Tag Archive for: darcie lunsford

Colliers Tapped To Lease Newly Renovated East Boca Office

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Fresh off the heels of its recent acquisition and a multimillion-dollar capital improvement infusion, 1200 North Federal Highway is getting a new leasing team and rebranding refresh.

The Colliers South Florida office leasing team, led by Senior Vice President Darcie Lunsford, has been chosen to handle leasing and marketing of the 137,000-square-foot, all-glass midrise, which spans nearly a city block at the T-intersection of Federal Highway and Glades Road.

The building was acquired in August by veteran South Florida office owner and operator Allen Chelminsky. Since his acquisition, Chelminsky has invested more than $3 million to renovate common areas, restrooms, landscaping, fountains and the building exterior, update mechanical systems, upgrade the roof, restore the parking lot and garage, and add state-of-the-art security systems and new property-wide LED lighting. The four-story building also offers a newly refurbished onsite café, lushly landscaped indoor courtyard and exterior dining areas, reserved under-building executive parking, and electric vehicle charging stations.

“When we buy an asset, we don’t waste time or spare any expense to rapidly bring it up to our high-quality portfolio standards,” said Chelminsky. “There is no part of the building that we have not carefully designed and curated to offer corporate tenants the best business environment in Boca Raton.”

The reposition ushers in a new wave of modernized office space and leasing opportunities for the residentially-dense and highly amenitized east Boca Raton market.

“The building now looks and feels wholly renewed and refreshed while offering that secret-sauce combination— contemporary space with economic value— that we find missing in the East Boca market,” says Lunsford. “Historically, tenants in East Boca could either pay up for modern space or trade down to older, dated buildings. Now you can find both quality and value in what is arguably one of the most prominent and easily accessible locations in the Federal Highway submarket.”

Chelminsky maintains a long-standing real estate presence across the South Florida and the Treasure Coast, owning and operating more than 2 million square feet of commercial buildings from Miami to Port St. Lucie.

Broward Office Building Sells To Local Family

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The largest office building in Northwest Broward County has a new owner.

EH University Place LLC, an entity controlled by Essig Holdings, has completed its purchase of University Place at 3111 N University Drive in Coral Springs. They are acquiring the building from a partnership led by Bristol Group, a leading real estate investment and development group based in San Francisco.

CBRE represented Bristol and its partner, Butters Construction & Development, in the sale for $3o million.

At 10 stories, the landmark 263,000-square-foot, Class A building visually dominates the city’s central commercial district, which spans along University Drive just south of Sample Road in close proximity to City Hall, Northwest Regional Library, Coral Springs Charter School, and the Broward Health Coral Springs hospital campus.

The Colliers South Florida office leasing team of Darcie Lunsford and Caroline Fleischer has been chosen to handle leasing and marketing of the asset.

The purchase will usher in a new wave of luxury office space and leasing opportunities for the suburban, residentially-dense communities of Northwest Broward.

“University Place is already the highest-quality and best-amenitized office building in the market,“ said Lunsford, who has been involved with the leasing of the building for a decade. “This new ownership will make it even better by reinvesting to deliver a level of well-appointed office interiors, typically reserved for uber-pricey downtown trophy towers.”  

Plans are already underway to build out ready-to-go, high-end office suites, aimed at serving businesses seeking the latest, most forward-thinking design elements to enhance the work experience.

“Bristol Group did a beautiful job in renovating the building. We look forward to enhancing it further in this thriving Coral Springs community,” said Dan Essig, President of Essig Holdings.

The Essig family has a long-standing real estate presence across the country in single/multi-family residential, industrial warehousing, self-storage, and other commercial properties, but is best known locally for founding Essig Pools and Artistic Paver Manufacturing. Essig Holdings is a father-son team with a focus on acquiring and improving commercial real estate assets across South Florida.

“We love Coral Springs,” Sam Essig, Vice President of Essig Holdings said, “We believe our plans will elevate University Place to the next level, setting a new standard for office space in the market.”

University Place is home to many of the region’s leading companies, including Cruise Planners, the nation’s lagest homebase travel agent franchise network, and popular restaurants, such as Tap 42 Craft Kitchen & Bar, Playa Bowls, and Embarcadero 41.

