CBRE arranged the sale of Comerica Tower, also known as Plaza 100, a Class A, 166,098-square-foot boutique office tower located at 100 NE 3rd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.
Brookwood Financial Partners of Beverly, Massachusetts, acquired the 11-story downtown tower from Beacon Investment Properties of Hallandale Beach for $32,500,000, or $196 per square foot.
Comerica Tower, which features an above-market parking ratio of 3.5 per 1,000 square foot, was 82% leased at the time of the sale. The property has benefited tremendously from robust leasing activity in downtown Fort Lauderdale over the last two years.
“Downtown Fort Lauderdale absorption has been led by a migration of tenants from the suburbs to the CBD. This has been a national trend, where possible, as employers find it easier to attract and retain higher level talent to urban locations,” explained CBRE Vice Chairman Christian Lee.
Mr. Lee noted that Beacon Investment Properties owned Comerica Tower for two years, increased occupancy from 69% to 82% during its ownership and sold it when it realized the company’s investment objectives for the property. “While Beacon is widely known for its disciplined and expedited acquisition strategies, it was just as responsive as a seller,” Mr. Lee said.
Ariel Bentata, co-founder and managing partner of Beacon, commended Brookwood Financial “for being an astute investor. The buyer performed as anticipated on all aspects of the acquisition and we feel confident this exceptional office tower and its tenants will be in very good hands.”
Comerica Tower is centrally located in downtown Fort Lauderdale’s walkable “live, work, recreate and educate” vibrant cosmopolitan core, within walking distance of numerous shops, restaurants and over 3,500 multi-family units that are either under construction or planned.
“Of this multi-family activity, 1,850 units are north of Broward Boulevard in close proximity to the property,” added José Lobón, CBRE Senior Associate. “This area is now a young and hip enclave, home to neighborhoods such as Progresso Village, Flagler Village and F.A.T. (Flagler Art & Technology) Village, and amenities such as the new Fresh Market supermarket, and numerous art galleries and cafes.”
The Miami-based CBRE team representing the seller included Christian Lee and José Lobón with CBRE’s Capital Markets Institutional Group; and Charles Foschini and Chris Apone with CBRE’s Debt & Structured Finance Group.
Assisting the CBRE Team was the CBRE Office Leasing team of Deanna Lobinsky and Travis Herring, and JLL office leasing broker Jonathan Kingsley.
https://sfoba.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/comerica-building-fort-lauderdale.jpg391391SFOBA STAFFhttps://dev.sfoba.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/SFOBA-logo-sharpened-transparent.pngSFOBA STAFF2014-04-15 13:41:182014-04-15 13:41:18Downtown Fort Lauderdale Office Tower Trades For $32.5 Million
Bill McConnell and Kenneth Kurtz, CCIM of NAI Rauch Weaver Norfleet Kurtz & Co., as exclusive Landlord agent, represented CDM Property Investments, LLC in five leases at Corporate Park at Inverrary.
The property is located at 3800-3810 Inverrary Blvd. in Lauderhill.
These transactions are helping to re-tenant what was formerly the Lauderhill City Hall.
Nelly Faustin & Paulaine Liberal, for 3,232 square feet.
Richard Flanders Enterprises, for 3,200 square feet.
EZ Appointments, LLC, for 1,340 square feet.
Primarica Management Group, Inc., for 698 square feet. EZ Appointments, LLC and Primarica Management Group were represented by Dettman Realty Group, Inc.
Mr. Kurtz stated, “this location is ideal for a large corporate user or government agency as well as a call center.”
https://sfoba.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/corporate-park-at-inverrary.jpg270275SFOBA STAFFhttps://dev.sfoba.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/SFOBA-logo-sharpened-transparent.pngSFOBA STAFF2014-04-10 01:48:102014-04-10 01:48:10RWNK Inks 15,000 SF In Lease Deals At Corporate Park At Inverrary
Palm Beach County’s revived development boom is gaining steam, targeting farmland that could be transformed into new neighborhoods, shopping centers and even a baseball stadium.
