Tag Archive for: cushman & wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield Acquires Taylor & Mathis

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On the heels of its merger with international real estate powerhouse DTZ,Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc. has snapped up a Florida firm with a presence in each of the Sunshine State’s biggest markets.

Cushman this week closed on its acquisition of Tampa-based Taylor & Mathis of Florida, adding about 120 employees to its Florida footprint. Of those, about 100 are in property management, with the remainder in brokerage and leadership positions.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

With the acquisition, Cushman becomes the second largest property management firm in Florida. The combined company will have a management portfolio of 41 million square feet, employing 270 property managers.

Hank Brenner, president of Taylor & Mathis of Florida, said Wednesday that he and Larry Richey, Florida market leader for Cushman, have had conversations about a potential acquisition dating back years.

“The days of the small guys seem to be limited,” Brenner said, “and we felt like we wanted to get the right fit, and again, this felt like absolutely the right fit.”

Cushman & Wakefield, like its peers in commercial real estate, has an international network through which to market properties and potentially draw new clients. Under Richey’s leadership, Cushman’s Florida network combines the resources of a major corporation with an entrepreneurial vibe in its local offices.

“In my view, this is the single largest acquisition opportunity that’s surfaced in Florida in the last 10 years, maybe 20 years,” Richey said.

Taylor & Mathis has property management and brokerage employees in Tampa, Orlando and Miami. In Jacksonville, the company has a small presence, handling the management of a half-million-square-foot building.

No employees will be cut, Richey said. Taylor & Mathis employees in each market will move into Cushman offices.

One of the biggest changes for the Taylor & Mathis employees will be the available resources, like Cushman’s data and marketing said Damien Madsen, principal in Taylor & Mathis’ Orlando office.

“We try to do so much stuff on our own,” he said. “Having access to resources is going to be a huge, huge benefit to us.”

 

Source:  TBBJ

SFOBA December Recap and January Preview

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In preparation for the 2015 SFOBA kickoff meeting Thursday January 15 at noon, hosted by Steelbridge Capital and Jones Lang LaSalle at Cypress Financial Center 5900 Andrews Avenue, here is our December recap and January preview. I also tried to include some of my own “borderline insightful” market commentary.

Thursday, December 11 marked the final meeting of the South Florida Office Brokers Association for it for 2014. The meeting was hosted by Donna Korn of Taylor and Mathis, agent for Brookdale Group, owners of a five-building portfolio totaling over 400,000 square feet of Class-A Office space in Sawgass International Corporate Park. The meeting was held at Brookdale’s International Place.

Our first speaker was Eric Messer, Research Manager for Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. Eric gave us a brief synopsis of the overall state of the office market. The news was very bright for the market as 2014 is shaping up to be the best year since 2005.

Approximately 685,000 sq. ft. of office space was absorbed in 2014 in Broward County, reducing vacancy rates from 15.0% to the current 13.4%. An interesting observation was that the Class B market was unusually strong, which according to Eric is the result of tenants being priced out of the Class-A market. This assertion was further supported by our panel discussion.

The December meeting featured a panel discussion featuring three top brokers in the market..The panel consisted of Scott O’Donnell, a CBRE investment broker specializing in private equity investments, Caroline Fleischer, a tenant representation specialist at Cushman and Wakefield and Chris Gallagher, a leasing specialist for Duke Realty. The panel was moderated by Paul Marko, President of Stiles Realty.

According to Scott, we are in the third strong year of a robust investment cycle. We are seeing a new layer of foreign investment as the market’s strong demographics are attracting funds from Latin and Asian sources. It does seem however, that many domestic investors are being priced out of the market due to the demand from these offshore sources.

Caroline discussed the vibrant CBD market in Fort Lauderdale. Properties along Las Olas Boulevard have seen net rent increases of $5-$10 per square foot over the past 12 months. Downtown tenants are urged to jump on leasing opportunities as spaces are disappearing rapidly and rents continue to increase. Chris Gallagher concurred with Caroline’s assertions, saying that he felt bad coming up with higher rates and fewer concessions in his Weston and Plantation properties. He felt like he was taking the first born from brokers with whom he had grown up in the business. But that is where the market is today.

This led to the inevitable question of whether the market is right for new development. According to Gallagher, Duke has recently signed 100,000 sq. ft. of leases in Weston and he could use a new building to lease. Caroline believes that we are 12 months away from needing new space in Fort Lauderdale CBD. But here’s the interesting piece that will have a major impact on the near term future of the office market. Residential developers will pay three times what office developers will pay for sites. With this price difference, as well as the pre-leasing requirements demanded by lenders, new office development may very well lag behind demand. Therefore, we can expect a trend of increasing rental rates and declining vacancies over the foreseeable future.

Other key trends in the market discussed by the panel included the trend toward urbanism. Fort Lauderdale has seen increasing residential development in the downtown core and the upcoming wave streetcar project will soon provide a mass transportation alternative. With millennials expressing a preference to live and work in an urban environment, the CBD should remain red hot. The panel and our host Donna Korn also pointed out the strength of the West Broward market which has been enhanced by the completion of the new express lanes on I-595 that are reducing travel times for commuters. In addition new mixed use projects such as Metropica will continue to draw residents to the western submarkets.

