Miami Market Update: Investor Interest Drives Pipeline Growth

As of September, Miami’s office development pipeline reached 2.9 million square feet, up 6.9 percent month-over-month, according to CommercialEdge data. The under-construction supply represented 4.3 percent of the metro’s total stock, significantly exceeding the the national average of 2.4 percent. The national under construction pipeline has…

Construction on hold at Vlad Doronin’s Una Residences in Miami following water table breaches

Construction is on hold at the construction site of Una Residences luxury condo tower in Miami’s Brickell, after a series of breaches of the water table. Two groundwater breaches have occurred at the site at 175 Southeast 25th Road since October, and residents of neighboring properties have voiced their concerns about the impact the breaches could have on their…

Terra’s Eighty Seven Park construction next to Champlain Towers South led to collapse, lawsuit alleges

The Eighty Seven Park development team ignored warnings about the damage the tower’s construction was causing to the Champlain Towers South feet away, leading to the deadly Surfside condominium collapse, a new lawsuit alleges. The complaint alleges that Eighty Seven Park developer Terra, led by David Martin, and its team of contractors and engineers…

Kushner brings on PTM Partners for Opportunity Zone rental towers in Miami

PTM Partners joined Kushner Companies as a joint venture partner in a major multifamily development in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood. PTM, an Opportunity Zone-focused real estate development firm based in Miami, is now a 50-50 partner in the three-tower planned development at 2000 Biscayne Boulevard, where Kushner has been…

Crypto-talk: How Blockchain Technology and Smart Contracts Are Transforming the Real Estate Industry 

The advent of blockchain technology is projected to have a big impact on real estate, the largest asset class by value, which is predicted to expand from $2687.35 billion in 2020 to $3717.03 billion in 2025. Blockchain is the core technology that enables the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem’s value proposition. It’s the technology behind Bitcoin’s security and the reason…

Major Food Group to open Sadelle’s in Coconut Grove

Major Food Group will open its popular brunch restaurant Sadelle’s in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood, The Real Deal has learned. The New York restaurant group, which has expanded rapidly in the Miami area, inked a lease with the new owner of the former Tigertail + Mary restaurant building at the Park Grove development, according to sources.

A record-shattering quarter for industrial real estate

Industrial real estate made history in the third quarter as e-commerce and other tenants grappled for limited U.S. warehouse space. The segment logged 159 million square feet of net absorption — the amount of space newly occupied minus the amount vacated. It was the highest quarterly total since 2008, Transwestern said in a…

I-395 Underdeck, Miami Heritage Trail designs march ahead

Progress on an I-395 Underdeck Greenway is accelerating as the City of Miami has submitted a final design concept and deals with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to adjust between the formal budget proposal and the redesigned operating plan the city presented in August 2019. But funding to do the project, due to open in 2024, is still needed.

Miami Market Update: Investment Sales Pick Up the Pace

As of September, roughly 280,000 square feet of office space traded in Miami, with sales prices amounting to nearly $50 million, according to CommercialEdge. Most of the properties that changed hands were class C assets. Year-to-date through September, Miami has seen $1.66 billion in office transactions, significantly higher than last year’s figure at this…

A-Rod, ex-brother-in-law skip trial, settle dispute over multifamily empire

Former baseball slugger Alexander Rodriguez and his ex-brother-in-law, Constantine Scurtis, settled their remaining claims in their seven-year dispute over a once-burgeoning real estate empire, avoiding a trial that was set to begin on Monday. Scurtis, whose sister Cynthia Scurtis was married to Rodriguez, had sued A-Rod, claiming he had cut him out of their…

Witkoff and Monroe Capital unveil major redevelopment plan for the Shore Club in Miami Beach

After acquiring ownership of the Shore Club in Miami Beach, Witkoff and Monroe Capital are planning a massive makeover for the historic property. The joint venture is seeking to tear down a 20-story tower and two-story cabanas built in 1998 on the east side of the property at 1901 Collins Avenue, according to plans submitted to the city of Miami Beach.

Shore Club getting a Miami Beach makeover and sleek new residential tower

The Shore Club, one of Miami Beach’s iconic hotels that has been closed since 2020, is set to be redeveloped by New York-based developers Witkoff Group and asset management firm Monroe Capital, with famed architects Robert Stern and Kobi Karp, after previous plans for renovation failed. Developers submitted plans to Miami Beach’s Historic…

CMBS delinquencies plunge, but still above pre-pandemic levels

Bad commercial debt is getting harder to find. Since peaking at 10 percent last June, the delinquency rate for CMBS loans has fallen for 16 consecutive months, but remains above pre-pandemic levels. Industrial, hotel, retail and multifamily delinquency rates have all improved significantly in the past year, according to a report from Morningstar. In October, the overall…

Chart: Miami Commercial Real Estate Sales to List Price Ratio October 2021

The chart above displays the sales price to listing price ratio as reported in the Miami Commercial MLS for improved commercial real estate (MLS classification: commercial/industrial) that lies within the county of Miami-Dade, including cities within, that were priced from $1 million to $10 million and that closed from January 2011 to October 2021. This ratio hit…

To get an idea of how much commercial property tends to trade in the area, see our post where we chart estimated turnover for Miami-Dade commercial property from 2016 to 2020.

Jorge Pérez’s Related Group buys Princeton apartment dev site for $8M

As part of the development wave overtaking south Miami-Dade County, Jorge Pérez’s Related Group wants to build a mixed-income apartment project in Princeton. An affiliate of Related paid $7.8 million for 10 acres on the west side of Southwest 127th Avenue and less than a quarter mile north of 248th Street, according to records. Seller…

Miami-based CGI Merchant Group to pay $375M for Trump’s DC hotel

Donald Trump is set for his second exit from Washington, D.C., as CGI Merchant Group is reportedly in contract to buy the Trump International Hotel lease. The Miami-based investment firm, helmed by Raoul Thomas is in contract to buy the hotel lease for $375 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. Under its new ownership, the 263-key hotel will…

National developers Witkoff, Kushner, PMG, Crescent Heights talk betting big on South Florida

The Real Deal’s Erin Hudson with Property Markets Group’s Kevin Maloney, Crescent Heights’ Russell Galbut, Kushner Companies’ Nikki Kushner Meyer and Witkoff Group’s Steve Witkoff The panel topic at The Real Deal’s South Florida Real Estate Showcase and Forum on Wednesday was national development, but the panelists wanted to talk about South Florida.

State attorneys general call for eviction ban on subsidized renters

Attorney General of New York Letitia James and United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge (Getty) Tenants in New York may have two more months of eviction protections, but most renters nationwide have been exposed since August. Eviction filings have risen steadily since the Supreme Court tossed President Biden’s eviction ban…

JV Lands $55M Refi for Miami Beach Luxury Community

A partnership between Turnberry Associates, Elion Partners and Privee Capital has taken a $55 million loan to refinance 17 West, a 27-unit luxury property in Miami Beach, Fla. Newmark arranged the loan through Ladder Capital. The community, which spans a full block along 17th Street, offers a mix of one- to three-bedroom floorplans. The loft-style units feature…

Trammell Crow Residential wraps up $10M deal for Miramar multifamily dev site

Two months after securing rezoning approvals for a 250-unit apartment complex, Trammell Crow Residential closed on its nearly $10 million purchase of the development site in Miramar. An affiliate of the Dallas-based commercial real estate development firm paid $9.8 million for a vacant 9-acre property on the northwest corner of Southwest 145th Ave…

Two Miami Gardens churches could be demolished for multifamily

Two church-owned sites in Miami Gardens could be rezoned for multifamily development. The City Council will hear both applications Nov. 10. Specific site plans would be required at a later date. The bigger site is the 4.89-acre parcel at 3311-3341 N.W. 189th St. It’s owned by the Gospel Tabernacle Faith Deliverance Church and currently has two religious…

$47M Sale of Two-Property Retail Portfolio in Miami Gardens, Florida

The properties in the portfolio include Las Villas Market Square and Miami Gardens Shopping Plaza. Located on seven acres at 4705-4895 NW 183rd St., Las Villas Market Square is an 84,543-square-foot retail and service center anchored… Built in 1960, Miami Gardens Shopping Plaza is a 114,342-square-foot retail center… on 11 acres at 4500-4698 NW 183rd St…

Canadian firm buys Pompano Beach apartments as part of $3.6B Greystar sale

When Canadian real estate company Ivanhoé Cambridge struck a deal to buy $3.6 billion of apartments in the U.S., it honed in on growth markets like the Sun Belt and coastal suburbs. It is no surprise then that the Avana Bayview complex in Pompano Beach was one of the 30 properties. Ivanhoé Cambridge bought the community at 1631 South Federal Highway, as…

Broward warehouses trade for combined $47M in three separate deals

In a trio of separate deals, real estate investors from Miami, Orlando and New York picked up Broward County industrial properties for a combined $46.7 million. The purchases show South Florida’s industrial market is not slowing down, even as warehouse properties become harder to come by. Three entities managed by Midtown…

$180M refinancing secured for Miami Beach Edition Hotel

JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group has secured $180 million in financing for the Miami Beach Edition hotel, a 294-room hotel located at 2901 Collins Ave. on the beach. Kevin Davis and Barnett Wu of JLL Hotels & Hospitality arranged the financing on behalf of the undisclosed borrower. Redesigned in 2014, Miami Beach Edition offers traditional guest rooms and suites…

Brookfield pays $8M for office building in Boca’s Park at Broken Sound

Brookfield Properties paid $8.3 million for a fully leased office building at the Park at Broken Sound in Boca Raton. Records show that the New York-based real estate investment behemoth bought the 38,195-square-foot building at 6300 Park of Commerce Boulevard. The seller is FirstService Residential, a property manager…

Menin Development makes $10M play for Delray Beach hotel

Three months after opening its first hotel in Delray Beach, Menin Development picked up another hospitality property in its own backyard. The Delray Beach-based commercial real estate developer bought the Crane’s Beach House Boutique Hotel & Luxury Villas at 82 Gleason Street for $10 million…

West Palm shopping center foreclosure suit leads to CMBS drama

The owners of the Cross County Plaza shopping center in West Palm Beach are learning the drawbacks of taking on cheap debt, as it fights back against a foreclosure action. Cross County Owner LLC, led by Bernardo Kohn and Paul Pollak, took on a $32 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan in 2014 to finance the shopping center at 4340 Okeechobee…

Stephen Ross’ One Flagler office tower in West Palm preserves 100-year-old church, scores tenants, including Estiatorio Milos

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…

Miami, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale Among Markets Where Apartment New Lease Trade-Out is Much Higher

With new lease trade-out reaching historic peaks recently, some apartment markets are seeing incredible momentum pace significantly ahead of renewal lease trade-out. In the nation overall, a surge in leasing activity in recent months led to an all-time high in occupancy at 97.3% in September. With limited vacancies, new lease trade-out, which measures the…

Moishe Mana employee indicted in $7.8M tax avoidance scheme

Eugene Lemay, a longtime Moishe Mana employee who led the billionaire developer’s multi-city arts hub, Mana Contemporary, has been indicted for tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the IRS. Joel Lingat, the gallery-cum-studio’s bookkeeper, has also been indicted. NJ.com first reported the news. Prosecutors allege that Lemay, 61, evaded nearly $8 million in payroll…

