Tag Archive for: one flagler

Citizens Private Bank Expands West Palm Beach Presence As Wealth Firms Continue To Target Downtown

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Citizens Private Bank is deepening its presence in Palm Beach County with a West Palm Beach office, adding another financial services name to a downtown market that has become increasingly attractive to private banking, wealth management and investment firms.

The bank’s West Palm Beach office is located at 190 Lakeview Ave., where Citizens says its local team provides private banking support, customized client service and access to relationship managers, private wealth managers and advisory professionals. The office operates Monday through Friday and is led locally by Regional Market Executive James B. Meany, with Augie Vulaj serving as private bank office manager.

Citizens Private Bank signed a 10-year lease for a 2,700-square-foot private banking office on the ground floor of the newly built office tower, plus 9,300 square feet of office space on the 12th floor. Move-in was earlier this month.

Cushman & Wakefield represented the bank, while Tower Commercial Real Estate represented the landlord.

The move follows Citizens Private Bank’s earlier Palm Beach expansion. In October 2025, Citizens announced the opening of its Palm Beach regional office at 400 Royal Palm Way, calling it part of a broader South Florida growth strategy driven by rising client demand. At the time, Citizens said it had added wealth teams in Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Naples over the prior year.

For West Palm Beach, the expansion is another signal that the city’s office market continues to benefit from the growth of South Florida’s financial sector. New and renovated Class A office space has helped attract firms seeking proximity to Palm Beach’s high-net-worth residents, corporate executives and family offices. One Flagler, one of the city’s most visible new office towers, has been positioned as part of the next wave of high-end downtown office development.

Citizens’ growth also reflects a broader shift in how financial institutions are serving clients in Palm Beach County. Rather than relying only on traditional branch networks, private banks are investing in relationship-driven offices designed around advisory services, wealth planning, lending, deposits and personalized client support.

Citizens Financial Group, based in Providence, Rhode Island, reported $222.7 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, 2025. The company offers retail, small business, commercial banking, lending, treasury management, wealth management, capital markets and related financial services.

For office brokers and landlords, Citizens’ expansion reinforces a key theme in the West Palm Beach market: financial services tenants continue to view the city as a strategic location for client-facing operations. As more wealth, banking and investment firms establish offices in the area, demand for well-located, high-quality office space is likely to remain closely tied to Palm Beach County’s growing role as a financial services hub.

Source:  SFBJ

Metropolitan Commercial Bank Adds West Palm Beach To Its South Florida Expansion

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Metropolitan Commercial Bank is expanding its South Florida footprint with a new West Palm Beach location planned for Related Ross’ One Flagler office tower.

The New York-based commercial bank already has a Miami presence, and the West Palm Beach office is expected to open in June 2026, according to company announcements. The move gives the bank a second South Florida location and places it in one of the region’s most closely watched office markets.

The expansion comes as West Palm Beach continues to attract financial services firms, private wealth operations and other business tenants seeking proximity to Palm Beach’s growing base of executives, investors and high-net-worth clients. One Flagler, a 270,000-square-foot Class A office tower completed by Related Ross, has become a key landing spot for that trend. Other tenants tied to the building include financial and investment firms, along with high-end restaurant space on the ground floor.

For Metropolitan Commercial Bank, the West Palm Beach opening appears to be part of a broader Florida strategy. The bank recently added Jessica Raffo as Vice President and Director of Association Banking for Florida, a role focused on expanding relationships and lending activity in the condominium and homeowner association sector. Raffo is expected to work with teams in Miami and West Palm Beach as the bank grows its platform statewide.

The timing is notable. South Florida’s banking and finance landscape has become increasingly competitive as firms follow capital, population growth and corporate relocations into the region. West Palm Beach, in particular, has gained momentum as an office market because it offers access to Palm Beach wealth while remaining part of a larger tri-county business corridor.

The new banking center also adds another name to the tenant roster at One Flagler, further validating Related Ross’ bet that downtown West Palm Beach can support top-tier office space. For local businesses, developers, associations and property managers, Metropolitan Commercial Bank’s arrival could mean more competition among lenders and more specialized banking options in the market.