The 5,051 building permits issued for new homes in 2013 were nearly four times as many as were issued four years ago. And as Palm Beach County home sales improve in a resurgent economy, builders are looking for more territory for new neighborhoods to meet what they contend is a growing housing demand.
“There certainly is an upswing in activity,” said Skeet Jernigan, of the Community and Economic Development Council, which represents South Florida builders. “Raw land, green land is the raw material of the development industry.”
Some of the activity:
More than 20,000 new homes have been proposed for on thousands of acres of agricultural land near Wellington, Royal Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens.
The County Commission in October approved revived plans to build 2,000 homes on 1,200 acres once planned for rock mining at Palm Beach Aggregates, west of Royal Palm Beach.
Farther north, developers propose to turn the 5,000-acre Vavrus Ranch on Northlake Boulevard into the Avernir community, which would include 7,600 homes along with 1.7 million square feet of buildings to house shops, offices and restaurants. Plans also call for a golf course, hotel and college campus.
Minto West developers have plans for creating a new community with a mix of neighborhoods, shopping centers and a college campus, along with a baseball stadium. The proposed 6,500 homes along with 1.4 million square feet of shops, offices and manufacturing space would stretch across the 4,000-acre Callery-Judge Grove, split by Seminole Pratt Whitney Road.
While the boost in building plans is another hopeful economic sign, it also triggers concerns for some residents and officials worried about losing more open spaces to subdivisions and shopping centers — and the increased traffic expected to follow. ”We have to be careful,” Palm Beach County Mayor Priscilla Taylor said. “Growth is something that we are probably going to have regardless, but it has to be smart growth.”
Development interest has the county considering easing building limits in the Agricultural Reserve — which covers 21,000 acres of farmland west of Delray Beach and Boynton Beach that is prized by vegetable growers and developers alike.
While the volume of new home construction in Palm Beach County remains well below the 12,000 building permits the county issued in 2005 during South Florida’s building boom, the current upward trend is a good sign, according to industry experts. Much of the demand for land is getting directed at citrus groves, pastures and other agricultural property in Loxahatchee.
The estimated value of the 5,051 new houses, townhomes, condominiums and other homes permitted for construction in 2013 was about $1.2 billion, according to the county building department. ”Residential [development] is definitely growing,” said Doug Wise, who heads the county’s building division. “Market prices are getting better.” The improved home-buying market is a big reason why developers are reviving past development proposals for large-scale agricultural properties.
While county guidelines are supposed to encourage redevelopment near existing roads, schools and other infrastructure, developers often prefer to target farmland or other undeveloped property, which can cost less and provide more room to build. ”It is infinitely easier to develop on green fields than it is on previously developed parcels,” Jernigan said. “There is pent-up demand.”
Minto is proposing twice as many homes as currently allowed on the property. The County Commission is expected to weigh in on the development plans this summer. The number of homes commissioners allow for Minto West could set a precedent for the neighboring 5,000-acre Indian Trail Groves property that G.L. Homes has long planned to develop. Minto West plans call for setting aside about 1,400 acres as open spaces and including large landscaped buffer areas to help create a transition between the new community and its more rural neighbors.
Requested changes to Agricultural Reserve building limits could lead to about 6,000 more homes than planned in the farming area where county taxpayers have spent $100 million trying to protect land from development. To limit the influx of development, voters in 1999 approved the $100 million to acquire about 2,400 acres in the Agricultural Reserve that now gets leased to farmers.
Also, builders are required to set aside the equivalent of 60 percent of their property for agricultural uses, conservation or water storage. In addition, county rules limit the amount of commercial development allowed in the Agricultural Reserve. But on Tuesday, the County Commission agreed to consider easing those building limits at the urging of landowners concerned about regulations stifling their property values.