Miami Market Update: Fintech Firms Follow the Sun

In September, Miami’s office vacancy slipped to 13.6 percent, registering a 60-basis-point drop from the previous month, but still 100 basis points higher than in September 2020, according to CommercialEdge data. The metro outperformed the national vacancy rate of 14.9 percent, which decreased by 50 basis points through September, but was still up 130…

Video: RealPage Market Analytics Senior Manager Carl Whitaker on Multifamily Opportunities and Forecast

Could central business district multifamily performance be the canary in the coal mine for primary markets? How have eviction moratoriums, rising construction costs, and supply issues impacted the multifamily proeprty market? What should multifamily investors expect in the future for performance and cap rates? These questions and others related to…

What 3 big mall bankruptcies say about the state of retail

In “Mallrats” — the quintessential movie about ’90s mall culture — a character is driven mad trying to find a sailboat hidden in a Magic Eye poster. Assessing the state of American malls today can trigger the same frustration. Three of the country’s largest mall landlords — all coping with similar problems even before Covid shuttered their doors last year…

Warehouses in the sky: Multi-level projects ramp up

There was nowhere to go but up. In 2016, Dov Hertz, the No. 2 person at Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, made a late-career leap and started his own shop. He decided to focus on industrial, though as a New York City developer he had no experience with it: New Jersey’s sprawling industrial parks, comprising some 800 million square feet, had long served as the…

Report Predicts Remote Work Trends Will Cause Steep CRE Losses, Problems For Cities

The coronavirus pandemic created a work-from-home revolution that may lead to a decline in tax revenues from commercial properties, and cities will suffer as they cannot provide important services to residents, a new report warns. If current trends persist, demand for commercial real estate space could drop by 12% to 25% in key cities, leading to a correlated drop…

Glimmers Of Hope Ahead For Downtown Retail Markets Still Struggling To Recover From Pandemic

It has been a long slog back to normalcy for retailers located in U.S. central business districts, as the coronavirus pandemic kicked off low office occupancy rates in March 2020 that have yet to recover. As business dried up, many downtown retail shops — especially independents — closed. While survivors are still struggling, there are glimmers of hope…

WeWork Former CEO Adam Neumann breaks his silence

Meet the new Adam Neumann, same as the old Adam Neumann. The WeWork co-founder, who presided over one of the most spectacular rise-and-fall stories in modern business, made his first public remarks since he was forced out of his startup two years ago. From listening to Neumann’s account, relayed to New York Times DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin…

Florida Developer Leads Largest Shipping Container Multifamily Project In The U.S.

A development team is building a 52-unit multifamily project out of 130 used shipping containers in West Palm Beach, Florida. When complete, it will be the largest shipping container housing project in the country, according to Shelterforce. The project, called Arts on Broadway, is in an opportunity zone in the long-distressed but gentrifying Northwood…

Bittersweet tenant: Sugar Factory owner sues Nakash over Ocean Drive lease

In a tenant-landlord dispute laden with sugar and spite, a candy-themed chain restaurant operator is accusing Nakash Holdings of engaging in an unlawful eviction in Miami Beach. In a countersuit filed last month in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, ILov305 accuses a Nakash affiliate of attempting to collect nearly $1 million in rent payments that are allegedly not owed…

“Good luck finding people”: Barry Sternlicht warns of labor shortage for infrastructure bill

On a call where Barry Sternlicht and executives at his Starwood Property Trust touted the strength of their portfolio and the global real estate market, Sternlicht took a minute to sound off on the government’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of the real estate investment trust, citing construction costs increasing 2 percent monthly…

Federal Team Gives Insight Into Investigation Of The Surfside Condo Collapse

A federal agency investigating the technical reasons for the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, has assembled a six-pronged team and begun its fact-finding process. But answers won’t come quickly. “We think it will take two years” to draw conclusions, Jennifer Huergo, director of the public affairs office for the National Institute…

More apartments on tap: Alta nabs $77M loan for project near Pinecrest

Developers can barely build apartments quickly enough to quench the deluge of demand in South Florida. Construction financing, at least, has been flowing their way amid the robust market. In the latest example, Alta Developers scored a $77.1 million loan for a 296-unit multifamily building just outside Pinecrest. New York City-based Mack Real Estate Group is…

Workers wield the bargaining power in return-to-office plans

As return-to-work plans gather more steam, a survey of building managers and commercial real estate advisors found firms are largely deferring to their employees to determine what shape office life will take. There’s one facet of the office’s future where workers are getting the most wiggle room: their schedules. Most organizations plan to let employees pick how…

Coral Gables Mobility Hub weathers a design critique

Coral Gables commissioners got another look at how the city’s mobility hub is coming along on Tuesday and suggested some detailed improvements moving ahead. Then, despite some concerns about a modern building’s looks, they voted to move the project forward. During the commission meeting, city officials gave their input on what should be added into…

Extended care facility seeks 269 units on Coral Way

A developer plans construction of an extended care facility in the City of Miami’s Coral Way neighborhood. To be called Renaissance at the Gables, the eight-story structure would have 208,545 square feet of floor area, offering 269 residential units and parking for up to 122 vehicles. It is being defined as a community support facility, and the owner is named…

Okan Tower is back: Developer relaunches sales of downtown Miami tower

The developer of Okan Tower in downtown Miami relaunched plans for the project — now that international travelers can enter the U.S. again. Okan Group, led by chairman Bekir Okan, put sales of the planned 70-story Hilton Hotel & Residences-branded tower on hold when the pandemic began last year. Now that the U.S. lifted the ban on foreign travel from 33 countries…

Despite no mass-eviction event, filings are on the rise

The end of the national moratorium didn’t spark an eviction surge, but gaps in federal rental assistance and tenant protections have reportedly given way to a swelling trend. The mass-eviction event many feared would follow the federal moratorium’s expiration in August didn’t come to pass, but tenants across the U.S. are facing a steady rise in filings. Evictions are…

Melo’s second downtown Miami apartment project scores $75M construction loan

Melo Group’s second apartment project in downtown Miami got a boost in the form of a $75 million construction loan. The 57-story tower, dubbed Downtown 1st, will have 560 market-rate units steps from the Third Street and Miami Avenue Metromover stations. The tower also will have 3,000 square feet of retail space and 10,000 square feet of offices. Records…

Jared Galbut, Keith Menin buy Coconut Grove building from Federal Realty

Bodega Taqueria y Tequila owners Keith Menin and Jared Galbut are going from tenant to landlord in Coconut Grove, even before the opening of their restaurant and bar. 3419 Main LLC, led by Menin and Galbut, paid about $4.3 million for the two-story, 2,250-square-foot building at 3419 Main Highway. Property records show the seller is an affiliate of Federal…

Taxing endeavors: Real estate accountants brace for change out of D.C.

As Washington lawmakers tangle over the details of President Biden’s economic agenda, real estate investors and their tax advisors are trying to figure out what it all means — often in the heat of the deal. “Life is going on and transactions are being done,” said Michael Greenwald, a partner at the accounting firm Friedman. “It makes it very difficult for people to plan.”

Seagis Property Group Acquires 53,000 SF Warehouse In Doral

Seagis Property Group announced today that it has acquired a 53,000 square foot distribution facility located at 10005 NW 58th Street in Doral. The two-unit warehouse was purchased through a 50% sale-leaseback.  There is currently a 26,500 SF vacancy available for immediate occupancy. The acquisition increases the Company’s South Florida portfolio to 110…

Big Tech’s appetite for real estate continues to grow

They’re digging their teeth into real estate. Big Tech’s explosive profits and growth are leading to a boom in real estate acquisitions and developments for companies including Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google’s parent company, Alphabet — collectively known in industry parlance as FAANG. The five tech titans own or lease terabytes of space across the…

House passes $1 trillion infrastructure bill

The House passed a bipartisan $1 trillion bill aimed at rebuilding the country’s aging infrastructure Friday night, fulfilling a promise by President Joe Biden to pour money into highways, bridges and mass transit while also investing in climate resilience and expanding high-speed internet access into rural areas. Meanwhile, a second bill zeroing in on climate change…

Workers return to offices as jobs recovery accelerates

The stop-and-go jobs recovery was on the move again last month. The U.S. economy added 531,000 new jobs in October, dropping the unemployment rate to 4.6 percent, according to the Labor Department, which revised September’s tepid hiring from 194,000 to 312,000. “Job growth bounced back in October,” said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist of the…

$10M deal in its backyard: Finvarb Group picks up Bay Harbor Islands hotel

A Bay Harbor Islands-based hotel development and investment firm is making a $10 million bet in its own backyard. Finvarb Group, led by Ronny Finvarb, bought The Landon Bay Harbor-Miami Beach at 9650 East Bay Harbor Drive, The Real Deal has learned. The seller is BHI Hotel, an entity managed by Samuel Spiritos, a managing shareholder with Shulman…

Big win: A-Rod prevails on civil RICO, theft claims tied to multifamily empire

Alexander Rodriguez is so far hitting it out of the ballpark in a suit filed by his ex-brother-in-law, Constantine Scurtis, over their unraveled real estate empire. A Miami judge on Wednesday struck Scurtis’ racketeering and theft counts, both civil claims, against A-Rod, saving the former baseball slugger from tens of millions of dollars in damages. The ruling came on the…

Dead end: Nakash entities sue Miami Beach for closing off Ocean Drive to vehicles

The New York-based Nakash family that owns four Art Deco hotels, the former Versace mansion and the commercial space in an Art Deco condominium is accusing Miami Beach officials of creating check-in chaos for their customers by banning vehicular traffic on Ocean Drive. In a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court last month…

Office broker explains high hopes for WeWork partnership

Cushman & Wakefield’s Brett White and John Forrester Two years ago, the real estate industry wondered if WeWork would collapse under its own weight. Now, commercial brokerage giant Cushman & Wakefield is counting on the flex-office provider to help it attract and retain corporate service clients. Late last month, the company closed on a $150 million…

Developers are finding new lives for “zombie” malls

It took two weeks for the body to be discovered. Police in Gwinnett County, Georgia, revealed the grisly finding: A woman’s remains had somehow gone unnoticed near the food court of the Gwinnett Place Mall through what should have been the height of the holiday shopping season in 2017. Beyond the inherent tragedy, the incident was a macabre reminder of the decline…

Chetrit scores $310M construction loan for Miami River mixed-use project

Chetrit Group secured a $310 million construction loan for its $1 billion mixed-use mega development planned for the Miami River. Madison Realty Capital provided the loan for the first and second phases of the multi-phased project, according to a release. New York-based Chetrit has long planned to develop the 6.2-acre site, south of the river, between I-95…

$310 Million Loan Granted To Build First Two Phases Of Miami River Project

The Miami River project has obtained a construction loan and is now moving forward with the first two phases. The financing is to build both a residential high-rise tower, and a river walk that will be open to the public. Foundation construction is already underway at the project site. The loan totals $310 million, enough to build the first two phases of the project…

Secretive real estate purchases driving offshore economies

Major investors spending millions on real estate via offshore companies or trusts are increasingly dodging authorities, and in turn, setting off sizable ripple effects in global markets. An investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists outlines growing evidence that massive offshore real estate purchases could negatively impact those…

Alberto Campo Baeza reveals Miami office building design

Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza has unveiled his first commercial project to be built in the USA – a Miami office building for developers Bizzi & Partners and Sumaida + Khurana. The two real estate experts have joined forces for the very first time for this workspace architecture scheme, which is set to bring the Spanish master’s powerful brand of minimalism…

3 Trends That Will Drive Real Estate in 2022

If there are three words real estate professionals should consider heading into the next year, they are flexibility, convenience and resiliency. Those are the defining themes that came out of the annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2022 report, released last week by PwC and the Urban Land Institute. So, here’s the good news: The narrative of the past year is that real…

JP Morgan: Is Inflation Still Transitory?

