How Would You Use An Abandoned Walmart Or Kmart? Here Are Some Surprising Ideas

Just off Independence Boulevard, workers are resurrecting an old Super Kmart into a new incarnation: A call center and office space, the latest example of owners finding new uses for a defunct big-box store.

Over on Arrowood Road, a former Walmart is also being reshaped into office space and a call center. And on Freedom Drive, workers are renovating another former Kmart into a charter school.

It’s happening across the U.S.: More developers are looking at how to creatively reuse empty big-box stores, titans of the American retail landscape that now face ever-increasing pressure from online retailers and specialty shops. Elsewhere, empty stores have become libraries, gyms, even churches.

“It’s a cool repurposing of the buildings,” said Tom Fitzgerald, vice president at JLL, which is marketing the former Super Kmart, now known as INQ@2401.

The interior of a former Kmart and Steve & Barry’s store on Sardis Road North in Charlotte, NC. The store is one of several vacant big box retailers that’s getting a new life – in this case, as office space. (PHOTO CREDIT: Ely Portillo Charlotte Observer)

The store was most recently a Steve & Barry’s apparel shop, before that company went bankrupt. Verizon has signed a lease for more than half of the 165,000-square-foot building, and is planning to move hundreds of workers to a new call center there this fall.

Kmart is owned by Sears Holdings, a company that’s been shuttering hundreds of stores in a bid to survive. In January, the company added its Concord store to the list of closures. Department stores such as Macy’s and JCPenney have been aggressively closing stores to try to boost their results, while companies like Walmart and Target that opened thousands of new mega-stores in recent decades are throttling back their store counts, trimming unprofitable locations.

And when those stores close, they can leave a big hole – especially when they’re standalone stores surrounded by acres and acres of parking. The empty parking lots and giant, fading shadows of store logos are hard to miss, and they send an unmistakable signal: Hey, this place is struggling.

But the very things that make empty big-box stores such prominent blights when they fold can also make them attractive targets for redevelopment. High ceilings, totally open floor plans and walls that can be knocked out for big windows mean the buildings work as office space. And the huge parking lots that the buildings come with mean they can offer exceptionally high amounts of parking free to employees – eight spaces or so per 1,000 square feet, well above what even most suburban office parks provide. All those parking spaces and wide-open floor plans mean tenants can fit a large number of employees into a dense arrangement of workstations, making an empty Kmart or Walmart particularly conducive to rebirth as a call center.

That was part of the allure for White Oak Real Estate Advisors, which bought a former Walmart on East Arrowood Road for $3.8 million last month. The building had been owned by the adjacent Victory Christian Center, which used it for various purposes, including a Salvation Army center. Now, work is underway to turn the building into high-density office and call center space. The building has a high parking ratio – again, eight spots per 1,000 square feet of office space – and is also adjacent to the Arrowood Station on the Blue Line light rail.

Jessica Brown of Cushman & Wakefield, who is marketing the property to prospective tenants, said that combination of light rail access and lots of parking means companies can fit even more employees into the building.

“You can stack the density even greater if you need to,” said Brown. Another important advantage a reused retail building has over a new structure: Quicker construction and fewer delays. You know for certain you can deliver it within a specific time frame. The ability to deliver quickly, with no variables, is huge.”

The Movement Foundation is on track to open a new charter school this year on Freedom Drive, in a defunct Kmart the group purchased for $4.3 million. The nonprofit, affiliated with Movement Mortgage, is spending almost $8 million more renovating and refurbishing the property.

‘It Was In Terrible Shape’

When Peter Tonon saw the vacant Super Kmart on Sardis Road North, his first thought was: “When I moved here 22 years ago, that was the first place I bought diapers for the kids. It was in terrible shape,” said Tonon, a partner at Mainstreet Capital Partners. But he saw potential in the site, which he bought in 2015 with DRA Advisors for $3.4 million. Now, with a new roof, HVAC system and windows, and Verizon leasing more than 90,000 square feet, Tonon said the investment is paying off. About 72,000 square feet are still available.

Even with the renovation costs, Tonon said buying a dead big-box store is more cost-effective than building new, especially with construction costs rising. Also, there aren’t a lot of sites that large within the city limits that have so much parking and a large structure already built.