In a region where capital relationships matter, the bank’s expansion signals that West Palm Beach is no longer just benefiting from spillover growth. It is becoming a banking and business destination in its own right.

Palm Beach County Businesses Holding On CRE Footprints: Survey

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More than a quarter of executives of businesses in Palm Beach County expect to expand their commercial real estate footprints this year, according to a survey released Thursday.

Now for the 700,000-square-foot question: Will that demand, combined with a continued inflow of out-of-state companies and workers, be enough to fill all the new office space going up in Downtown West Palm Beach?

The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, a public-private economic development organization, and financial services firm Kaufman Rossin polled 544 CEOs, business owners and executives.

Fully 65 percent of respondents said they’ll keep their current commercial real estate footprints in 2024, while 29 percent said they will lease or buy additional space. Just 6 percent expect to pull back on their real estate occupancy.

The trends around employee counts look even more optimistic. Some 55 percent of respondents said they plan to expand their payrolls in 2024, while 40 percent say they’ll maintain their current staffing counts. Just 5 percent anticipated reductions in headcounts.

South Florida’s job growth has helped keep the region’s office market from following the rest of the nation into distress territory. Office vacancy in Palm Beach County was 11.6 percent at the end of 2023, and rents are rising, according to Cushman & Wakefield. (By contrast, Manhattan’s overall office vacancy rate was 22.8 percent at year’s end, the brokerage reported.)

Palm Beach County’s overall asking rents rose to $46.21 per square foot, up 5.9 percent from a year earlier, Cushman & Wakefield reported. Class A rents rose 4.2 percent to $52.43. Class B product recorded a 5 percent annual increase, closing out the year at an average asking rent of $41.12 per foot.

Downtown rents jumped 11.5 percent in 2023, to $64.90 per square foot. Class A space in the submarket recorded a 14 percent increase during the same period, up to $77.27.

Amid the burgeoning demand, Related Companies has embarked on an office building spree. The completions of 300 Banyan and One Flagler will bring 215,000 square feet of new office space to Downtown West Palm Beach, and an additional 585,000 square feet are under construction in the submarket, Cushman & Wakefield said.

However, despite the job growth, Palm Beach County employers also don’t expect a mass return to offices. According to the survey, 68.2 percent of respondents work fully on site now, and 67.4 percent expect that situation to hold in two years. Meanwhile, 13.5 percent of Palm Beach County employers say they’re now fully remote, and 14.2 percent expect to be working entirely outside their offices in two years.

Since the pandemic, the in-migration of jobs and employers to South Florida has offset the trend toward working from home.

“There has been a transformation over the past five years with the buildup of industry and influx of business and population,” Rick Slater, Kaufman Rossin’s managing principal for Palm Beach and Broward counties, said in a statement.

Growth comes with some downsides, too, including traffic congestion and soaring housing costs, both cited as challenges by respondents to the survey.

 

Source:  Commercial Observer

Chicago-Based Financial Firm Supersizes Future West Palm Beach Office

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GTCR will lease about 26,000 square feet of office in One Flagler, a 25-story office building being developed at 154 Lakeview Ave.

GTCR recently added another 16,695 square feet to its office footprint within One Flagler, said Jordan Rathlev, senior vice president of Related Southeast.

Ryan Barr of Colliers represented GTCR in the lease negotiations. South Florida brokerage TCRE represented One Flagler’s landlord and developer, Related Southeast.

GTCR’s West Palm team currently is in a temporary office in the Northbridge Centre at 515 N. Flagler Drive.

 

Source:  SFBJ

A Tale Of Two Office Markets: Broward Vacancies Rose While Palm Beach County’s Decline

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New office leasing activity is on an upward trajectory in Broward and Palm Beach, but vacancy rates remain in the high double-digits in both counties, according to a recently released report.

Palm Beach County fared better than Broward in filling up vacant spaces in the fourth quarter of 2021, as well as boosting landlords’ confidence to raise rents. Palm Beach County also outperformed Miami-Dade County, where the overall vacancy rate hit 16 percent in the final quarter of 2021.