Despite its billing as “transitory” this summer, inflation has proven more durable than many expected. Instead of resolving as the economy rebounded, supply chain disruptions persisted through the summer. In late October, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the supply chain disruptions could persist well into 2022, continuing to drive prices…

MLB’s Mo “The Hit Dog” Vaughn scores Edgewater development site for apartments

Former baseball first baseman Mo “The Hit Dog” Vaughn plans to build market-rate apartments in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, marking a shift for his company that has so far focused on affordable housing. Vaughn’s Omni New York, through an affiliate, paid $7.2 million for the development site at 116 Northeast 24th Street, according to records.

LA firm nabs Sunrise industrial building for $13M

A Los Angeles-based commercial real estate firm scored a fully leased, single-tenant industrial building in Sunrise at a time available properties in South Florida are becoming scarce. An affiliate of Safco Capital Corporation, headed by President John Safi, bought the 75,026-square-foot warehouse in the 612-acre Sawgrass International Corporate Park for $13.4 million…

Brian Tuttle wins approval for 205 single-family home project in Parkland

Developer Brian Tuttle won rezoning and site plan approval last week for his planned cluster of 205 single-family homes on 76 acres in Parkland. The Parkland Royale Phase 2 development site includes a property known as Gator Acres, with nearly 5 acres of land in unincorporated Broward County that the city of Parkland plans to annex under an agreement with Tuttle.

GL Homes drives home $66M deal for Boca Raton golf course

After a one-year delay, a Sunrise-based residential developer closed on a 190-acre, city-owned golf course where it plans to build more than 500 homes. GL Homes, led by President Misha Ezratti, paid $65.7 million for the Boca Raton Municipal Golf Course, according to records. The seller is the city of Boca Raton. Due to the postponement of the closing last November…

TA Realty buys Delray Beach apartments for $83M

TA Realty bought an apartment complex in Delray Beach for $82.8 million, in the ongoing flurry of investment sales in South Florida’s booming multifamily market. The Boston-based real estate investment firm purchased the SofA complex at 150 Southeast Second Avenue and 151 Southeast Third Avenue from Mesirow Financial, according to records.

Billionaires Teddy Sagi and Jorge Pérez invest in major transit development in West Palm Beach

Teddy Sagi and Jorge Pérez with a rendering of the development Billionaire real estate moguls Teddy Sagi and Jorge Pérez are investing in Transit Village, a long-planned, transit-oriented mixed-use development planned for West Palm Beach. Sagi’s Globe Invest and Pérez’s Related Group, along with BH Group, formed a joint venture to invest in developer Michael…

Judge orders developer Glenn Straub’s Palm Beach Polo Club to pay $86K. “Big deal,” Straub responds

Developer Glenn Straub lost another round in a yearslong dispute with Wellington tied to his Palm Beach Polo and Country Club and the Big Blue Preserve ecological site embedded within the club. Straub, who owns the 2,250-acre Palm Beach Polo with golf and tennis courses as well as a clubhouse, and Wellington have been locked in litigation, in part…

JV Backs $500M West Palm Beach Project

Transit Village, a $500 million mixed-use project that will span 10 acres in downtown West Palm Beach, Fla., has some well-funded investors supporting it now. Related Group, BH Group and Globe Invest Ltd., the investment arm of billionaire London-based Israeli businessman Teddy Sagi, have formed a joint venture to invest in the transformative…

Alex Karakhanian buys multifamily development site north of downtown Miami

Developer Alex Karakhanian acquired a site in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District for close to $15 million, The Real Deal has learned. A partnership led by Karakhanian’s Lndmrk Development acquired the property at 1635 North Miami Avenue, Karakhanian confirmed. Records show JRSY Limited, led by Steven Gombinksi, sold the 0.9-acre site. It’s…

Life Storage pays $43 million for two buildings in Miami-Dade

A New York-based real estate investment trust made a hefty play on the Miami-Dade County self-storage market with the $43.5 million purchase of two facilities. Life Storage bought the buildings at 201 Northwest 37th Avenue and 6850 Southwest 81st Terrace in two deals. Entities tied to Kirchhoff Companies sold the buildings. Life Storage paid $22.5 million…

Swiss firm makes $6 million bet on renovated Miami apartment complex

For the second time in two weeks, a boutique apartment complex in a Miami residential neighborhood sold for more than $6 million. An affiliate of Lurra Capital, a Zurich, Switzerland-based private investment firm headed by founder and CEO Tyron Birkmeir, paid $6.4 million for The Shenandoah, a two-building multifamily at 2162 Southwest 14th Terrace…

Miami’s real estate-backed mayor reelected, Virginia Key marina lease rejected

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who amassed major campaign contributions from the real estate industry, was reelected on Tuesday with nearly 79 percent of the vote. Voters also rejected a ballot measure that would have authorized the city to waive competitive bidding and move forward with a 75-year lease with Virginia Key Marina’s current operator. Nearly 53…

Bet against retail property costs investor big-time

A hedge fund that lost millions betting against commercial real estate now claims that JPMorgan forced it to call off the gamble at the worst time, then pumped up the price of paying its tab. Jerica Capital Management, founded by CRE veteran Warren Ashenmil in 2012, entered into a $125 million contract with JPMorgan in 2017 to short a pool of commercial…

Here are the real estate players who contributed to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s reelection campaign

Miami Mayor Frances Suarez was reelected on Tuesday evening with nearly 79 percent of the vote.  The real estate industry rallied behind the development-friendly Miami Mayor Francis Suarez in his bid for reelection. Developer David Edelstein, the Chetrit Group, Property Markets Group, Tibor Hollo and WeWork founder Adam Neumann are among the…

Israeli firm sells downtown Miami garage redevelopment site for $25 million

A pair of foreign real estate investment firms completed a trade for a downtown Miami parking garage that was previously approved for a twin-tower, mixed-use redevelopment project. Mishorim Real Estate Investments, a publicly traded Israeli company, sold the Bayfront Garage at 255 Northeast First Street for $25 million…

Surfside Collapse Will Lead To Developers Buying Out Whole Condos For Redevelopment, Experts Predict

When the Champlain Towers South condominium collapsed in Surfside, Florida, in June, it brought scrutiny to other buildings with potentially outdated structures. “I think of any building built before 1970, or in the 1970s,” said Don Peebles, founder, chairman and CEO of The Peebles Corp. “Chances are a 50/50 shot that the concrete was mixed with beach…

Heading south: Alta buys dev site for apartment complex near Homestead

Raimundo Onetto’s Alta Developers bought a development site near Homestead for $9 million with plans for a multifamily project… target south Miami-Dade County. Alta plans to build a 264-unit apartment complex and 27 townhouses, according to a news release. The nearly 12-acre property at 24500 Southwest 127th Avenue is between Southwest 127th and 128th…

1.9 million square feet planned for string of Blue Lagoon towers

A major residential mixed-use project planned near Miami International Airport will include a series of 12-story buildings with retail on the first floor, parking in the pedestal level and residential units above. The city’s Urban Development Review Board recommended approval. Owner-developer PAJ Investment Group LLC plans to build Miami City Center…

Singaporean wealth fund leads $6.8B deal for U.S. industrial properties

The red-hot industrial real estate sector just notched one of its largest deals ever. A group of investors led by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC bought 328 U.S. industrial properties, including debt, from the real estate unit of Swedish private equity firm EQT for $6.8 billion, according to a source familiar with the deal. Eastdil Secured…

58-story mixed-use Edgewater tower advances

A skyscraper reaching 58 stories planned for the Edgewater area in Miami, called 710 Edge, has been recommended for approval by the city’s Urban Development Review Board. Documents identify… 710 Edge LLC. The project was designed by O’Donnell Dannwolf & Partners Architects. The sleek tower is planned for a waterfront property at 710 NE 29th Street.

Opportunities seen in added Port of Miami rail cargo

An eight-year-old Florida East Coast Railway link carrying cargo in and out of the Port of Miami is now hauling 60 to 80 loaded shipping containers a day from the inland US to sail seaboard to other nations, and operators say there’s plenty of room for expansion. One or two trains daily roll east past the Freedom Tower, cross Biscayne Boulevard and head into the…

Dense Wynwood area population lures commuter rail station

The Wynwood/Edgewater/Midtown station, part of the Northeast corridor of the rapid transit Smart Plan, is still waiting for county transportation officials to pick a specific location and further county commission approval in order to break ground. “The Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) has not yet received approval…

Transportation trust nearly derails Miami Beach monorail plan

A bid to reject a planned mainland-Miami Beach partial monorail link failed narrowly at the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust last week, 6-5. The failed motion had urged the county and Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) to ensure that the Beach Corridor of the six-corridor rapid transit Smart Plan is built differently to maximize ridership.

Large mixed-use project makes big changes to win OK in Wynwood

The development team behind one of the largest mixed-use residential and office projects to rise in Wynwood continues to work with the City of Miami Planning Department staff and is confident of final approval. Owner-developers L&L Holding Co. and Carpe Real Estate Partners are behind The Wynwood Plaza, formerly 29N, which is to rise at 95 NW 29th St.

Video: Costar’s David Kahn Discusses Whether Office Property is Turning the Corner

David Kahn, Director of Market Analytics Director with CoStar Group, joins this commercial real estate discussion to share the current thoughts on the office property market. Included in the discussion are office rental rates, occupancy levels, market value trends, new supply, absorption of supply, and a forecast on what can be expected in the future. CoStar Group…

Swire sells Brickell City Centre hotel for $174M, and nearby Conrad Miami trades for over $100M

Two Brickell hotels sold for more than $100 million each, including the $174 million sale of East, Miami, as hotel investment sales in Miami continue to ramp up. Hong Kong developer Swire Properties sold the 352-key East, Miami hotel to a joint venture of funds managed by Trinity Fund Advisors and funds managed by Certares Real Estate Management, according to a…

What Are Office Tenants Looking for in South Florida?