“We’re in it for a lot less than it would cost to build this kind of thing,” said Tonon. “To get 24 acres and lay out that parking, wow. That’s pretty tough to do. Maybe out in the sticks.”

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Source: Miami Herald

Fort Lauderdale To Seek Developers For 64-Acre Site Around Stadiums

Fort Lauderdale will offer developers the opportunity to build an entertainment/athletic venue, plus potential commercial development, around Lockhart Stadium and Fort Lauderdale Stadium.

Lockhart Stadium will be part of a request for proposals for a development lease in Fort Lauderdale

On Tuesday evening, the City Commission approved a resolution declaring its intent to lease the 64-acre site at the northwest corner of Commercial Boulevard and Northwest 12th Avenue. It’s on the outskirts of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

City Manager Lee Feldman said his staff is preparing to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for a lease and development agreement on the site within 10 days. The deadline to respond will be July 6.

Feldman said the RFP will call for an entertainment and/or athletic venue with at least four fields that can be used for soccer and lacrosse. At least one of the two stadiums must remain and be renovated, although the other stadium could be removed, Feldman said. No residential development would be allowed on the site, but there could be commercial development that contributes to the entertainment/athletic uses, he said.

Lockhart Stadium has a lease with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers soccer team through Dec. 31. Fort Lauderdale Stadium previously hosted MLB spring training, but has not been frequently used in recent years. The RFP will give the developer the option of demolishing either stadium, but not both. The RFP will also cover vacant land south of Lockhart Stadium.

“The city owns the property and we are looking to have the lease generate income for city and provide for an economic engine,” Feldman said.

The RFP applications must be submitted to Fort Lauderdale’s procurement division. The sealed bids would be reviewed by the city commission on Aug. 22.

 

Source: SFBJ

Broward Poised For Biggest New Hotel Boom In Years

A boom in new hotels suggests happy days are here again for tourism.

About a dozen hotels will open in Broward this year — the biggest surge in the county in the past decade.

  • Home2 Suites by Hilton Fort Lauderdale Airport-Cruise Port, Dania Beach — 130 rooms
  • Plunge Beach Hotel, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea  — 163 rooms
  • Hyde Resort & Residences, Hollywood—407 rooms
  • Hampton Inn Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Beach—102-room hotel expected to open on May 26
  • Fairfield Inn & Suites Downtown Fort Lauderdale —108-room hotel slated to open in December
  • Residence Inn Center Port Business Park, Pompano Beach—112-room hotel in will open in the June
  • Tryp by Wyndham Maritime Fort Lauderdale—150-rooms
  • Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort—290 rooms
  • Dania alone could welcome four new hotels, including Morrison —143-rooms; Comfort Suites Downtown Dania—104-rooms; Wyndham Garden—142-rooms; and a former Sheraton rebranding to Le Meridien.

It’s “super-exciting,” said Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitor Bureau, the county’s official tourism marketer. “And it’s due largely to an influx of affluent travelers and greater recognition of the destination as an attractive and competitively priced place to do business and enjoy the benefits of our appealing lifestyle and surroundings.”

Preliminary visitation numbers released by the bureau show Broward welcomed 12.27 million domestic visitors in 2016, up 4 percent from 2015, according to preliminary numbers from the bureau. A million international travelers visited last year, excluding Canadians.

Hoteliers and industry analysts seem fairly confident the county can easily absorb the room surge. But some areas may fare better than others.

“Most of the new supply of rooms is not on the beach. The beach will fill up first, so Fort Lauderdale will be fine,” said Christian Charre, senior vice president of Miami-based CBRE Hotels. “For limited service hotels on the outskirts, the situation may be more competitive … still travel is up, and the expansion at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is working so 1,800-plus more rooms is not major. I think it should be easily absorbed.”

So far this year, Broward’s tourist arrivals are about even with 2016, but room rates and occupancy in traditional hotels are down, Ritter noted.

Currency and economic woes in source markets like Canada and Brazil helped to keep some would-be visitors at home. And as non-traditional accommodation alternatives such as Airbnb and HomeAway become increasingly popular with travelers, traditional hotel occupancy has taken a hit.

