepy Spring Break, party-oriented city to more of a luxury center,” said McCabe. “But I’m surprised to see so many luxury and not affordable projects because that’s where the demand is.”