South Florida’s office market has recently undergone major changes, fueled by a mass migration of businesses to the area, mainly from West, Northeast and Midwest metros. Companies seek office expansions or relocations to the South Florida area due to the state’s lower cost of doing business, the favorable tax environment, and the accessibility to Latin America and…

Masoud Shojaee’s Shoma wins $10M in yearslong suit against Ugo Colombo affiliate over failed condo project

Masoud Shojaee’s Shoma Group won a $10 million award in its yearslong suit against Ugo Colombo affiliate over a failed joint venture to develop a Coral Gables condo project. A jury on Friday determined an entity tied to Colombo’s CMC Group breached the partnership’s operating agreement and is on the hook for the damages, although it said Colombo individually…

Where Miami Ranks Among Top Florida Markets for Office Property Deliveries

Despite nationwide economic challenges to the office sector, Florida’s markets have continued to perform relatively well. Office deliveries in the first eight months of this year totaled 2.1 million square feet statewide, according to CommercialEdge. While this does represent a 14 percent drop from the same period last year, an additional 360,000 square feet is…

Lease roundup: Coca-Cola signs $4M Pembroke Park lease renewal

Coca-Cola I Seneca Industrial Park in Pembroke Park Coca-Cola Beverages renewed its 93,700-square-foot lease for a warehouse and distribution facility at the Seneca Industrial Park in Pembroke Park. Seneca Industrial Park in Pembroke Park. The renewal for a 64-month term is valued at nearly $4 million, according to a news release from Coca-Cola’s broker…

Lumber prices head higher as pandemic rollercoaster take another spin

Lumber prices are on the rise again as supply tightens, residential construction projects pick up, and the U.S. prepares to double a tariff on Canadian softwood. That means home prices will stay higher, Bloomberg reported, noting that lumber futures this week are about double pre-pandemic levels. Supply is tightening both in British Columbia and in…

Chanel spending $40M on buildout of Miami Design District flagship

Chanel is betting on its founder’s slogan: Fashion changes, but style endures. The luxury French fashion company is spending more than $4,000 per square foot on the buildout of its flagship store in the Miami Design District, sources told The Real Deal. Based on its roughly 10,000-square-foot space, that means Chanel is investing at least $40 million into the…

South Florida by the numbers: Brightline to restart & more

After 18-plus months of being cooped up and quarantined, intrepid travelers and commuters are ready to hit the road. Whether by land, sea or air, people are once again on the move in South Florida with ease and style, getting us closer to some semblance of – dare we say it? – normal. As new companies relocate and open office…

Michigan immigration attorney buys new Miami apartment building for $7M

The latest out-of-state investor drawn to Miami’s hotter than ever multifamily market is a Michigan immigration attorney, who scooped up a new building for $6.9 million. Rami Fakhoury, through an affiliate, bought the Silver Cove apartments at 2010 Southwest 25th Terrace in the Silver Bluff neighborhood. Developer Alfredo Borges, who completed the…

Here’s where housing funds stand in Biden’s slimmed-down spending bill

As Democrats tangle over the details of the Build Back Better reconciliation bill, its housing funding has been on the chopping block for weeks. Now, a clearer picture of the measure’s possible haircut is starting to emerge. President Joe Biden on Thursday laid out a new $1.75 trillion framework, shrinking the proposed spending plan from $3.5 trillion. In the latest…

AvalonBay pays $150M for apartment building with Whole Foods in Fort Lauderdale

AvalonBay Communities bought the Curv apartment building with a Whole Foods for $150 million, marking another indicator of ongoing investor appetite for South Florida multifamily real estate. Ram Realty Advisors sold the eight-story building at 410 Southeast 16th Court in Fort Lauderdale to the Arlington, Virginia-based publicly traded real estate investment trust…

LA firm buys former condo building near Boca Raton for $43M

A former fractured condo near Boca Raton that was assembled and converted into apartments sold to a California firm for $43 million. An affiliate of New York-based Axonic Properties, led by Jonathan Shechtman, sold BelAire Tower Apartments at 22511 Southwest 66th Avenue. The affiliate, Florida Condo I LLC, bought 97 units in September 2018 for…

Northland sells apartment complexes in West Palm Beach for $133M

Morgan Properties bought three multifamily complexes in West Palm Beach for $132.5 million, as investors continue to bet on the strength of South Florida’s housing market. Northland Investment Corp., based in Newton, Massachusetts, sold the 622-unit portfolio to Morgan, based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Morgan…

Billionaire Charles Cohen’s proposed West Palm Point office development plan stalls over garage design

Billionaire developer Charles Cohen is struggling to win city approval for the design of West Palm Point, his proposed 23-story office development in downtown West Palm Beach. At an at times testy meeting Monday night, West Palm Beach commissioners decided for the third time to delay their vote on a site plan that Cohen proposed for his…

Jungle Island owner sells Jupiter office building to New York self storage firm for $12M

ESJ Capital Partners sold an office building in Jupiter to a New York self storage company for $12.3 million. Aventura-based ESJ, led by President and CEO Arnaud Sitbon, sold the four-story, 38,769-square-foot RiverWalk Center building at 150 South U.S. 1 to RJM Jupiter Riverwalk, tied to Prime Group Holdings of Saratoga Springs, New York, according to property…

Lerner Acquires Miami Tower for $114M

Looking to build up a portfolio of South Florida communities, Lerner Enterprises has acquired a 294-unit high-rise community in Miami. The company purchased Motion at Dadeland from a joint venture led by Adler Group and 13th Floor Investments, in partnership with Barings LLC, for $114 million. Lerner also received an undisclosed amount of financing…

Joint Venture Sells Motion at Dadeland Apartments in Miami for $114M

Adler Group and 13th Floor Investments, in partnership with Barings LLC, has sold Motion at Dadeland, a transit-oriented multifamily development in Miami. Maryland-based Lerner Enterprises purchased the 25-story property for $114 million. Located at 8400 South Dixie Highway, Motion at Dadeland features 294 market-rate rental apartments and approximately 8,000…

Foundry Commercial, GLP Kickstart Doral Industrial Project

Foundry Commercial and Modlo, the logistics platform of GLP Capital Partners, have commenced development of the Modlo Air Logistics Center in Doral, Fla. The project will add approximately 495,000 square feet of next-generation logistics space to the high-demand Miami-area market. The Modlo Air Logistics Center will take shape on a nearly 24-acre site that…

Foundry, Modlo Break Ground on 495,000 SF Modlo Air Logistics Center in Metro Miami

Foundry Commercial, in partnership with Modlo, the logistics platform of GLP Capital Partners, has broken ground on the Modlo Air Logistics Center, a three-warehouse property near Miami spanning over 495,000 square feet. The 23.7-acre site located at 7777 NW 41st St. in Doral once housed a PepsiCo bottling facility. The three structures include Building 1…

The Rational Exuberance Around Industrial Real Estate

The industrial sector is hotter than ever, no matter how you measure it. Soaring demand and plummeting vacancy rates are showing no signs of letting up in both traditional industrial subsectors and niche subtypes, including cold storage, data centers, multistory warehouse, domestic light manufacturing, and facilities that can accommodate just-in-time delivery.

Miami Beach mayor facing ethics complaint for Ocean Drive meeting

A recently filed ethics complaint accuses Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber of breaking a city law that prohibits elected officials from soliciting campaign contributions from real estate developers. On Wednesday afternoon, Ronnie Eith, one of four candidates running against Gelber in the Nov. 2 city election, filed a complaint against Gelber with the Miami-Dade…

SkyRise Miami developer settles lawsuit with theme park company over $1M refund

A quickly settled lawsuit offered new details about the planning of SkyRise Miami and developer Jeff Berkowitz’s efforts to recoup some of the pre-construction expenses for the canceled project. Over the summer, Berkowitz announced he scuttled the 1,000-foot observation tower that was going to be built next to Bayside Marketplace in downtown Miami.

Brickell church votes to sell waterfront land to developer for condo tower

An up to 80-story condo tower could rise on one of the few remaining waterfront lots in Brickell, after members of the church that owns the land voted to sell part of the parcel. The majority of First Miami Presbyterian Church members agreed to hammer out a deal with developer 13th Floor Investments for the parking lot as well as the elementary and middle…

City Of Miami To Build Patria Y Vida Condos, Sell Them At Cost

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and City Commissioner Joe Carollo announced Monday that the city will develop a 104-unit condominium and sell off its units at cost. The city is seeking a builder for the project, dubbed Patria y Vida. A rendering of the Patria y Vida condos to be built by the city of Miami. Suarez said the project was spearheaded by Carollo, known for…

A Tight Market For Industrial Service Facilities Is About To Get Tighter And Investors Sense Opportunity

Everyone is becoming more accustomed to seeing small trucks roam their neighborhoods, delivering goods ordered online. But even as the coronavirus pandemic greatly intensified demand for these services, most municipalities are reluctant to approve proposals to develop new industrial service facilities where distributors and other businesses can store…

Swire Properties Inc. Sells EAST, Miami to Trinity and Certares

Swire Properties Inc., one of South Florida’s leading international developers, announced today that it has completed the sale of the 352-key EAST, Miami hotel to a joint venture among funds managed by Trinity Fund Advisors LLC, an affiliate of Trinity Real Estate Investments LLC (“Trinity”), and funds managed by Certares Real Estate Management LLC…

Music exec and songwriter buys Edgewater building in Opportunity Zone

Music label executive Carl Austin Rosen, whose hit song co-writing credits include rapper Post Malone’s “Rockstar,” paid $5.6 million for an Edgewater building at 235 Northeast 29 Street that could house his music studio. Rosen, who is founder and CEO of Electric Feel music management, purchased the vacant building through his Electric Feel Realty QOZB. Los Angeles-based…

Seagis Property Group buys warehouse near Miami Gardens for $8M

In a continuation of its South Florida industrial real estate shopping spree, Seagis Property Group scooped up a former manufacturing facility near Miami Gardens for $8 million. Seagis bought the 60,577-square-foot warehouse at 255 Northeast 181st Street from an affiliate of Intima, a wholesaler of bedding, according to broker Jonathan Salk of Vanguard…

CRE has biggest-ever sales quarter, surpasses pre-pandemic levels by 19%

The boom is largely fueled by investors snagging a large number of single properties in a multitude of deals, rather than previous booms featuring plentiful portfolio sales, or sales of entire companies. Investors purchased $193 billion in commercial real estate during the third quarter, marking a reported record that surpassed pre-pandemic spending by 19%.