“The hotels are coming on line as Broward becomes a more powerful and attractive market,” said Daniel Peek, senior managing director at commercial real estate firm HFF. “Miami has become more expensive, busy and crowded, while Fort Lauderdale offers a different experience. Fort Lauderdale has seen dramatic changes in 20 years in terms of investments on the beach, the cruise port and airport and in retail, all of which bodes well for future tourism demand. I anticipate that over the next 10 to 20 years, Fort Lauderdale will continue to be a very attractive market. It’s a pretty dynamic market, generally speaking.”

“South Florida is still doing great,” in terms of tourism. Patel pointed to expanded airline service, a strong cruise market and the soon-to-launch Brightline passenger express train service,” said Jay Patel, president and CEO of Luckey’s, which has eight hotels in Broward and recently broke ground on its ninth.

Other hoteliers like Doug Barrow, general manager at the newly opened Plunge Beach Hotel, also aren’t too worried about the influx of new rooms, having experienced rapid absorption of even more rooms in other top Florida tourism destinations such as Orlando.

“This area has such a strong demand from leisure travelers all over the world and so I think there’s still plenty of room for growth in hotels in these parts,” Barrow said.

Ritter is optimistic about the summer. “We’re going to be better than OK,” she said. “Americans will travel more domestically than in summers past. So I think summer looks good in terms of visitor numbers.”

 

Source: SunSentinel

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West Palm Industrial Building Sells For $127 PSF

McCraney Property Company sold one of three industrial facilities at the Vista Business Park in West Palm Beach for $8.9 million.

The Vista Business Park in West Palm Beach

Berger Commercial Realty/CORFAC International represented the buyer, who paid $127 per square foot, for the fully occupied industrial building at 2361 and 2365 Vista Parkway.

Berger also retained its position as exclusive leasing agent and property manager for the 70,000-square-foot building.

The property’s new owner is McNab Commerce, a long-established partnership between commercial real estate developers Austin Forman and Jack Loos.

The multi-tenant building is a small bay facility with front-load, grade-level doors and ceilings 18 feet high.

Vista Business Park is a 500-acre, master-planned business park near Interstate 95, Palm Beach International Airport and downtown West Palm Beach.

 

Source: The Real Deal

Developers Win In First Hurdle For Mixed-Use Project On Agricultural Land In West Boca

Developers of a planned mixed-use project on one of the last pieces of agricultural land in Palm Beach County just moved a step closer toward building the project.

The Palm Beach County Commission on Wednesday approved a multiple land-use amendment for the Johns Glades West property. Schmier & Fuerring Properties, Giles Capital Group and Rosemurgy Properties want to develop the 38-acre property, at 95th Avenue and Glades Road just east of State Road 7 and west of Boca Raton, into a mix of apartments, restaurant and retail space.

According to the county’s approval, the developers, who declined to comment, could potentially build 304 apartments and about 165,000 square feet of commercial and/or retail space in the as yet unnamed development.

But that number is raised to 456 units with a bonus density. All multifamily developers in unincorporated Palm Beach County are required to build workforce housing, and since the developers plan to build 25 percent of the apartments as working housing — more than required — they are entitled to a bonus density of 50 percent. That translates into an additional 152 units.

The multiple land-use amendment was approved with certain conditions, such as an agreement to limit the bulk of potential traffic to off-peak hours, a feat to be accomplished by an emphasis on entertainment and restaurant venues that would attract more traffic at night than during the day.

The next step is a rezoning hearing on May 25. The land is currently zoned for agriculture with a future land-use designation of low-rise residential (three units per acre). The developers are requesting to change the zoning to higher density residential (eight dwelling units per acre) and commercial.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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How Motorola Office Park Renovation Is Paying Community Dividends

34309962 - silhouettes of construction and power lines at sunset

Chicago-based investment firm is about to complete the $35 million re-positioning of the former Motorola office park into an office/retail campus in Plantation.

The renovation of this iconic property has injected new life to the city. Specifically, the renovation is attracting innovative tech and healthcare companies as tenants and adding restaurants, landscaping, lighting, a fitness center, a jogging trail around a manmade lake and other amenities for tenants to enjoy. The campus is now home to Motorola, Magic Leap, a company developing virtual reality technology, and health care company Amsurg Corp., among others.