In additon to the 6,000 more homes, changes proposed by a collection of nursery operators and other agricultural land owners could allow another 200 acres of commercial development. Ultimately, the County Commission decides whether to ease building restrictions to allow everything from Minto West’s plans to the push for more development in the Agricultural Reserve.
Taylor, who heads the County Comission, said the county needs to take a cautious approach when it comes to changing development rules to accommodate building plans, particularly in the Agricultural Reserve. ”I would like to think that we are different from Miami-Dade and Broward,” said Loxahatchee resident Anne Kuhl, who said she is “fearful” that development will be allowed to overwhelm rural areas. “We have an opportunity to stop this, [to] put on the brakes.”
Bill McConnell and Kenneth Kurtz, CCIM of NAI Rauch Weaver Norfleet Kurtz & Co., represented JV Cypress, LLC in four lease transactions at the Cypress Creek Business Center.
The transactions, totaling 6,807 square feet in lease deals include the following tenants:
Mills Brenner & Dunbar, Inc.
Adex Technologies LLC
American Business Network LLC
American Discount Movers, LLC, which was co-brokered by Johnson & Johnson Realty Team
The building, which totals 39,990 square feet, is located at 2901 W. Cypress Creek Rd. in North Fort Lauderdale.
https://sfoba.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Cypress-Creek-Business-Center.jpg270275SFOBA STAFFhttps://dev.sfoba.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/SFOBA-logo-sharpened-transparent.pngSFOBA STAFF2014-04-02 23:54:292014-04-02 23:54:29RWNK Inks 7,000 SF In Cypress Creek Lease Transactions
Get ready to witness a dramatic spurt in new development in Broward County, if dozens of high-rise apartment towers, hundreds of single-family homes and a few mega commercial projects are given the green light.
The recent surge in development proposals could change the county’s landscape — and prove there’s no such thing as “built out.”
Among the many projects in the pipeline, according to county records:
Downtown High-Rises: Downtown Fort Lauderdale is undergoing another burst of vertical growth. The Manor at Flagler Village, a 382-unit tower with some retail space, is under construction on the southwest corner of Federal Highway and Northeast Sixth Street. Adjacent to it is Edge at Flagler Village, under construction with 331 units. They are two of 12 major residential towers — including one hotel — that are proposed or already under construction downtown. Together they total a whopping 4,067 units and could nearly double downtown’s 8,200 population.
Sheridan Station: Developers have revived this project in Hollywood, between Interstate 95 and the CSX Railroad tracks, south of Sheridan Street. The complex features a hotel, transportation facility, commercial and office space, and 1,050 high-rise and mid-rise residential units.
Pine Island Marketplace: On a cow-grazing pasture on the southeast corner of Stirling Road and Pine Island Road, a developer plans a commercial complex anchored by a Walmart. It will be near the new Monterra community, a 1,600-home development on a former dairy farm in Cooper City.
City Center: A massive commercial-office-residential-hotel complex is finally underway in Pembroke Pines, where the city is selling its land west of Palm Avenue, between Pines Boulevard and Washington Street. The Pembroke Pines City Center ultimately will include 1,365 residential units, including 350 hotel rooms, plus 120,000 square feet of office space and 265,000 square feet of commercial. The apartments are among 1,365 rentals under construction or recently built. At a former golf course in Pembroke Pines, another 500 single-family homes are envisioned.
The Wedge: On a horse farm recently annexed into Broward County’s Parkland, a new, 538-home development is planned, for people 55 and older. The vast acreage is south of Loxahatchee Road and west of a proposed leg of Nob Hill Road.
Woodmont: Within the Woodmont Country Club community in Tamarac, one of the golf courses will be replaced with single-family homes. The resulting new development, south of Southgate Boulevard, between University Drive and Pine Island Road, will add 152 single-family homes, retain some golf courses, and add 28,000 square feet of commercial space.