PE firms LarrainVial, DaGrosa Capital invest in Miami real estate companies

Two financial firms acquired stakes in South Florida real estate companies as the region continues to attract significant investment. LarrainVial, a Chilean-based financial services firm, purchased a 33 percent stake in Black Salmon and TSG, a Coral Gables-based commercial real estate investment firm and developer, respectively, both led by managing partners Camilo…

Jet Aviation signs $120M Opa-Locka airport deal

An international private jet operator is setting up a base near Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport in a deal valued at more than $120 million, The Real Deal has learned. Jet Aviation, led by President David Paddock and a subsidiary of publicly traded General Dynamics, signed a 40-year sublease at AVE Aviation & Commerce Center at…

Miami Multifamily Report – Fall 2021

Miami’s rental market is overperforming in 2021, largely on the back of accelerated demand generated by incoming residents. Despite solid supply additions throughout the cycle, demand has maintained rent growth at some of the highest levels in the nation, with improvement at 2.8 percent on a trailing three-month basis. Meanwhile…

Windstar Cruises moving HQ to Doral from Seattle, tech firm inks Wynwood lease

Windstar Cruises I Doral Concourse Windstar Cruises will move its headquarters to Doral from Seattle, as South Florida remains a magnet for out-of-state companies. The cruise ship line inked a long-term, 9,100-square-foot lease at Doral Concourse, according to a news release from the landlord’s broker. Gordon Messinger of CBRE represented the building…

Expressway authority seeks 2,000 acres for Kendall Parkway

The Kendall Parkway corridor, a 14-mile multimodal transportation project with an estimated cost of over $1 billion, is in the planning reevaluation phase and awaiting funds as the Miami Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) fights in court its own existence. While the litigation is ongoing, no bonds can be issued, and the project can only move forward as funds…

Miami weighs plan to redevelop its Hyatt Regency site on river

Plans to improve and redevelop a long-standing Hyatt hotel site on the Miami River in downtown Miami have been proposed for years but never realized. That may change now that Hyatt intends to bring a new partner onboard. The fate of the high-profile property owned by the City of Miami is scheduled to be considered by the city commission today (10/28). On the…

93-story Waldorf Astoria of glass boxes wins Miami OK

A tower of glass boxes rising 93 stories on Biscayne Boulevard downtown as home to a Waldorf Astoria hotel has been recommended for approval by the city’s Urban Development Review Board. PMG Downtown Developers LP presented the elaborate plans. The site at the northwest corner of Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast Third Street, directly across…

Key Biscayne’s big victory in coastal risk areas

Key Biscayne’s inclusion in the Miami-Dade Beach Coastal Storm Risk Management project, headed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, to shore up the county’s vulnerable beachfront is a big win for the community, said Village Manager Steve Williamson. “A good percentage of our population, now grown to 15,000, lives on the coast,” he said, “all the while…”

Toll Brothers, CanAm Capital Get $103M loan for luxury student apartments at FIU

Swanky student housing is coming to Florida International University after Toll Brothers and CanAm Capital snagged a $103 million construction loan. The developers secured the loan from Ocean Bank on Monday to build Lapis, a 21-story luxury apartment building north of FIU at 765 SW 110th Avenue, according to a news release. It will have smart-electronic…

Developer buys OZ land in bet on Homestead as “future” of real estate

Many Miami developers covet waterfront sites and locations in bustling neighborhoods like downtown and Wynwood, but Armando Bravo is among those investing in south Miami-Dade. Bravo, through his Bravo and Partners 11 Acres LLC, bought an Opportunity Zone development site at 503 South Krome Avenue in Homestead for $5.4 million, he said. The 11 acres…

Wynwood nightlife pioneer sued over $1.5M in allegedly unpaid rent

The Wynwood nightlife pioneer who owned the popular Wood Tavern is being sued over $1.5 million in allegedly unpaid rent for four food and beverage establishments. The landlord, a joint venture led by New York-based Centurion Realty, recently filed three eviction lawsuits in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against Cesar Morales and two of…

New lease on life: Apartment projects popping up at distressed South Florida shopping centers

A rendering of Terra’s CentroCity development with David Martin of Terra Residential redevelopment of South Florida shopping centers is becoming more common, amid solid demand for rental housing and a slack market for retail space. This month, Houston-based developer Morgan Group won a land use change to build 356 apartments on the site of a former…

Landlords beware: Office tenants procrastinating on hybrid planning

A majority of office-using businesses are yet to decide what their hybrid future should look like. Hybrid work is underway in 72 percent of office-based companies and 65 percent said they don’t anticipate having any one dominant work location in the future, according to a new survey from Ernst & Young. A majority of business leaders believe a hybrid work…

Chart: Inflation Watch 2021 Intra-Quarter Update; Inflation Expectations Climbing

The 5-year TIPS spread, after almost calmly sitting a bit elevated over pre-pandemic levels, of a sudden spiked from its prior month close of 2.51% to 2.95% on October 25th. There has been much talk in the financial press of inflation pressures, but except for an initial move to the 2.5% range this has not registered in the TIPS. This may be but a blip itself, but of course…

This week on ‘Deconstruct’: The death of the cubicle

Are you a Marvel fan? Not the comics, of course, but the architect. You may be after this week’s episode of “Deconstruct,” TRD’s new podcast for all things real estate. Host Isabella Farr is joined by top architects Jonathan Marvel and Bernardo Fort-Brescia to talk about paradigm shifts in office space and where architecture firms fit in. With a portfolio showcasing…

The Importance of Commercial Building Permits

What’s lurking under the surface of your building? If work was done without commercial building permits, you could be in for an unfortunate surprise.   You’ve found the perfect commercial property to invest in: it has the right number of office suites, the perfect amount of square footage, and plenty of parking spaces. It’s just what you’ve been looking for! But…

Video: PwC Real Estate Leader Byron Carlock Discusses PwC & ULI Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2022

In this video, the annual PwC – ULI (PricewaterhouseCoopers – Urban Land Institute) Emerging Trends Report, which is the result of surveying thousands of commercial real estate participants for their perspectives on the industry, is discussed with Byron Carlock, Real Estate Leader at PwC. Discussed are some of the most valuable takeaways from the report.

Active Miami construction lenderBank OZK loan originations reach highest level since 2017

Bank OZK, one of New York and Miami’s most active construction lenders, saw loan originations reach their highest levels in nearly four years. Arkansas-based Bank OZK’s Real Estate Specialties Group closed $2.21 billion of new loans during the third quarter, marking the highest quarterly level of originations since the fourth quarter of 2017. The bank also…

Miami River’s western bank poised for growth with $7M dev site purchase

Two Miami-based investors paid $6.5 million for a development site along the western bank of the Miami River, as growth along the river creeps inland. Andrew Korge’s Korgeous Development bought the nearly 2-acre industrial-marine property at 3007 Northwest South River Drive, with plans to eventually redevelop it, according to the deal’s broker. The property is…

Real estate powers Blackstone’s best quarter ever

Blackstone reported a blockbuster third-quarter this week — the best in its 36-year history. Earnings more than doubled year-over-year to $1.28 per share, trouncing the average Wall Street analyst estimate of 91 cents. And assets under management swelled 25 percent to $731 billion, besting industry records, said Stephen Schwarzman, the firm’s chairman…

One Thousand Museum doppelganger condo tower with helipad approved for Miami’s Edgewater

A partnership that includes the developers of One Thousand Museum have the green light to construct a 649-foot-tall waterfront condo tower in Edgewater with a helipad on the roof. Miami’s Urban Development Review Board approved the design of the proposed tower at 710 Northeast 29th Street by a vote of 3 to 1 on Wednesday. Called 729 Edge, it will be built…

Haute rent: What Gucci, Dior and others pay in Miami’s Design District

Shoppers keen on “revenge buying” this holiday season need look no further than Miami’s Design District, an 18-block cluster of luxury retailers, art galleries and restaurants. Gucci, Balenciaga and Dior Homme are just a few of the luxury outposts where shoppers can console themselves with fine threads for a healthy markup. A trio of developers and investors…

MMG Refinances Miami Gardens Shopping Center for $17M

MMG Equity Partners has secured $16.8 million to refinance Miami Gardens Shopping Center, located at 18350 NW 7th Avenue in Miami Gardens, FL.  Guardian Life Insurance Company of America provided the loan for the shopping center. JLL Capital Markets team, which included Chris Drew, Brian Gaswirth, and Reid Carleton…

WeWork stock up on first day, but profitability still fuzzy

Two years after WeWork’s planned IPO imploded in spectacular fashion, the co-working company is now a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. The flex-office provider pitched itself to investors as WeWork 2.0. Gone were the hard-partying, pot-smoking days of founder Adam Neumann. No more self-interested side deals and pet projects…

Planned Waldorf Astoria Miami wins design approval

The Waldorf Astoria Hotel and Residences, planned for downtown Miami, won approval from Miami’s Urban Development Review Board on Wednesday. Property Markets Group, led by Kevin Maloney, Ryan Shear and Dan Kaplan, is proposing to construct a tower at 300 South Biscayne Boulevard that is 1,049 feet tall. The 100-story Waldorf Astoria in Miami…

Mall operator Washington Prime Group back from bankruptcy; CEO out

Just a few months after filing for Chapter 11, mall operator Washington Prime Group has emerged from bankruptcy. When the real estate investment trust, which owns more than 100 malls across the country, filed for bankruptcy protection in June, it listed $4 billion in assets and $3.5 billion in debts. Through the process, the company has reduced its debt…

Miami board rejects design for massive Wynwood mixed-use project, N29

It looks like it is back to the drawing board for the developers of a massive, nearly 1 million-square-foot, mixed-use project in Miami’s Wynwood. L&L Holding Company and Carpe Real Estate Partners were dealt a setback on Wednesday, when the Miami Urban Development Review Board voted 4 to 0 to reject its proposed design for N29, an office, retail, and apartment…

Miracle Mile double play: Terranova pays $8M for two Coral Gables retail sites

Stephen Bittel’s commercial real estate firm made a double play in Coral Gables, acquiring two Miracle Mile storefronts for $7.8 million. An entity tied to Miami Beach-based Terranova Corporation bought the retail sites at 232 Coral Way and 330 Miracle Mile, records show. The seller is Will of Mildred W Brown, LLC. In a statement, Bittel said the firm now owns…

Why Miami is a Magnet for Multifamily Developers, Lenders

South Florida’s multifamily market continued its expansion—bolstered by in-migration from major metros and a business-friendly climate—throughout the health crisis. What’s more, private capital investors are cashing in, banks are closing on sizable construction loans and rental rates are on the rise. Lending and development power players in the area…

Investment duo pays $41M for Fort Lauderdale shopping plaza

Steven Hudson and Charles Ladd Jr. are not slowing down their Broward County retail shopping spree, as they scooped up the South Harbor Plaza in Fort Lauderdale for $40.5 million. The real estate honchos, through their Chapter Two Investments, along with co-investors Las Olas Capital Advisors and Foreward Management, bought the retail-office property…

Palm Beach Gardens shopping center fetches record $102M

The Legacy Place shopping center traded for $101.7 million, marking the biggest Palm Beach County retail deal this year. Yet, the plaza also traded at a loss of nearly 44 percent compared to its last price in 2007. A joint venture of private equity mammoth Lone Star Funds and retail investor Woolbright Development bought the property…

TA Realty sells Palm Beach Gardens office building for $17M

Real estate investment behemoth TA Realty sold the Merrill Lynch-anchored Gardens Pointe for $16.8 million. Sunnyfield South bought the property at 3507 Kyoto Gardens Drive in Palm Beach Gardens, according to a release from one of the brokers. Sunnyfield South is affiliated with Fort Lauderdale-based Levy Realty Advisors and also is managed by…

In good hands: Allstate reels in $12M for office-retail plaza in West Palm Beach

Allstate Investments cashed out of a West Palm Beach retail and office center it acquired nearly 30 years ago. The Northbrook, Illinois-based national asset management firm, which falls under the Allstate Corporation umbrella, sold the two-story Palm Gate Plaza at 3899 North Haverhill Road for $12.4 million, according to records. The buyer is an affiliate of…

Rilea, Promanas buy Wynwood dev site, plan short-term rentals

The development site at 100 and 94 Northeast 29th Street and 101 Northeast 28th Street in Miami, Co-developer Rilea Group’s owner and CEO Alan Ojeda and president Diego Ojeda and co-developer Promanas Group’s president and CEO John Bogdasarian are pictured.  A short-term rental project with 127 units is coming to Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. Developers…

PMG flips former Johnson & Wales lots in North Miami for $10M

Michael Newman (President & CEO, Golub & Co.), 1660 Northeast 127 Street and 12600 Northeast 17th Avenue highlighted behind are pictured. Property Markets Group cashed out of three former Johnson & Wales properties in North Miami that the company acquired over the summer. The New York and Miami-based luxury residential developer sold a vacant lot…