Our kickoff meeting for 2015 will be held at Cypress Financial Center in Fort Lauderdale’s uptown market and will be hosted by Sandra Andersen and Chase Kulp of Jones Lang LaSalle. Our guest speaker will be discussing All Aboard Florida, the proposed high-speed rail system that will be connecting our state’s major markets.

Stay tuned to the SFOBA blog as we continue to keep you updated on trends in The South Florida office market. And special thanks to Joanne Diaz and Ted Harris who do such a great job in creating programs to keep South Florida’s office brokers connected and informed.

110 Tower Renovation Gaining Plenty Of Attention

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110 Tower, the LEED Gold certified class A office building in Downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Central Business District has recently closed 40,000 square feet of new office and lease deals with tenants including Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard + Smith, Fort Lauderdale Executive Office Suites, The Broward Safety Council, and Cole, Scott & Kissane, P.A., which has recently expanded.

Subway is also now open on the ground floor. And Trial Copy, a litigation consulting firm specializing in electronic data discovery, computer forensics custom trial graphics, and heavy litigation copy service, is now occupying space in the lobby level.

“We have seen a strong increase in leasing activity due to the completion of the building’s renovations, the progress of the new courthouse, the WAVE, which will stop directly in front of 110 Tower, and the improvements to the 6th Street areas,” stated Laurel Oswald (pictured above), a member of Cushman & Wakefield’s office leasing team for 110 Tower. “Downtown is experiencing tremendous growth in terms of new residential and other infrastructure projects. This has positioned it as a multinational hub of commercial and pedestrian business and 110 Tower is at its core.”

110 Tower was the first option for tenants seeking a LEED Gold-certified building within a multi-tenant high-rise office tower in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. Ownership won the U.S. Green Building Council of South Florida’s GalaVerde Award as Florida’s Best in LEED for Existing Building, as well as BOMA’s regional TOBY Award for Best Renovated Building.

Ownership recently completed a comprehensive $15 million interior and exterior renovation. That renovation included ground-floor retail, lobby and interior common area upgrades, primary mechanical systems enhancements, and installing a unique exterior lighting system.

 

Source:  GlobeSt.

 

 

C&W Tapped To Lease Boca’s Wells Fargo Plaza

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Cushman & Wakefield announced that it has been named exclusive leasing agent for Wells Fargo Plaza in Boca Raton.

Located at the corner of Camino Real Boulevard and Federal Highway at 925 South Federal Highway, Wells Fargo Plaza is a 105,000-square-foot, class-A office building.

Cushman & Wakefield Associate Director John Criddle and Senior Director Jon Blunk will represent the building’s owner, Real Estate Capital Partners, in marketing the available 105,000 square feet in the building.

Designed by iconic architect Philip Johnson, Wells Fargo Plaza offers sweeping ocean views from its eastern offices, dynamic golf course views and floor-to-ceiling glass along the dramatic curve of the building. The building is flanked by The Boca Resort & Club and Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, two golf courses and dozens of dining options.

Real Estate Capital Partners has initiated modern interior design enhancements in the common areas and elevators, and has added new “move-in ready” suite renovations.

“Wells Faro Plaza’s high-end office space is centrally located and surrounded by amenities,” said Mr. Criddle. “Real Estate Capital Partners is a dedicated owner, and committed to the property and its tenants. We expect a great deal of interest in the available space, which ranges from 1,100 sf to 13,902 sf.”

Prominent building tenants include Wells Fargo, T. Rowe Price and Raymond James.

 

Payment Processing Company Inks 25,000 SF Deal

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Payment processing company United TranzActions has signed a lease for 25,000 square feet in Miramar.

Caroline Fleischer, Cushman & Wakefield, associate director, tenant representative services, represented UTA in the lease at 3200 Executive Way.

With the new space, the tenant is able to locate all operations in one contiguous suite and UTA got a higher-than-average parking ratio, both of which were important values for the company.

 

Source:  SFBJ

C&W Names New Senior Managing Director For South Florida

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Paul WatersPaul A. Waters has joined Cushman & Wakefield as Senior Managing Director and Market Leader of the company’s South Florida operations.

Based in Miami, Waters will oversee the firm’s overall strategic business objectives and day-to-day activities for South Florida including the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach markets.

Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Waters most recently served as an Executive Managing Director of Industrial Services with C III Realty’s NAI Global, where he led business development efforts for transaction management services in the Americas, focusing on client portfolio optimization and utilization.

From 2005 to 2008, he served as a senior managing director with CBRE. Prior to that, he was a senior managing director with the former Staubach Company, now Jones Lang LaSalle, from 2000 to 2005.

A Boston native and graduate of Boston College, Mr. Waters’ numerous professional affiliations include active membership and involvement in Counselors of Real Estate (CRE), Certified Commercial Investment Member, (CCIM), Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR), Fellow/Royal Fellow/Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC), RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors), and SIOR’s Membership Standards Committee.

Waters replaces former Senior Managing Director, Shane Soefker.  Soefker was promoted to head up C&W’s newly launched Capital Markets Group called Commercial Advisors Capital Markets last October.

 

Source:  CityBiz