Fort Lauderdale Puts 24-Acre Industrial Site Up For Bid

The city of Fort Lauderdale is soliciting bids, starting at just over $13 million, for a 24-acre industrial property in Dania Beach that could be developed into offices or warehouses.


4050-South-State-Road-7, Dania Beach site

Colliers International is overseeing the planned sale of the city-owned industrial property at 4030 State Road 7, just south of I-595. It’s one of Colliers’ first assignments from the city of Fort Lauderdale under its new contract to help manage the city’s real estate and dispose of surplus properties.

Fort Lauderdale requires potential buyers to submit sealed bids for the property in Dania Beach to the procurement division of the city’s finance department by Nov. 3. Sealed bids should include a cashier’s check or certified check to the city in an amount equal to 10 percent of the offered purchase price. Colliers would collect a commission at closing equal to 4 percent of the sale price.

Potential buyers must submit a minimum bid of $13.226 million, the appraised value of the property. The appraisal was completed Aug. 14 by Adrian Gonzalez, Jr., of Adrian Gonzalez & Associates P.A. in Hollywood. Terms of the sale would include payment of all closing costs by the buyer. No purchase money mortgage would be held by the city.

In a memo this week to city commissioners, City Manager Lee Feldman said Fort Lauderdale acquired the property in Dania Beach through eminent domain in February 1984. The property currently is used for motor vehicle training by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, among other uses.

The 24-acre property, zoned I-G (industrial general) by the city of Dania Beach, has sewer and water service from Broward County. An active landfill along the north side of the property accepts only ash residue from the Wheelabrator South Broward trash-incineration facility located south of the property.

“There is, to the best of our knowledge, no contamination of the site,” said Steve Wasserman of Colliers International in South Florida. “The likely future uses of the property are office and warehouse development.”

Fort Lauderdale city commissioners declared the 24-acre site a surplus property and approved the city’s contract with Colliers at their meeting Tuesday, Chaz Adams, spokesperson for the city of Fort Lauderdale, said in an email.

“We expect Colliers to offer recommendations regarding the highest and best use for the properties that comprise our real estate portfolio,” Adams wrote in an email Thursday. “These recommendations may include the sale and disposition of city-owned surplus property. By returning property to the tax roll, the city can reduce operating costs, maximize resources, and generate additional revenue.”

 

Source: The Real Deal

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GL Homes Offers County Land And Money To Build In The Agricultural Reserve

Sunrise-based GL Homes promised to donate land and money for the construction of new public schools if it wins approval of its proposal to build houses in Palm Beach County’s Agricultural Reserve.

GL has approval to build 3,900 houses on a 4,900-acre tract called Indian Trails Grove. But instead, the company has proposed building houses outside of Indian Trails Grove in the county’s Agricultural Reserve, a 22,000-acre farming zone west of Boynton Beach.

GL would use its land at Indian Trails Grove to meet the county requirements for building in the Agricultural Reserve, which require conservation of 60 acres for every 40 acres developed.

In a non-binding letter of intent, GL said if its proposal is approved, the company would donate $10 million and 105 acres of land for construction of a public high school and an elementary school. Its offer wouldn’t preclude GL from paying impact fees in connection with its housing development.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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Scripps Research Institute Ranked Most Innovative In The World

The Scripps Research Institute has been recognized as the most influential research institution in the world, ranking above internationally renowned names such as Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The California– and South Florida-based biotechnology hub topped the Nature Index 2017 Innovation supplement, which aims to shed light on the impact of academic research on innovation. The annual rank was just released by a global cyberinfrastructure organization called The Lens, analyzes data to measure research quality and its broad influence on inventions.

Founded in San Diego, TSRI launched a Florida campus in 2003, with startup costs supported by a one-time $310 million grant by the state legislature.

The research outpost has since earned tens of millions of dollars in grants for research initiatives, becoming an anchor of a growing biotech community in northern Palm Beach County. TSRI scientists have more than 1,000 patents and seven FDA-approved drugs to their credit.

“This week’s accolades serve to highlight these achievements,” said Jamie Williamson, TSRI’s Executive Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs. “TSRI scientists share a common goal of improving public health through scientific discovery, and, importantly, improving the way we make those discoveries. We are proud to be recognized for the profound influence our science has had on other researchers and laboratories around the world.”

A key metric in the Nature Index ranking is publications. More than 40 percent of all TSRI’s natural science articles appear in the Nature Index. The average across the 200 institutions listed is 21.9 percent.

 

Source: SFBJ

Oakland Park Rejects Storage Complex, Seeking Better Development

Though it would have been miles from Oakland Park’s downtown, elected officials rejected a proposed self-storage center earlier this week, saying they want to nurture development near neighborhoods as carefully as they’re doing so downtown.

Storage complex rendering

The three-story, architecturally ornate self-storage center would have been fine with the neighbors next to it, off Oakland Park Boulevard west of Interstate 95. But city officials said they could do better.

Oakland Park is in the midst of a development transformation — or at least an attempt at it. City officials say they want better development — higher quality housing and the businesses that would follow.

“This request to me is asking this body to relent on that hard work we put into unifying our city, and to renege on the commitments that we made,” Commissioner Michael Carn said.

The vote against rezoning for the project was 4-1, with Commissioner Matthew Sparks the only supporter.

The three-story complex was proposed for 2.5 acres at 2203 W. Oakland Park Blvd., behind a Burger King restaurant and kidney dialysis center, in front of the Sailboat Pointe Condominium, which issued a letter of support.

Mayor John Adornato said the city’s intense focus on improving downtown development standards will eventually lift up the other Oakland Park neighborhoods, like the one where the storage center was proposed.

In May, the city took the rare step of enacting a temporary building moratorium for small housing projects downtown, in order to change development rules.

“The work is just one in a menu of things the city is doing as it re-evaluates where we are at as a city and most importantly, who we want to become,” City Manager David Hebert said. “This is a small piece of a very large whole, and we begin with this step.”

Until Oct. 18, no applications to build townhouses, duplexes, villas and garden apartments are to be processed for the downtown area. The long, thin downtown zone stretches from Oakland Park Boulevard to about 43rd Street, straddling Dixie Highway and the railroad tracks, between 10th and 13th avenues.

The city is fostering a culinary district downtown, often citing the Funky Budddha Brewery at 1201 NE 38th St. as an anchor. A Lucky’s Market will open there in late August

After suspending property owners’ rights with the moratorium, the city hired consultant Leigh Kerr and Associates to study the downtown. He issued his recommendations. Kerr suggested the city build its population via new housing.

“New homes would be a base to support business because retail follows residential,” Kerr said.

By the time development is allowed to resume in October, the city hopes to have changed development laws to encourage the small housing developments to better connect with the street and be more pleasing to the pedestrians who might pass them. Gone would be chain-link fences, vast parking lots in front of buildings and buildings set 10 or 15 feet back from the street.

“The rules discussed and the moratorium itself pertain just to small-scale housing developments, not big multi-family apartment complexes, which the city favors,” David Hebert said

In another legal change aimed at elevating the city’s image, commissioners tentatively agreed to phase out what a city memo called “unsightly” barbed wire or razor wire fencing, except at business that are zoned “light industrial,” like an auto yard.

The vote also would spiff up requirements for outdoor storage yards at commercial businesses, so fencing hides the clutter. Businesses would have until 2020 to follow the new rules, which need a final approval at a future meeting.

Click here to view the SunSentinel news video ‘Oakland Park Nixes Development Project‘

 

Source: SunSentinel