Developer Lissette Calderon’s $100M Apartment Project Tips Cap To Miami’s History

Lissette Calderon, one of Miami’s only female developers, is breaking ground on a new $100M multifamily project and naming it after the woman who founded the city, Julia Tuttle, a widow who in the 1890s persuaded railroad magnate Henry Flagler to extend tracks into Miami and build a hotel, thus triggering a development boom. The Julia, a 14-story, 323-unit…

Developer Asi Cymbal Has $1B In Projects In The Pipeline In South Florida

Asi Cymbal is a trained lawyer, a developer and a licensed general contractor, but after a few years on the development sidelines, he is back in a big way. Cymbal worked on prominent New York projects like Downtown by Philippe Starck before moving to Miami and developing several office, retail and restaurant projects in and around the Design District through…

New York developers unveil plan for South Beach office project

Two New York-based development firms are teaming up to build a Class A office project in Miami Beach. Sumaida + Khurana and Bizzi & Partners are planning a five-story building with 56,177 square feet at 944 5th Street and 411 Michigan Avenue in the city’s South of Fifth neighborhood, according to a press release. An entity managed by principals of…

KKR and Parkway Sign 74,000 SF Lease with Millennium Management at 1111 Brickell in Miami

KKR, a leading global investment firm, and Parkway Property Investments, LLC (“Parkway”) announced the signing of a long-term lease with Millennium Management (“Millennium”) for more than 74,000 square feet across three floors at 1111 Brickell, a 30-story Class A office tower located in the heart of Miami’s Brickell submarket. Millennium plans to staff the…

Washington Nationals Owner Buys Apartment Tower In Miami

Lerner Enterprises, the Rockville, Maryland-based investment firm that owns the Washington Nationals, has picked up a 25-story apartment building at 8400 South Dixie Highway in Miami, adding to its portfolio of Florida properties. Lerner, a 70-year-old company with a portfolio of offices and 5,000 multifamily units, mostly around Washington, D.C., bought…

Spanish Private Equity Giant Sets Sights On U.S. In Partnership With Miami-Based Exan Capital

A major European private equity firm is joining forces with a Miami-based fund manager, giving them both international capabilities. Azora Capital, based in Madrid, with €4B of assets under management, is teaming up with Exan Capital through a joint venture, Azora Exan. The new JV will focus…

Israel Englander’s Millennium Management inks 74K sf Brickell lease

Billionaire Israel Englander’s Millennium Management is the latest Northeastern financial firm to head to South Florida, with plans to open an office in Miami’s Brickell. New York-based Millennium Management inked a long-term, more than 74,000-square-foot lease at the Sabadell Financial Center at 1111 Brickell Avenue, where the hedge fund will open an…

Surfside collapse mediation hits standoff, as rival sides dig in heels on disbursements

Mediation talks on divvying up disbursements among victims of the Surfside condo collapse have hit a stalemate, revealing two opposing sides that pit survivors who lost their homes against those who lost loved ones. In total, roughly a dozen views have been expressed on how funds should be allocated. But ultimately, opinions fall into three major groups…

Wholesale club wins $4M in suit over shoddy construction at Flagler Station warehouse

The biggest membership warehouse club operator in Central America and the Caribbean won a roughly $4.4 million award in a lawsuit alleging faulty construction at its Flagler Station warehouse at 11441 Northwest 107th Street. PriceSmart claimed in its complaint that the concrete floor slab at its 323,494-square-foot facility at the sprawling industrial complex…

Nearly 20 Acres Of Heavy Truck Land In Hialeah Gardens Sells For $872,000 Per Acre

A New York-based company paid a combined $17.25 million in three deals for 19.78 acres of heavy truck parking land a t15701 NW 127th Avenue near Hialeah Gardens. Both properties are outside the Miami-Dade County Urban Development Boundary, meaning major development requiring water and sewer services is not permitted. However, truck parking…

Brightline testing Miami to West Palm Beach to be ready to roll

Brightline passenger rail service is back on track. Stalled by the global pandemic, the fledgling rail service is ready to get moving again and has announced a relaunch for November. Brightline, which bills itself as the only provider of modern, eco-friendly high-speed rail in America, began testing its full operating train schedule between West Palm Beach…

$40 Million Coral Gables Mobility Hub targets self-driving, electric vehicles

Coral Gables city commissioners got the opportunity to see official renderings and a glimpse of how the Coral Gables Mobility Hub is going to change and elevate the city into the future.  During last week’s city commission meeting, design and architecture firm Gensler presented in detail all the features the estimated $40 million mobility hub at…

Mexican owner of 32 aquatic parks wins Miami Seaquarium lease

County commissioners on Tuesday authorized assignment of the lease to operate and maintain the Miami Seaquarium on Virginia Key, a major county tourist attraction, from Festival Fun Parks LLC, a Delaware company, to MS Leisure Company Inc., a Florida corporation based in St, Augustine.  The parent of MS Leisure is The Dolphin Company…

Video: Atlanta Fed’s Brian Bailey Presents View on Commercial Real Estate 2021

Brian Bailey, Real Estate Subject Matter Expert at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, shares his view on the commercial real estate market, including retail and office properties, supply chain issues, inflation expectations and the jobs outlook. He talks about the effects of vaccination rates on manufacturing and issues with people not being yet able to reenter…

The Fed on How Widespread Price Increases May be in the U.S.

In the first blog post of this two-part series, I discussed the recent surge in inflation and identified some upside and downside risks for future inflation. In this second blog post, I will focus on evaluating whether higher inflation can be attributed to a small group of goods and services or whether it is a more generalized event. This exercise is motivated by…

Dan Gelber uncut: Miami Beach mayor caught on tape courting developers for Ocean Drive takeover

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and his predecessor, Philip Levine, courted unidentified developers to raise money for city commission candidates who favor Gelber’s agenda for Ocean Drive, and offered them carte blanche access to city staff for redevelopment proposals in the Art Deco Entertainment District. He also promised to push through unpopular…

Developers, Lenders Are Betting Big on Miami Multifamily

South Florida’s multifamily market continued its expansion—bolstered by in-migration from major metros and a business-friendly climate—throughout the health crisis. What’s more, private capital investors are cashing in, banks are closing on sizable construction loans and rental rates are on the rise. Lending and development power players in the area…

Don Peebles drops remaining $160M claims tied to Overtown development lawsuit

Don Peebles dropped his three pending claims for $160 million, ending his litigation alleging that he was duped out of developing in Miami’s Overtown. His decision came after his entity, Overtown Gateway Partners, which had filed the lawsuit last year, lost two counts over the course of the case. Following Overtown Gateway putting to rest all of its remaining…

Housing Trust Group Opens $25M Affordable Housing Community in Miami

Housing Trust Group (HTG) has opened Max’s Landing Apartments, a 76-unit affordable housing community located in the West Kendall neighborhood of Miami. The development cost was $25 million. Located at 8905 SW 169th Court, Max’s Landing Apartments is a three-story building with 56 one-bedroom, one-bath units and 20 two-bedroom, two-bath…

Ytech buys historic Nolan House in Brickell for $6M

A developer paid $6 million for the historic Nolan House, one of the few remaining original mansions that lined Miami’s Brickell Avenue in the 1920s. Ytech, a Miami-based company led by Yamal Yidios, bought the property at 1548 Brickell Avenue with renovation plans, according to a press release. Ytech declined to disclose its vision for the building…

Developer completes $70M Grand Station apartments — with A-Rod as an investor

The Grand Station Apartments tower is completed, built by a partnership that counts retired Yankees shortstop Alex Rodriguez as an investor. Residents have been moving into the 30-story, 300-unit downtown Miami building at 240 North Miami Avenue, according to developer Oscar Rodriguez. Rodriguez and his partner, Ricardo Vadia, both of…

Industrial space “effectively sold out” amid leasing frenzy, Prologis says

Global supply chain disruptions have sent industrial tenants into a leasing frenzy, pushing warehouse vacancy to unprecedented lows. Prologis’ portfolio was 98 percent leased and just under 97 percent occupied at the end of the third quarter, the San Francisco-based warehouse REIT reported Friday. Moreover, its development pipeline was already 70 percent…

Masoud Shojaee’s Shoma sells Doral apartments for $103M

Doug Andrews, Chairman, Avanti Residential; Masoud Shojaee, President & Chairman, SHOMA Group; Christian Garner, CEO, Avanti Residential; Sanctuary Apartment Complex at 9400 Northwest 41st Street, Doral, FL are pictured. Shoma Group sold its recently completed and fully leased Sanctuary apartment building in Doral for $102.5 million, marking…

Moishe Mana buys more land in Miami’s Allapattah

Moishe Mana is continuing to assemble land in Allapattah, as he says he is prioritizing his downtown Miami and Wynwood developments. Mana paid about $5 million for the industrial properties at 2300 to 2340 Northwest Seventh Avenue and 3100 Northwest Seventh Avenue in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood, which is west of Wynwood and …

CRE survived Covid with flexibility, focus on convenience: report

Commercial real estate’s resilience through the pandemic hinged on its surprising flexibility and new focus on convenience — themes that will remain vital going forward, a report concludes. The industry held up far better than most professionals expected at the outset of the economic shutdown in March 2020, according to Emerging Trends in Real…

First-time fund managers bet $480M on self-storage across US

A pair of first-time real estate fund managers are betting half a billion dollars on the ever-resilient self-storage sector. Concord Wilshire, a Los Angeles-based developer, and Summit Investment Management, a Denver-based distressed debt investor, will put $480 million to work over the next four years buying and developing 40 self-storage facilities. The Miami…

End of eviction moratorium did not result in mass evictions

The mass eviction event feared by many when the federal moratorium ended in August has not come to pass — not yet, at least. Court eviction filings increased by 8.7 percent in the United States from August to September in more than 30 cities tracked by Princeton’s Eviction Lab. While that figure marks an increase, the Wall Street Journal reports the 36,796…

An alleged Miami Ponzi hustle

Like most alleged Ponzi schemes, a Miami-based troika’s plan to tap South American investors to fund their real estate projects started off with non-criminal, ambitious intentions. Ernesto Weisson, a Coconut Grove businessman and architect who spent time as a developer in his native Ecuador, teamed up with fellow Ecuadorian and financial manager…

Nuveen pays $110M for industrial buildings in Weston

Nuveen Real Estate bought two warehouses within the Weston Business Center for $110 million, marking the second biggest South Florida industrial deal this year. San Francisco-based real estate investment trust Prologis sold the properties at 2935 and 2945 West Corporate Lakes Boulevard, records show. The deal breaks down to $275 per square foot. Constructed…

Forte Capital Management buys Hollywood medical offices for $11M

Forte Capital Management bought a Hollywood medical office building adjacent to Memorial Regional Hospital South for $11 million. The Miami Beach-based company purchased the property at 3702 Washington Street, according to Chaim Cahane, president of Forte. A group of five doctors, including at least three with offices at the property, sold the building…

Pinnacle Housing to build affordable rentals in Hollywood

Rendering of the site on the southwest corner of Johnson Street and State Road 7 with the Regional vice president of Pinnacle Housing Timothy Wheat (Pinnacle Housing) Pinnacle Housing got the green light to build an eight-story, affordable apartment complex in the long-neglected U.S. 441 corridor in Hollywood, and may expand the project on an adjacent site.

