An unfortunately named luxury condo development being built in south Florida called ISIS Downtown, recalling the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has changed its title to a less controversial moniker.
The West Palm Beach complex’s name was chosen long before ISIS emerged as shorthand for the hard-line group also known as ISIL that recently rebranded itself simply as Islamic State.
“Glad they changed the name,” one local woman commented on the Facebook page for the condominium development, which as of a few days ago labels the building as 3 Thirty Three Downtown.
The complex is the first to be built in downtown West Palm Beach since the 2008 financial crisis, local media said. Deposits are being accepted for one- and two-bedroom apartments starting at more than $300,000.
Its website pitches the development as the “next generation of downtown living in West Palm Beach.” It does not say when it will open.
More than 6,500 miles away in the Middle East, Islamic State is an al Qaeda offshoot that wants to recreate a medieval-style caliphate from the Mediterranean to the Gulf and deems Shi’ite Muslims to be heretics deserving death.
Islamic State posed a video on the Internet last week showing one of its fighters beheading American journalist James Foley.
Before the emergence of the rebels, ISIS was better known as the name of a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion.
“There are so many unknowns when you’re doing a building,” one veteran local realtor, Tim Harris, told the Palm Beach Post.
“It’s good planning to cut and run with the name change now because it doesn’t sound like (the fight with ISIS) is going to get resolved anytime soon.”