Naugles Nursery Inc.: On former nursery land in Davie, a 240-unit residential project is planned, primarily aimed at teachers and college students from nearby colleges.
Mid-Rise Homes: A former mobile home park in Wilton Manors will be transformed into Wilton Twenty-Fourth Street Residences, a 179-unit mid-rise planned south of Northeast 24th Street between Northeast 13th Avenue and the FEC railroad.
Riverbend Marketplace: On vacant land formerly home to used-car lots, mobile homes and adult-oriented strip shops, a Walmart Supercenter and commercial complex are coming to Fort Lauderdale, on the south side of Broward Boulevard west of Interstate 95, across from the Broward Sheriff’s Office headquarters.
Multifamily Near Tri-Rail: On a vacant piece of land on the northwest corner of Northwest 33rd Street and North Andrews Avenue Extension in Pompano Beach, near a Tri-Rail station, developers plan 108 multi-family residential units.
Coral Ridge Golf Course: Another golf course will be replaced with 37 homes in Fort Lauderdale. The former American Golfers Club in the Coral Ridge community of Fort Lauderdale, east of Federal Highway and north of Northeast 37th Drive, has been closed for years.
Charter School: On vacant land just south of Griffin Road and east of Southwest 208th Avenue in Pembroke Pines, Franklin Academy, a 43-acre charter school campus, is proposed.
The uptick is striking.
“This year we’re definitely seeing more proposals,” said Barbara Blake Boy, executive director of the Broward Planning Council, a county advisory board.
In 2013, the number of residential units for which developers sought approvals jumped 218 percent at the Broward County Planning Council, one of the earliest stages in the process.
This year, approvals are again on the increase. Developers have submitted plans to add 1,970 homes in seven projects in Pompano Beach, Miramar, Plantation, Pembroke Pines and Lauderdale Lakes. That’s nearly as high as the total for all of 2013.
“Is there a higher level of proposed development activity than there’s been in the last few years? The answer to that is absolutely yes,” Stiles Corp. President Doug Eagon said.
Eagon said the South Florida housing market is more robust than elsewhere in the country right now, with heavy demand for rental apartments coming from millennials who’ve finally gotten jobs, and from baby boomers downsizing after their kids move out.
“There’s been a pretty dramatic increase in activity,” Executive Director Jim DiPietro said at the Broward Board of Rules and Appeals, which has seen a spike in building permit revenue. “You can see the way we started to claw out of the recession.”
The dramatic development surge might seem counterintuitive to those who’ve scanned the horizon and seen that nearly every square inch is paved and built upon (except for the two-thirds of the county that’s in the Florida Everglades).
In fact, Broward County was considered largely built out in 2005, according to the county’s recently released population planning report. But that doesn’t mean it’s game over for developers.
“When people say, ‘Well, we’re out of land,’” Eagon said, “the reality is we’re very close to being out of vacant land, but the redevelopment potential is still very good.”
The county’s vote is typically the first step, a general approval spelling out what type of development and how much of it can take place on the land. Many more projects that already had those approvals are under construction now.
In the cities, towns and neighborhoods where the construction trucks are headed, residents may be hesitant to embrace more growth. Developers will have to show that their projects won’t overburden local roads and schools, among other things.
Broward County Commissioner Tim Ryan said improving public transportation and ensuring that some of the new housing is affordable to the working class will be critical in this wave of development.
“You want to try to change the mindset, I think, in the coming decade,” Ryan said, “to get more people onto mass transit.”
Regardless, he said, people are coming. Population estimates for Broward show the flow to the south will continue, driving demand for more housing.
“They keep having winters like they just did,” Broward planning section manager Martin Berger said, “and they’re going to keep coming.”
https://sfoba.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/broward-county-development.jpg270275SFOBA STAFFhttps://dev.sfoba.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/SFOBA-logo-sharpened-transparent.pngSFOBA STAFF2014-04-01 21:24:232014-04-01 21:24:23Broward County Gearing Up For Development Surge
Commercial Florida Realty Services’ George Sacks has recently completed year-end office market studies for Broward and Palm Beach office market studies.