From Macy’s to multifamily: Apartments planned for former department store site at Pompano Beach shopping center

Morgan Group won a land use change to develop 356 garden apartments on part of a shopping center in Pompano Beach, amid vacancies at the retail property. Houston-based Morgan plans to demolish a former Macy’s store and parking lot on a 12.1-acre site along the west side of Pompano Citi Centre, a shopping center on the southwest corner of Copans Road…

Crow Holdings pays $33M for Coral Springs’ Turtle Crossing

Michael Levy, CEO, Crow Holdings; Turtle Crossing Shopping Plaza, Coral Springs, FL (Crow Holdings, Google Maps, LoopNet) Crow Holdings bought the Turtle Crossing shopping plaza in Coral Springs for $32.5 million. A joint venture of Ross Realty Investments and SunCap Real Estate Investments sold the buildings at 5860-5884 and 5760-5772 Wiles Road as well as…

Art Falcone’s Encore Capital sells Plantation Walk office building for $58M

Vision Properties paid $57.5 million for the office building that is part of the Plantation Walk mixed-use development. Art Falcone’s Encore Capital Management, which developed Plantation Walk, sold the offices at 261 North University Drive, according to a news release. Records show the buyer, through an affiliate, took out a $37.4 million loan from…

Fort Lauderdale Beach hotel portfolio trades for $27M

Seven hotel properties at 3601, 3621, 3623, 3711, 3801, 3811 and 3821 North Ocean Boulevard on North Ocean Boulevard are bought for $27M. A family-owned, Coral Springs-based real estate investment firm is making a big splash in Fort Lauderdale Beach. Affiliates of LWHT Property Management, headed by Tom Assouline, paid a combined $27.2 million for six…

Rockpoint, InSite buy B Ocean Resort Fort Lauderdale for $127M

The beachfront B Ocean Resort Fort Lauderdale — formerly known as the Yankee Clipper — sold for $126.9 million, marking one of the biggest South Florida hotel deals this year. Boston-based Rockpoint Group and Fort Lauderdale-based InSite Group, through an affiliate, bought the 481-key resort for $117.9 million, records show. They paid an additional $9…

Jim Moran Foundation revs up Fort Lauderdale HQ plan with $10M site acquisition

A philanthropic organization founded by a late, prominent South Florida car dealer picked up an office development site for $9.8 million. The Jim Moran Foundation bought a 2.43-acre lot at 4545 North Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, according to records. The foundation plans to start construction next year on a new 50,000-square headquarters…

Cutting costs: Via Mizner mixed-use project in Boca Raton scores $335M financing

Penn-Florida Companies nabbed $335 million in new financing for the luxury mixed-use development Via Mizner in Boca Raton. New York-based Blackstone Mortgage Trust provided a $195 million senior loan secured by 101 Via Mizner, a 14-story, 336-unit apartment building at 101 East Camino Real. In a separate $140 million mortgage deal, Toronto…

IRA Capital makes $16M medical office play in Boca Raton

An Irvine, California-based private equity firm that focuses on medical real estate bought an outpatient center in Boca Raton. IRA Capital paid $16 million for a nearly 3-acre site with a single-story office building at 501 West Glades Road, according to records. The buyer took out a $12 million mortgage with Siemens Financial Service. The property is fully leased…

JB Capital and partner pay $26M for Fresh Market-anchored Jupiter retail center

A three-year-old, Boston-based commercial real estate firm led a $25.5 million joint venture purchase of Fresh Market Village in Jupiter. JB Capital Management acquired the 55,046-square-foot retail center at 311 East Indiantown Road, in partnership with Royce Properties LLC, a Woodbury, Connecticut-based family office, according to a release. The seller is…

Mill Creek sells Dadeland apartment towers to Starwood for $371M, marking largest multifamily sale of the year

Starwood Property Trust paid $371.1 million for two apartment towers near Dadeland Mall, marking the most expensive multifamily investment sale of the year in South Florida. Starwood bought the Palmer Dadeland, at 8215 and 8217 Southwest 72nd Avenue, according to S&P Global Ratings. The two 25-story buildings have a combined 844 units. The seller is Mill Creek…

Bridge Industrial Has 175-Acre Site In Doral Under Contract

Bridge Industrial has the largest undeveloped tract of land in Doral under contract and plans an industrial park there. Bridge Industrial Acquisition, an affiliate of Chicago-based Bridge Industrial, formerly called Bridge Development Partners, filed a municipal pre-application with Miami-Dade County for the 175.2-acre site at the southwest corner of Northwest…

Lissette Calderon scores $78M construction loan for second Allapattah multifamily project

Lissette Calderon is building her second Allapattah multifamily project, thanks to a $78.2 million construction loan. Calderon, through her Neology Life development company, is building The Julia, a 12-story, 323-unit project at 1625 Northwest 20th Street, according to a news release from the lender. Construction is underway and is expected to be completed in mid-2023.

$120M Miami Expansion Goes Modular

Optimum Properties has tapped FINFROCK to serve as the project’s architect, structural engineer, precast concrete manufacturer and general contractor for the $120 million expansion of its Aliro Apartments in North Miami Beach, Fla. FINFROCK will be using its offsite modular building approach. The expansion of Aliro Apartments is expected to break…

Location Ventures launches sales of co-living project in Miami Beach

Developer Rishi Kapoor launched sales of his co-living development in Miami Beach, with plans to begin selling units at a Coconut Grove project next. Kapoor, CEO of Coral Gables-based Location Ventures, aims for an ambitious pipeline. He hopes to have 100 Urbin-branded properties across the country and abroad over the next decade, he said. Location…

AEW buys Tamiami Landings in Miami-Dade and a West Palm Beach area multifamily properties for $123M

AEW Capital Management bought newly built Tamiami Landings and Banyan Ridge apartment complexes from AHS Residential for a combined $123 million. Boston-based AEW, a real estate investment manager, paid $67.5 million for Tamiami Landings in southern Miami-Dade County’s Country Walk area. The 264-unit complex is near the intersection…

Can creative placemaking make a building more successful? Skylight’s Stephanie Blake thinks so

Legendary real estate investor Harry Helmsley took special pride in finding what he termed the “romance” in a property: the parts of it that could be run more efficiently, thereby cutting expenses and boosting profits. Stephanie Blake, too, searches for the romance. But her quest lies less in spotting leaky boilers and more in identifying the elements of a…

From Dubai to Surfside: Inside Damac’s plans to redevelop the tragic site

Hussain Sajwani has made a career out of going against the tide. While his compatriots scaled back after the 2008 market downturn, Sajwani, the founder of Dubai-based Damac Properties, announced his biggest project yet, the 42 million-square-foot Damac Hills. And years later, as many high-profile businesses severed ties with the Trump Organization over…

The Fed: How Much Debt Is Too Much? What History Shows

A nation burdened by an excessive amount of public debt can face serious challenges over the long run. But how much is excessive? In this blog post, I’ll discuss what history might show us about a nation’s ability to sustain relatively high levels of indebtedness. Relative Debt Levels in the U.S. and U.K. The figure below shows public debt relative to gross domestic…

Notable Retail Leases Signed in South Florida Q3 2021

South Florida Retail Real Estate Leases 2020 – 2021 We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the top retail leases signed by square footage in South Florida during Q1 2021. This quarter was busy overall, especially considering the current pandemic, and saw several big box leases signed and sealed. Despite the sentiment that the traditional retail…

After yearslong bidding battle, Miami faces legal challenge over marina referendum

Alleging the Miami City Commission showed “blatant and illegal favoritism” in awarding a multimillion-dollar marina redevelopment proposal to its competitor, a joint venture wants to torpedo a November referendum that would seal the deal. Miami voters will be asked to approve the waiving of competitive bids and allow the city…

Trump nearing $370M sale of DC hotel to Miami investment firm

Donald Trump’s struggling Washington, D.C., hotel may soon be somebody else’s problem. Miami-based investment firm CGI Merchant Group is close to striking a deal with the Trump Organization to acquire the lease on the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., for more than $370 million, according to the Wall Street Journal…

Inside the East End Capital-Australian investor feud over Miami’s 100 Biscayne tower

When East End Capital and an Australian investor bought a downtown Miami office tower five years ago, they started out like others do: bold, ambitious and sure of a windfall.  They shelled out $84 million for the 30-story 100 Biscayne and bet that tens of millions of dollars more in improvements would fill up vacancies. They reportedly eyed a…

Boca Raton firm completes bulk purchase of 39 condos near Coral Gables

A Boca Raton-based real estate investment firm closed on a $9.1 million bulk condo purchase in southwest Miami-Dade. The company, managed by Glenn Alba, CEO of Opterra Capital, bought 39 condos at the Gables Court Condominiums, a 160-unit complex at 6821, 6851 and 6861 Southwest 44th Street, between South Miami and Coral Gables, according to records.

Office workers in major cities reach pandemic-best return rates

The pandemic is far from over, but employees are slowly beginning to head back into their workplaces in a positive sign for the national office market. An average of 36 percent of the workforce in those cities were back in the office during the week of Oct. 4-8, according to data from Kastle Systems reported by the Wall Street Journal. The security company tracks…

Okan Tower, to be Miami’s tallest, due in 2022

The Okan Tower is still on track to be finished in mid 2022, according to Okan CEO Kasim Badak. The $300 million project was put on hold because of the pandemic. “The pandemic affected us,” Mr. Badak said. “But it affected everyone around the world. We stopped any operations, but we are back in business.” Bekir Okan, Turkish billionaire businessman, is…

Car-free lifestyles create commercial development niches

A car-free lifestyle and commercial real estate development opportunities are closely intertwined, a Miami Association of Realtors commercial conference panel exploring Transit Oriented Development agreed. “The real story in Florida is population growth,” said Aaron Stolear, associate vice president of 13th Floor Investments. “We are absorbing 1,000 people…”

CocoWalk full to brim with seven new leases

The newly renovated CocoWalk mixed-use lifestyle center’s retail and office spaces are now fully leased, occupying over 235,000 square feet.  Owned by a joint venture comprised of Federal Realty Investment Trust, The Comras Co. and Grass River Property, the open-air tourism destination at 3015 Grand Ave. in Coconut Grove has completed leasing its office spaces…

Only two bid to repair shuttered Dade County Courthouse

After a dozen companies came to an August pre-bid and site visit in the Dade County Courthouse basement, only two local companies bid to repair crumbling columns in the now-closed Flagler Street landmark. The county estimated the cost at $3.7 million with completion within 525 days after a notice to proceed is issued. Work, according to Internal Services…

New Miami Worldcenter occupants set to open in 2022

The Miami Worldcenter continues to fill space with retailers and merchants, with three new tenants set to open in early 2022. The $4 billion, 27-acre mixed-use development at 1010 NE Second Ave. has just signed Sephora, with the purpose of creating an inviting beauty community; Lucid Motors, with electric vehicles; and Bowlero, a full-entertainment…

Grove’s Regatta Harbour says waterfront bar & grill is near

One year after the Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA) launched its “Follow the Sun” economic development campaign, the agency has secured commitments from 17 new-to-market firms that will create a projected 1,835 high-wage jobs over the next three years.  These new positions are expected to pay an average annual salary in excess…

