If you are pricing a resale residence in Kalea Bay today, one of the first considerations has little to do with square footage. As of this writing, closings in Tower 500 are scheduled to begin in November 2026. For buyers and sellers evaluating an offer now, that timing matters. A resale available to close today is competing with pre-construction inventory that may not produce a closed comparable sale for several more months.
There is also a significant difference between the published pre-construction price and the buyer's total investment. Tower 500 owners must still finish and furnish their residences, which can add approximately $300,000 to more than $1 million to the purchase price, depending on the level of finishes, furnishings and customization. By comparison, most resale residences are offered fully finished and furnished, providing a more complete picture of the buyer's total acquisition cost and the opportunity for immediate occupancy.
Kalea Bay is made up of five residential towers, which can make the community look, on paper, like the same product repeated five times: the same developer, the same brand and, across much of the community, similar 3,200- to 3,300-square-foot floor plans. It can therefore be tempting to combine sales from all five towers and rely on a single average price per square foot. But that number can be misleading. The five towers are not identical, and differences in floor plans, orientation, views, floor level, finishes and other features can materially affect value. With a relatively small number of comparable sales, just a few unusual transactions can also have an outsized effect on the overall average.
Same Company, Same Floor Plan, Different Building
Towers 100 through 400 are complete, occupied, and sold out from the developer, which means any purchase in those buildings today is a resale. These completed towers and Tower 500 differ in ways that don't show up in a headline square footage figure.
Age and Ceiling Height
Age and ceiling height are two of the clearest differences among the five Kalea Bay towers. Tower 100 was completed in 2017, followed by Tower 200 in 2020, Tower 300 in 2022 and Tower 400 in 2024. Tower 500 is new construction.
Towers 100 through 400 feature 9-foot ceilings, with 10-foot ceilings in the penthouses. Tower 500 increases ceiling heights to 10 feet, with 11-foot ceilings in the penthouses. Higher ceilings can create a greater sense of volume and openness and are one feature that cannot be added through a future renovation.
Door hardware splits the towers a different way. Units in Towers 100 and 200 use swivel-opening glass doors leading to the lanai. Towers 300, 400, and 500 use sliding glass doors instead. Tower 100 is also the only building with a large foyer entrance and the only one with hopper windows, meaning windows that actually open, a detail the other four towers don't have.
The quality of furnishings and finishes, floor level and view are key pricing factors, with original pricing increasing by approximately $100,000 per floor. Towers 100 through 400 were oriented primarily toward the west, while Tower 500 faces due south, giving its residences abundant southern exposure and sunlight throughout the day during the winter months, a highly desirable feature.
In Tower 500, the 04, 05 and especially the 06 residences offer some of the building’s strongest views. The end residences, 01 and 06, are also considerably larger at more than 4,300 square feet, compared with the approximately 3,280-square-foot residences that predominate in Towers 100 through 400.
In all five towers, penthouse residences include an oversized, private 2.5-car garage. Tower 500 offers an additional distinction: residences on the top five floors of the 01 stack also include private garages. The 01 stack is also the only floor plan across all five towers to offer four bedrooms plus a den.
Feature | Towers 100-400 | Tower 500 |
|---|---|---|
Ceiling height | 9 feet (10 feet in penthouses) | 10 feet (11 feet in penthouses) |
Lanai door type | Swivel (100, 200) or sliding (300, 400) | Sliding |
Pet friendly | No approval needed | No approval needed |
Rental policy | Four leases per year with a 30-day minimum | Four leases per year with a 30-day minimum |
Primary exposure | Southwest-facing Gulf views | Due south, view quality varies by stack |
None of this means one tower is objectively better than another. It means a per-square-foot average calculated across all five buildings is blending units that a buyer standing inside them would immediately recognize as different products.
Kalea Bay Amenities: Then and Now
Kalea Bay’s amenities were completed in phases as the community developed. Early buyers in Tower 100 purchased before the full amenity campus was finished, including the wellness center, beach club, and today’s expanded dining options.
Today, resale buyers in Towers 100 through 400 enjoy the same completed Kalea Bay amenity campus available to buyers in the new Tower 500. This is important when comparing new construction with resale pricing. The age of the tower may differ, but access to Kalea Bay’s completed amenities does not.
Reading a Kalea Bay Listing Right Now
Kalea Bay's resale market saw more sales activity in 2026, but generally lower pricing than in 2025. Most of the decline reflects more lower-floor sales, and a lower level of finishes, furnishings and customization. This reinforces the importance of considering tower, floor, stack, view and finishes, rather than relying on price per square foot alone.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Directly
Is Tower 500 actually finished yet? As of this writing, closings are scheduled to begin in November 2026. Confirm current occupancy status with the building directly rather than relying on a listing page that may not have been updated recently.
Does a fifth tower coming online hurt resale value in the first four? The data doesn't support a simple answer either way. The highest sale of 2026, an end unit on the 21st floor, sold for $5,700,000 in Tower 200, one of the older buildings, which suggests buyers are still paying a premium for specific units regardless of what else is under construction nearby.
Can I use a Kalea Bay unit as a short-term rental? No. The association allows up to four leases per year with a 30-day minimum term, which rules out short-term vacation rental use.
Kalea Bay rewards a buyer who reads the building, not just the brochure. If you are comparing a resale unit against the final tower, or trying to make sense of what a specific stack, floor, and closing date actually mean for value, Janine Monfort can walk you through the comparison unit by unit. Get Your Instant Home Valuation to see where your Kalea Bay property stands today.