Among the studies’ highlights:
Downtown Fort Lauderdale showed Broward’s best performance, gaining 175,520 square feet through year-end 2013 – a rapid change from the submarket’s slight negative absorption at mid-2013. Although Cypress Creek’s approximately 7.2 million square feet of office submarket ended the year with an overall 20.32% vacancy rate, its Class A component lost just 4115 SF and had a relatively healthy 15.34% vacancy rate. The Cypress Creek Class B market was harder hit.
Boca Raton was Palm Beach County’s top leasing market for the year, with a gain of 272,132 SF for the year and asking direct lease rates of $18.72 per SF by year-end 2013, compared with $17.47 at the end of 2012. Re investment sales, per the study, “The investment sales activity in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County in general, is representative of a national trend for investors’ and owner/users’ increasing interest in seeking properties outside of the traditional major metro markets such as Miami. This trend is likely to continue throughout 2014.”
Downtown Fort Lauderdale Office Tower Trades For $32.5 Million
/in Done Deals, News/by SFOBA STAFFCBRE arranged the sale of Comerica Tower, also known as Plaza 100, a Class A, 166,098-square-foot boutique office tower located at 100 NE 3rd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.
Brookwood Financial Partners of Beverly, Massachusetts, acquired the 11-story downtown tower from Beacon Investment Properties of Hallandale Beach for $32,500,000, or $196 per square foot.
In August 2013, Brookwood purchased Plantation office building Lakeside Office Center, located at 600 N. Pine Island Road.
Comerica Tower, which features an above-market parking ratio of 3.5 per 1,000 square foot, was 82% leased at the time of the sale. The property has benefited tremendously from robust leasing activity in downtown Fort Lauderdale over the last two years.
“Downtown Fort Lauderdale absorption has been led by a migration of tenants from the suburbs to the CBD. This has been a national trend, where possible, as employers find it easier to attract and retain higher level talent to urban locations,” explained CBRE Vice Chairman Christian Lee.
Mr. Lee noted that Beacon Investment Properties owned Comerica Tower for two years, increased occupancy from 69% to 82% during its ownership and sold it when it realized the company’s investment objectives for the property. “While Beacon is widely known for its disciplined and expedited acquisition strategies, it was just as responsive as a seller,” Mr. Lee said.
Ariel Bentata, co-founder and managing partner of Beacon, commended Brookwood Financial “for being an astute investor. The buyer performed as anticipated on all aspects of the acquisition and we feel confident this exceptional office tower and its tenants will be in very good hands.”
Comerica Tower is centrally located in downtown Fort Lauderdale’s walkable “live, work, recreate and educate” vibrant cosmopolitan core, within walking distance of numerous shops, restaurants and over 3,500 multi-family units that are either under construction or planned.
“Of this multi-family activity, 1,850 units are north of Broward Boulevard in close proximity to the property,” added José Lobón, CBRE Senior Associate. “This area is now a young and hip enclave, home to neighborhoods such as Progresso Village, Flagler Village and F.A.T. (Flagler Art & Technology) Village, and amenities such as the new Fresh Market supermarket, and numerous art galleries and cafes.”
The Miami-based CBRE team representing the seller included Christian Lee and José Lobón with CBRE’s Capital Markets Institutional Group; and Charles Foschini and Chris Apone with CBRE’s Debt & Structured Finance Group.
Assisting the CBRE Team was the CBRE Office Leasing team of Deanna Lobinsky and Travis Herring, and JLL office leasing broker Jonathan Kingsley.
RWNK Inks 15,000 SF In Lease Deals At Corporate Park At Inverrary
/in Done Deals, News/by SFOBA STAFFBill McConnell and Kenneth Kurtz, CCIM of NAI Rauch Weaver Norfleet Kurtz & Co., as exclusive Landlord agent, represented CDM Property Investments, LLC in five leases at Corporate Park at Inverrary.