GlobeSt.com sat down with Arnstein & Lehr Attorney Josh M. Atlas to discuss the behind-the-scenes of transforming the former Motorola campus into Plantation Pointe. Atlas is a partner in the law firm’s West Palm Beach office and a member of the Construction Law and Commercial Litigation Practice Groups.

Atlas represented Illinois-based Blue Water Builders, the general contractor for the developer Illinois-based Torburn Partners. In part one of this interview, GlobeSt.com asked him what is the main takeaway from the transformation of the iconic Motorola Corporate Park into a sprawling retail/office campus designed with Millennials lifestyle-preferences in mind?

“The main takeaway is that a forward-thinking developer can restore and revitalize an entire community by taking the right approach to a project like the re-positioning of the former Motorola Corporate Park,” Atlas says. “Growing up in South Florida, everyone recognized that the Motorola Corporate Park was an important part of the local community because it was so noteworthy that such a high-profile company would have a large presence in a suburb like Plantation. “

By transforming the project into a multi-tenant corporate campus and adding both retail and lifestyle amenities, he says, the developer created a platform to bring in a much more diverse group of tenants. And that is benefiting everyone.

“The transformation of this campus gives tenants the ability to satisfy the demands of a workforce that is increasingly populated with Millennials who want more out of their professional experience than just having an office to go to work,” Atlas says. “The transformation should also serve as a boost to the local economy by increasing the tax base, creating opportunity for local business and giving more people a reason to move into the community to be near work.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.

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South Florida Aviation Company Sold To Iowa Firm For $8.6B

Wellington-based B/E Aerospace, an aircraft cabin interior products and services manufacturer, has sold to Rockwell Colllins of Cedar Rapids, Iowa for $8.6 billion.

B/E said it will close its South Florida headquarters at the close of the acquisition. The number of employees affected was not immediately available.

B/E Aerospace was among South Florida‘s top public companies with $2.7 billion in revenue in 2015.

Effective immediately, B/E Aerospace is rebranded as Rockwell Collins. Werner Lieberherr, former B/E Aerospace president and chief executive officer, is now executive VP and COO of Rockwell Collins’ newly created interior systems business. He will report to Kelly Ortberg, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Rockwell Collins.

With the acquisition, Rockwell Collins now has about 30,000 employees and annual revenue of more than $8 billion based on calendar year 2016 results.

The acquisition also expands the Iowa-based company’s portfolio with a wide range of cabin interior products for commercial aircraft and business jets including seating, food and beverage preparation and storage equipment, lighting and oxygen systems, and modular galley and lavatory systems.

“Today marks a major step in advancing our vision of being the most trusted source of aviation and high-integrity solutions in the world,” Ortberg said. “The industry-leading products and solutions being brought together by this acquisition give us a much broader offering, increasing value for our customers and ultimately driving long-term, profitable growth and shareowner value.”

 

Source: SFBJ

Monitoring Evolving Trends In South Florida Industrial Real Estate

As part of Colliers International South Florida’s annual Industrial Owners Forum, more than 50 institutional owners gathered in Miami.

They converged to take part in a closed discussion on the state of the industrial market in South Florida, where they own properties.

Steven Wasserman, executive vice president of the Colliers International’s South Florida industrial services team, hosted the forum. He sat down with GlobeSt.com to highlight the main takeaways from the discussion and the sentiment these influential leaders have about South Florida’s industrial market. In part two of this exclusive interview series, he spoke about evolving industrial market trends.

“There’s still a lot of excitement surrounding e-commerce and the impact it’s having on brick and mortar retailers,” Wasserman tells GlobeSt.com. “While many retailers are downsizing their retail stores, there is a growing demand for distribution space as consumers are buying their products online. Distribution centers near urban cores are in high demand.”

Wasserman pointed out another trend shaping the industry: construction costs. Construction costs have been on the rise, but he expects they will most likely remain flat in 2017 as the condo construction market slows down.