 

Caroline Fleischer, Darcie Lunsford Join New CRE Firm As Senior Vice Presidents

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Caroline Fleischer and Darcie Lunsford have joined Colliers International South Florida as Senior Vice Presidents.

Darcie and Caroline will work as a team based in the Boca Raton office, focusing on all aspects of office leasing services.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Caroline and Darcie to the Colliers team to further enhance our office leasing platform. Their combined experience in commercial real estate and extensive involvement in the community bring a dynamic approach to executing on behalf of our clients,” said Dustin Ballard, Managing Director and Market Leader for Colliers South Florida. 

With over 30 years of experience in the industry, Caroline is a seasoned professional specializing in tenant representation in the South Florida region. Her previous role as Executive Vice President of Occupier Services at Butters Realty & Management saw her leading the ramp-up of tenant representation services as well as expanding on landlord-side leasing initiatives for Butters and various third-party accounts. Before joining Butters in 2019, Caroline was the Managing Principal for tenant representation-only firm CRESA South Florida, hired to rebuild the company’s practice. She also spent more than a decade of her career as a tenant representative at Cushman & Wakefield in South Florida.

Darcie brings her extensive commercial real estate experience, focusing on landlord representation of office properties in Palm Beach and Broward County. Before joining Colliers, she served as Executive Vice President of Landlord Services at Butters Realty & Management, where she oversaw the leasing and repositioning of office assets for Butters and other third-party landlords. Prior to Butters, Darcie spent 22 years as a newspaper and television reporter, covering the commercial real estate industry for over a decade at the South Florida Business Journal. Darcie has been selected to serve on the National Board of Directors for NAIOP in 2025, the nation’s largest commercial real estate development association. She is the past Chair of the NAIOP Florida PAC and the past president of NAIOP South Florida and NAIOP Florida, which sets and executes the statewide legislative/lobbying objectives for Florida’s commercial development industry.

Over the previous three years, Caroline and Darcie, as a team, have demonstrated strong deal-making acumen by executing over 200 transactions, generating more than $150 million in office lease and sales value for their clients despite pandemic market challenges. Their diverse portfolio includes the recent lease up and repositioning of noteworthy office assets such as University Place at City Center in Coral Springs, Northwest Broward County’s largest office tower, 1900 Midtown in Boca Raton, and the Corporate Plaza at Lakeside in Fort Lauderdale, where they have doubled leasing since taking over the listing.

 

Packaging Design Firm Signs Lease To Relocate HQ To Plantation

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Smurfit Kappa, a global leader in paper‐based packaging solutions, is relocating its United States headquarters to the 465,000‐square‐foot Royal Palm business campus at Pine Island Road and I‐595 in Plantation.

Smurfit Kappa, a FTSE 100 company has over 350 production sites across 36 countries. The company, whose corporate offices are currently located in Sunrise, has inked a long‐term lease for 10,673 square feet of office space at the three‐building park. The new lease reflects Smurfit Kappa´s desire to be in a best‐in‐class and highly amenitized office, setting to serve its existing employees while also setting the tone to attract high‐caliber talent.

 

Butters Realty & Management office team of Caroline Fleischer, Darcie Lunsford and Sky Butters represented Smurfit Kappa. Danet Linares of Blanca Commercial Real Estate represented the landlord, TR Royal Palm Corp.

“Smurfit Kappa was seeking an upscale office venue that would help enhance its positioning by providing a myriad of on‐site amenities,” said Fleischer, who is executive vice president of occupier services. “Royal Palm’s café, fitness center, conference facilities, garage parking and executive lounge made it an attractive choice.”

Smurfit Kappa offers customers in the consumer, retail, industrial and e‐commerce sectors an unrivalled portfolio of paper‐based packaging solutions which are 100% renewable and biodegradable and are sourced from recyclable material.

The Company expects to move into its new headquarters by the Fall of 2023.

 

Law Firm Doubles Palm Beach County Footprint, Leasing 12,138 Square Feet At Landmark Boca Raton Building

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The law firm of Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman is expanding in Boca Raton. The 30-year-old business and government law firm has signed a long-term lease for 12,138 square feet at One Boca Place, a 277,390-square-foot, Class A building on Glades Road near I-95.