The property is located at 3800-3810 Inverrary Blvd. in Lauderhill.
These transactions are helping to re-tenant what was formerly the Lauderhill City Hall.
New tenants include:
Mr. Kurtz stated, “this location is ideal for a large corporate user or government agency as well as a call center.”
After Downturn, Palm Beach County Development Requests Surge
/in News, Trends/by SFOBA STAFFPalm Beach County’s revived development boom is gaining steam, targeting farmland that could be transformed into new neighborhoods, shopping centers and even a baseball stadium.
The 5,051 building permits issued for new homes in 2013 were nearly four times as many as were issued four years ago. And as Palm Beach County home sales improve in a resurgent economy, builders are looking for more territory for new neighborhoods to meet what they contend is a growing housing demand.
“There certainly is an upswing in activity,” said Skeet Jernigan, of the Community and Economic Development Council, which represents South Florida builders. “Raw land, green land is the raw material of the development industry.”
Some of the activity:
While the boost in building plans is another hopeful economic sign, it also triggers concerns for some residents and officials worried about losing more open spaces to subdivisions and shopping centers — and the increased traffic expected to follow. ”We have to be careful,” Palm Beach County Mayor Priscilla Taylor said. “Growth is something that we are probably going to have regardless, but it has to be smart growth.”
Development interest has the county considering easing building limits in the Agricultural Reserve — which covers 21,000 acres of farmland west of Delray Beach and Boynton Beach that is prized by vegetable growers and developers alike.
While the volume of new home construction in Palm Beach County remains well below the 12,000 building permits the county issued in 2005 during South Florida’s building boom, the current upward trend is a good sign, according to industry experts. Much of the demand for land is getting directed at citrus groves, pastures and other agricultural property in Loxahatchee.
The estimated value of the 5,051 new houses, townhomes, condominiums and other homes permitted for construction in 2013 was about $1.2 billion, according to the county building department. ”Residential [development] is definitely growing,” said Doug Wise, who heads the county’s building division. “Market prices are getting better.” The improved home-buying market is a big reason why developers are reviving past development proposals for large-scale agricultural properties.
While county guidelines are supposed to encourage redevelopment near existing roads, schools and other infrastructure, developers often prefer to target farmland or other undeveloped property, which can cost less and provide more room to build. ”It is infinitely easier to develop on green fields than it is on previously developed parcels,” Jernigan said. “There is pent-up demand.”
Minto is proposing twice as many homes as currently allowed on the property. The County Commission is expected to weigh in on the development plans this summer. The number of homes commissioners allow for Minto West could set a precedent for the neighboring 5,000-acre Indian Trail Groves property that G.L. Homes has long planned to develop. Minto West plans call for setting aside about 1,400 acres as open spaces and including large landscaped buffer areas to help create a transition between the new community and its more rural neighbors.
Requested changes to Agricultural Reserve building limits could lead to about 6,000 more homes than planned in the farming area where county taxpayers have spent $100 million trying to protect land from development. To limit the influx of development, voters in 1999 approved the $100 million to acquire about 2,400 acres in the Agricultural Reserve that now gets leased to farmers.
Also, builders are required to set aside the equivalent of 60 percent of their property for agricultural uses, conservation or water storage. In addition, county rules limit the amount of commercial development allowed in the Agricultural Reserve. But on Tuesday, the County Commission agreed to consider easing those building limits at the urging of landowners concerned about regulations stifling their property values.
In additon to the 6,000 more homes, changes proposed by a collection of nursery operators and other agricultural land owners could allow another 200 acres of commercial development. Ultimately, the County Commission decides whether to ease building restrictions to allow everything from Minto West’s plans to the push for more development in the Agricultural Reserve.