Broward landlords, on the other hand, were forced to provide more tenant concessions and space improvements, as new projects that came online affected vacancy rates, according to the report by Cushman & Wakefield.

Broward County

The vacancy rate in Broward jumped to 16.9 percent in 2021’s fourth quarter, compared to 14.7 percent during the same period of the previous year. The increase was due to new Class A office space coming online, including at The Main Las Olas mixed-use project (pictured above) in downtown Fort Lauderdale, according to the report. The project’s 387,402-square-foot office tower is more than 50 percent leased.

Still, new leases totaling 2.4 million square feet helped soften the vacancy blow in Broward during the last quarter of 2021, according to the report. Online pet retailer Chewy signed the tri-county region’s biggest lease of last year, inking a deal for 221,597-square-feet for the company’s new headquarters in a new two-building office project in Plantation developed by Midtown Capital Partners.

Most new tenants flocked to Broward’s suburban office submarkets in the fourth quarter, with only 20 percent of new leases in the Fort Lauderdale commercial business district, Cushman & Wakefield found. However, the number of new leases was not enough to offset tenants vacating spaces during the last 18 months, the report shows.

As a result, the overall average asking rent dipped to $35.30 in the most recent quarter, from $35.94 a square foot in 2020’s fourth quarter, according to the report.

“Landlords in both Class A and Class B assets were more aggressive with pricing, while offering more concessions, as well as higher tenant improvement amounts to make tenants sign deals,” the report states.

Palm Beach County

Palm Beach County’s office market outperformed Miami-Dade and Broward when it came to raising occupancy. The county’s overall vacancy rate ended the latest quarter at 13.2 percent, compared to 14.5 percent during the same period of 2020, according to the report.

New leasing activity jumped 77 percent, year over year, with tenants moving into more than 2.2 million square feet of new office space, the report shows. The Palm Beach market had a total positive absorption of 528,000 square feet in 2021, the highest since 2016.

As a result, landlords raised the average asking rent by 3.8 percent to $39.86 a square foot in the most recent quarter. In 2020’s fourth quarter, Palm Beach office tenants were paying an average rent of $38.40 a square foot. In the county’s commercial business district, which includes downtown West Palm Beach, Class A rents hit $65.42 a square foot, a 6.7 percent bump compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.

Palm Beach County’s office market performance likely fueled bullish investor activity, as a number of significant office deals closed last year, including a slate of acquisitions in West Palm Beach by developer Stephen Ross. On one of the sites, acquired for $20.1 million in July, Ross’ Related Companies is building the 25-story One Flagler, where two financial firms and a Greek restaurant have signed leases.

 

Source:  The Real Deal

Stephen Ross’s One Flagler Office Tower In West Palm Preserves 100-Year-Old Church, Scores Tenants

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In a modern-meets-classic project, Stephen Ross’ latest downtown West Palm Beach office tower will rise next to a nearly 100-year-old church that will be preserved.

Ross’ Related Companies embarked on the 25-story One Flagler, where two financial firms and a Greek restaurant signed leases. It will be on the western portion of a 2.5-acre site at the foot of the Royal Park Bridge and overlooking the Lake Worth Lagoon.

Private equity firm Siris Capital will move into One Flagler from nearby Phillips Point, also owned by Related. First Republic Bank will open a retail branch and office space at One Flagler, Gopal Rajegowda, partner at Related Southeast, told The Real Deal.

Chef Costas Spiliadis’ Greek seafood restaurant Estiatorio Milos, with its nearest location in Miami Beach, will open in a roughly 10,000-square-foot space on the ground floor and second level, with waterfront views, Rajegowda said.

The 275,000-square-foot One Flagler will be built west of the First Church of Christ Scientist and include a garage partly on the first floors of the tower and partly jutting out and rising eight stories, Rajegowda said.

Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s David Childs, One Flagler will have floor-to-glass windows, according to a news release and project renderings.

By contrast, the church has a Classical Revival architectural style and was built in 1928. It was designed by architects Horace Trumbauer and Julian Abele, and will remain open.

The eastern half of the site will be preserved as green space with the roughly 1-acre public park named after Abele, a prominent Black architect according to the release.

 

Source: The Real Deal