The Fed: U.S. Lending Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered economic shocks in the spring of 2020. How did banks respond to this sudden economic shift? In a Regional Economist article published in June, Regional Economist Charles Gascon, Associate Economist Nathan Jefferson and Research Associate Praew Grittayaphong examined lending trends in 2020 and offered an…

Ari Pearl, Jonathan Leifer sell Bay Harbor Islands condo-hotel units for $21M

Developers Ari Pearl and Jonathan Leifer sold more than half of the units at their converted Bay Harbor Islands condo-hotel for about $21.4 million, or roughly $389,000 per key. Pearl’s PPG Development and Leifer, chairman and founder of L3C Capital Partners, acquired the waterfront property out of foreclosure for $30 million in December. Last month, they converted…

Hotel conversions race against the clock

90 Sands Street On a nondescript corner in Brooklyn, sandwiched between on-ramps for the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, a long-vacant hotel formerly run by the Jehovah’s Witnesses is starting a new chapter. Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty acquired the 29-story building at 90 Sands Street for $135 million in 2017, intending to create, as his partner Ian Schrager…

Trippy: Canadian psychedelic therapy clinic to open first Florida site in Wynwood

Field Trip Health, a psychedelic therapy company, picked one of Miami’s trippiest neighborhoods for its first location in Florida. The Toronto-based company plans to open in Wynwood, The Real Deal has learned. Field Trip inked a lease for a 7,500-square-foot space at The Wynwood Annex, an office building that the Related Group and East End… at 215 NW 24th St…

South Florida’s industrial market continues pandemic momentum in Q3

Industrial rents continued to climb in the third quarter, as leasing soared in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, according to a recently released report. In Miami-Dade and Broward, net absorption nearly tripled, while Palm Beach County’s net absorption crossed into negative territory, Colliers’ third quarter report shows. Yet, average asking rents continued to rise…

Miami Worldcenter scores tenants Sephora, Lucid Motors, Bowlero; other leasing news

Sephora, Lucid Motors, Bowlero I Miami Worldcenter Beauty retailer Sephora, luxury electric car company Lucid Motors and entertainment complex Bowlero inked leases at Miami Worldcenter, the mixed-use development in downtown Miami. Sephora will occupy 6,000 square feet along the 7th Street Promenade fronting the development’s World…

Miami Developers Aren’t Integrating Climate Analysis, But Risk Scores Are Coming to Moody’s Analytics

Moody’s Analytics will now make climate risk scores available on its analytics platform, in a move aimed at helping industry pros better quantify the exposure of commercial properties to the physical impacts of climate change. The firm’s climate risk scoring methodology analyzes both current and future risk and follows the firm’s recent expansion into…

Miami Market Update: Office Vacancy Holds Steady

As of August, the Miami office market bore a 14.2 percent vacancy rate, a figure virtually unchanged on a month-over-month basis and up 180 basis points compared to the same period in 2020, according to CommercialEdge data. The metro continued to outperforme the national average, which reached 15.4 percent in August. Manhattan (10.8 percent) maintained…

Is Biscayne Gardens the next city in Miami-Dade?

Biscayne Gardens residents have an opportunity to be the 35th municipality (city) in Miami-Dade County. This past September 1st the Board of County Commission voted 11 to 2 to allow the voting residents of Biscayne Gardens to choose to incorporate at Special Election on November 2, 2021. The basic distinction between a county and a city is that county government is…

Tug-of-war over anti-redlining law heads back to the drawing board

When Trump-appointed regulator Joseph Otting, previously a career banking executive, proposed a series of overhauls to a 1970s redlining law last year, critics viewed it as a giveaway to the banking industry.  If that was the aim, it backfired.  Banking interests and community advocates united in their opposition, with the latter filing a lawsuit to block the reforms…

Developers incorporating “wellness” into more and more projects

Developers have incorporated “wellness” amenities and designs into more and more projects over the past several years. Some 740 “wellness” residential projects were in development or built worldwide at the beginning of 2018 and that number has grown to around 2,300, according to a study by the Global Wellness Institute…

US industrial market hit records across several metrics in Q3

It was a record third quarter for the U.S. industrial market by just about every key metric. Vacancy fell to an all-time low of 4.1 percent on the back of a record 140 million square feet of net absorption, according to the Business Journals. Average rents reached an all-time high of $7.18 per square foot. Developers are also setting records: The 521.4 million…

Pandemic paralysis: Delta continues to impede hotel, restaurant recovery

The Delta variant continues to stall recovery in the hospitality sector, as hotels, restaurants and bars added a mere 31,000 jobs to the U.S economy in September after a net gain of zero jobs in August. The primary driver of job losses during the pandemic, the broader leisure and hospitality sector added 74,000 jobs as arts and entertainment venues reopened…

Retailers in central business districts still face sluggish sales

As U.S. retailers emerge from the pandemic’s record-lows for business, those in residential neighborhoods are showing signs of life while ones in central business districts remain as dormant as the offices around them. Businesses in residential neighborhoods were recovering faster than small businesses in central business districts, according to an analysis from…

Selling out post-Surfside collapse

Buyers seeking warm weather and the amenities of oceanfront living have often sought out more affordable units in older buildings along South Florida’s waterfront. But now the supply of those condos may be dwindling. Developers, facing little to no inventory of undeveloped waterfront land, are increasingly targeting bulk buyouts of these buildings. And unit…

The Fed on the Risks for Future Inflation

For several months now, inflation has been running high, well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual target. For example, between August 2020 and August 2021, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index grew by 4.3%. In its most recent statement, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) recognized that “inflation is elevated” but…

South Florida retail rents surpass pre-pandemic pricing in Q3

In Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, retail landlords are raising rents to levels that surpass pre-pandemic pricing, according to a recently released third quarter report. Vacancy rates fell across the tri-county region during the most recent quarter, and absorption increased as asking rents rose…

Utilizing Passive Losses as a Rental Real Estate Owner

This article addresses the utilization of passive losses resulting from an owner of rental real estate who is not a real estate professional and does not have the ability to “group” real estate with another activity. In other words, the taxpayer is a passive investor in rental real estate that is leased to a third party. An example would be a full-time doctor who is also…

Housing funds imperiled in $3.5T reconciliation bill

The $330 billion for housing in the Build Back Better reconciliation bill, which would be an unprecedented investment, might be one of the first items cut as Congress tries to shrink the price tag. According to multiple reports, lawmakers are looking at slashing these funds to appease moderate Democrats who consider the $3.5 trillion package too expensive.

Alex Vadia’s Midtown Miami property could get height increase to 48 stories

A mixed-use tower of up to 48 stories or 683 feet may be allowed on a vacant parcel in Midtown Miami. The Miami Planning Zoning & Appeals Board on Wednesday voted unanimously to increase the maximum possible height limit for a 1.64-acre parcel at 3501 Northeast First Avenue from 33 stories or 350 feet to 48 stories or 683 feet. The height increase will…

Billionaire Jeff Greene On His Pandemic Mistake And A ‘Game-Changer’ For West Palm Beach

Billionaire Jeff Greene is best known for making a fortune by betting against the housing market circa 2007, just before the financial crisis hit. These days, he’s focused on transforming West Palm Beach, Florida. Greene grew up in New England, but his parents moved to Palm Beach County in the late 1960s, and he visited often. “I didn’t really care for it very much…

Battle of Monmouth: Zell and Sternlicht’s $2B struggle over warehouse REIT

Sam Zell waited seven years to make his next billion-dollar move. Then Barry Sternlicht crashed the party. The two real estate titans spent the summer locked in a $2 billion bidding war for Monmouth Real Estate, a family-run firm in a New Jersey suburb about an hour outside New York. At stake: Monmouth’s more than 120 warehouses across the country…

World Freight Logistics Buys Doral Industrial Facility

Agora Real Estate Group President and Commercial Advisor Elias G. Patsalos, CCIM, along with colleague Michal Bibr, recently negotiated the sale of an industrial property at 8242 NW 70th Street in Doral. World Freight Logistics (WFL) paid $2,400,000 for the property, equating to $212 per square foot. Patsalos and Bibr represented the seller, VALPART…

Extra Space Storage acquires Margate warehouse for $22M

A Salt Lake City-based self-storage real estate company expanded its South Florida holdings with a $22.1 million purchase in Margate. An entity tied to Extra Space Storage acquired the 101,300-square-foot industrial building at 750 and 780 South State Road 7 and an adjoining parking lot, according to records. The deal for the recently completed warehouse break…

Pompano Beach mixed-use project scores $45M construction loan

A planned apartment-retail project in Pompano Beach’s Old Town district scored a $45 million construction loan, following a roughly yearlong delay. The $72 million Old Town Square will have 281 multifamily units, just over 5,000 square feet of retail and a garage with more than 300 spaces, according to Adam Adache of co-developer Cavache Properties.

Joint venture pays $64M for Davie RV park primed for industrial project

A Chicago-based industrial real estate firm teamed up with Stockbridge Real Estate to acquire the Twin Lakes Travel Park in Davie for $64 million. The joint venture, led by Industrial Outdoor Ventures, acquired the 38.5-acre site at 3055 Burris Road. The sellers are three entities tied to Twin Lakes Travel Park…

CenterPoint buys Pompano Beach last-mile distribution facility for $10M

CenterPoint Properties bought a Pompano Beach last-mile distribution facility for $10 million, marking the firm’s continued investment in South Florida’s hot industrial real estate market. The Oak Brook, Illinois-based company bought the property at 1405 Southwest Eighth Street, records show. The selling entity is managed by Patrick Venne and Jonathan…

Wickshire Senior Living buys Fort Lauderdale ALF for $17M

Wickshire Senior Living bought a Fort Lauderdale facility for $17.3 million, as Florida’s reputation as a magnet for retirees continues to spur investor demand in the sector. The Brentwood, Tennessee-based company bought the property at 2855 West Commercial Boulevard from an affiliate of Denver-based Healthpeak Properties, records show. The deal for the…

Genet Property Group sells Sunrise industrial building for $5M

Genet Property Group sold a Sunrise warehouse for $5.4 million, reflecting continued South Florida industrial investment sales activity amid a prospering market. Records show Tamarac-based Genet Property, led by Ben Genet, sold the building at 4747 Nob Hill Road to an entity led by Brooklyn-based David Kahn, who invests on behalf of his family…

Longpoint Realty buys three Sunrise warehouses for $17M

Longpoint Realty Partners picked up three Sunrise warehouses for $16.6 million, marking continued investor appetite for South Florida industrial space amid a healthy market. The Boston-based real estate private equity firm bought the buildings at 5101-5181 and 5201-5299 Northwest 108th Avenue in two deals, records show…

JV led by IP Capital buys Boca Raton office complex for $77M

A joint venture led by a Boca Raton-based real estate investment firm picked up a three-building office complex in its own backyard. An entity registered to Josh Procacci, chief investment officer for IP Capital Partners, paid $77.3 million for Fountain Square at 2600, 2650 and 2700 North Military Trail, according to records. The deal equates…

Wheelock pays $106M for The Ben hotel near downtown West Palm Beach

Wheelock Street Capital paid $106.4 million for The Ben West Palm Beach, a new hotel near the city’s downtown, marking one of the largest hospitality investment sales in South Florida since the pandemic began. Concord Hospitality Enterprises Company, a hotel management, ownership and development company based in…