Taylor, who heads the County Comission, said the county needs to take a cautious approach when it comes to changing development rules to accommodate building plans, particularly in the Agricultural Reserve. ”I would like to think that we are different from Miami-Dade and Broward,” said Loxahatchee resident Anne Kuhl, who said she is “fearful” that development will be allowed to overwhelm rural areas. “We have an opportunity to stop this, [to] put on the brakes.”
Source: SunSentinel
RWNK Inks 7,000 SF In Cypress Creek Lease Transactions
/in Done Deals, News/by SFOBA STAFFBill McConnell and Kenneth Kurtz, CCIM of NAI Rauch Weaver Norfleet Kurtz & Co., represented JV Cypress, LLC in four lease transactions at the Cypress Creek Business Center.
The transactions, totaling 6,807 square feet in lease deals include the following tenants:
The building, which totals 39,990 square feet, is located at 2901 W. Cypress Creek Rd. in North Fort Lauderdale.
Broward County Gearing Up For Development Surge
/in News, Trends/by SFOBA STAFFGet ready to witness a dramatic spurt in new development in Broward County, if dozens of high-rise apartment towers, hundreds of single-family homes and a few mega commercial projects are given the green light.
The recent surge in development proposals could change the county’s landscape — and prove there’s no such thing as “built out.”
Among the many projects in the pipeline, according to county records:
The uptick is striking.
“This year we’re definitely seeing more proposals,” said Barbara Blake Boy, executive director of the Broward Planning Council, a county advisory board.
In 2013, the number of residential units for which developers sought approvals jumped 218 percent at the Broward County Planning Council, one of the earliest stages in the process.
This year, approvals are again on the increase. Developers have submitted plans to add 1,970 homes in seven projects in Pompano Beach, Miramar, Plantation, Pembroke Pines and Lauderdale Lakes. That’s nearly as high as the total for all of 2013.
“Is there a higher level of proposed development activity than there’s been in the last few years? The answer to that is absolutely yes,” Stiles Corp. President Doug Eagon said.
Eagon said the South Florida housing market is more robust than elsewhere in the country right now, with heavy demand for rental apartments coming from millennials who’ve finally gotten jobs, and from baby boomers downsizing after their kids move out.
“There’s been a pretty dramatic increase in activity,” Executive Director Jim DiPietro said at the Broward Board of Rules and Appeals, which has seen a spike in building permit revenue. “You can see the way we started to claw out of the recession.”
The dramatic development surge might seem counterintuitive to those who’ve scanned the horizon and seen that nearly every square inch is paved and built upon (except for the two-thirds of the county that’s in the Florida Everglades).
In fact, Broward County was considered largely built out in 2005, according to the county’s recently released population planning report. But that doesn’t mean it’s game over for developers.
“When people say, ‘Well, we’re out of land,’” Eagon said, “the reality is we’re very close to being out of vacant land, but the redevelopment potential is still very good.”
The county’s vote is typically the first step, a general approval spelling out what type of development and how much of it can take place on the land. Many more projects that already had those approvals are under construction now.
In the cities, towns and neighborhoods where the construction trucks are headed, residents may be hesitant to embrace more growth. Developers will have to show that their projects won’t overburden local roads and schools, among other things.
Broward County Commissioner Tim Ryan said improving public transportation and ensuring that some of the new housing is affordable to the working class will be critical in this wave of development.
“You want to try to change the mindset, I think, in the coming decade,” Ryan said, “to get more people onto mass transit.”
Regardless, he said, people are coming. Population estimates for Broward show the flow to the south will continue, driving demand for more housing.
“They keep having winters like they just did,” Broward planning section manager Martin Berger said, “and they’re going to keep coming.”
Source: SunSentinel
Downtown Fort Lauderdale Broward’s Best Performing Market
/in News/by SFOBA STAFFCommercial Florida Realty Services’ George Sacks has recently completed year-end office market studies for Broward and Palm Beach office market studies.
Among the studies’ highlights:
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CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE PALM BEACH OFFICE MARKET STUDY