The new lease will more than double the size of the firm’s Boca Raton office, setting the foundation for continued growth of staff, attorneys, and practice lines in Palm Beach County.

Butters Realty & Management office team of Caroline Fleischer, Darcie Lunsford and Sky Butters represented Weiss Serota in the lease transaction. Laurel Oswald of TCRE represented landlord, CP Group.

Butters Realty & Management-Caroline Fleischer, Darcie Lunsford and Sky Butters

“While many companies were shedding real estate and recalibrating staffing levels in the face of the pandemic, Weiss Serota seized the counter-cyclical opportunity to grow, turning uncertainty to its negotiating advantage,” said Butter’s Fleischer, who is executive vice president of occupier services. “One Boca Place, fresh off the heels of a multimillion renovation, offered the firm both the prestige and the physical infrastructure needed to meet its growth trajectory.”

Weiss Serota originally established a Boca Raton office in January 2017, with just five Palm Beach County-based attorneys there at the time. Since then, the firm has more than tripled the size of its team and anticipates having at least 17 attorneys working out of One Boca Place when it moves into the space in spring 2022. The new office gives the firm additional space to continue its expansion in Palm Beach County.

Notable recent additions to the firm’s Boca Raton office include The DuBosar Law Group, led by accomplished litigator Howard D. DuBosar, veteran construction attorney Ronald S. Nisonson and veteran municipal and real estate attorney David N. Tolces.

“Our Boca Raton office has proven to be a catalyst for growth for the entire firm, particularly with our private sector practice areas,” said Brett J. Schneider, Partner and Boca Raton Office Managing Director. “There is tremendous activity and expansion occurring throughout Palm Beach County. We believe our continued growth and new space will help us better serve this growing business community while also provided our employees with a vibrant and highly desirable place to work near where many of them live.”  

 

Butters Office Team Closes 171,000 Square Feet of Sales, Leases Since Pandemic Onset

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Since the first case of COVID-19 struck Florida on March 1, the Butters Realty & Management office brokerage team of Darcie Lunsford, Caroline Fleischer, Molly McDonough and Sky Butters have executed more than 170,000 square feet of office transactions. In all, the Butters team generated $32.4 million in aggregate transaction value for internal and third-party assets and clients since the pandemic’s onset.

The transactions span nearly two dozen leases to representation of medical financier Bankers Healthcare Group in its acquisition of a 130,000-square-foot corporate headquarters at 3700 Lakeside Drive in Miramar in an off-market deal.

“As soon as the shelter-in-place order was lifted, our team was back in the office that day,” said Lunsford, director of office leasing at Butters. “We saw a wave of up pent-up demand coming out of the shutdown as leases expired and smaller entrepreneurial companies emerged looking to seize potential deals in the market.”

While many large corporate occupiers have remained reticent to make real estate decisions, firms of less than 5,000 square feet have still been active, Lunsford noted.

“Generally, we are seeing companies with counter-cyclical models, insurance, law, technology or financial service providers and other essential administrative hubs that have not been as drastically impacted by the pandemic-induced recession,” Lunsford said.

“In a tough economic situation like this, you can’t wait for the market to come to you, you have to go to the market,” said Fleischer, director of occupier services for Butters. “There are tenants out there that have a need and a want, but you have to be dogged.”

During the pandemic, Butters also increased occupancy several percentage points to 97 percent within its own four-building Boca Raton office portfolio.

“I think the key factor to our effectiveness in closing a high volume of transactions in the face of this unprecedented crisis is that we are highly focused,” said Malcolm Butters, president of Butters. “We have very strong local relationships and we are able to execute.”

Among the more notable office lease transactions:
• Bohler Engineering leased 4,910 square feet at 1900 NW Corporate Boulevard in Boca Raton
• Medigap Life leased 3,577 square feet at 1900 NW Corporate Boulevard in Boca Raton
• Trust Hills Co. leases 3,680 square feet at 851 Broken Sound Parkway in Boca Raton