“Institutional owners expect the cost of labor and construction materials to start to level off after years of increasing costs,” Wasserman says. “New development construction costs are ranging from $70 to $100 per square foot for new class A warehouse space and will most likely remain at that price throughout the year.”

On the other hand, he says, cumbersome environmental and permitting issues continue to slow the construction process down. That is forcing tenants to holdover because space takes so much longer to build out in South Florida.

Another topic of discussion was the trend of parking requirements. Institutional owners discussed the significant increase in employee and trailer parking requirements for all sites nationwide, especially “last mile” sites.

“This used to be a requirement from larger tenants but they’re now seeing it from smaller tenants in the 80,000-square-foot range,” Wasserman says. “We’re also seeing growing demand for cold storage facilities. As population continues to increase and lifestyle patterns change, we’re seeing increasing demand for cold storage facilities. This particularly true in South Florida where suburbs are becoming urbanized.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.

Commercial Real Estate Is The Surprising Winner From The ‘Trumpcare’ Debacle

When the effort in Congress to pass a health-care bill failed – the American Health Care Act, designed to replace the much maligned Affordable Care Act – the thing that wasn’t supposed to happen happened: The industry that had whined for years about this, that, and the other in the Obamacare law, breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Despite the general unease in the stock market, heath care stocks rallied. Well, they didn’t exactly rally, they edged up. But it made them the best-performing sector among the 11 S&P 500 sectors. But no one apparently breathed a bigger sigh of relief than the over-indebted and teetering Commercial Real Estate sector. Investors, including the largest asset managers in the world, had experienced the rich benefits of a multi-year mega construction boom of hospitals, medical office buildings, and other health-care facilities to accommodate the ballooning industry that is taking over the US economy and provides 16% of its private-sector jobs.

Property prices had soared over the years as part of the overall commercial real estate bubble. It has gotten so huge that if it deflates, it risks taking down the banks, particularly smaller banks where CRE lending is heavily concentrated. Even Federal Reserve governors admit its policies since the Financial Crisis have helped fuel this bubble, and it admits that it is a bubble, and references to it keep showing up in their statements and speeches as the fretting has begun. Among them, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, a Fed “dove,” is now worried that the commercial real-estate bubble in the US has once again become a risk to “Financial Stability.”

Just how relieved are commercial real estate investors really?

Chris Muoio, Senior Quantitative Strategist, Ten-X Research, of online CRE platform Ten-X, put it this way on Monday: “We noted at the beginning of the year that the new presidential administration in D.C. potentially increased risks for certain commercial real estate sectors as proposed regulatory and legislative changes could alter the growth trajectory of industries and with that the demand for certain types of commercial real estate. One of the sector’s that faced the most acute possible changes was medical office/retail as the new administration proposed sweeping changes to health care legislation. Hospitals and medical offices faced the prospect of lower demand for health care services as the proposed legislation would have reduced the number of insured patients and the growth pace of federal spending on health care.”

Which sums up what the sector has been expecting year-in and year-out: endless growth in revenues, paid for by government entities, insurers, and the flow of premiums. Throw doubt on these endless growth stories, and health-care focused real estate quakes in its foundations.

The note goes on: “Following the withdrawal of the proposed American Health Care Act, real estate investors in the medical and health care space can breathe easier as it appears this risk has dissipated. The proposed legislation was scuttled late last week as it became clear it lacked the votes to pass the House. The current rhetoric out of Washington signals a desire to move off of the issue and towards other policy initiatives. Commercial real estate investors should continue to monitor the machinations in Washington carefully, as the administration could revert to the issue at a later time, but for now it appears the existing fundamental story underlying health-care based real estate, which has produced uninterrupted growth in health care services, should remain intact.”

CRE investors are among the biggest beneficiaries of the health care monster that has been draining consumers, businesses, and governments for years, starting way before Obamacare was even a word. And for as long, this health care monster has been cannibalizing other sectors of consumer, business, and government spending.

So it makes sense that commercial real estate investors, at the peak of this bubble, are dreading any little thing that might possibly derail that gravy train. Booms and busts have historically been driven by speculation and over-borrowing, often triggering recessions. This time, the health care sector, after years “of unsustainable growth,” has become the biggest “systemic recession risk” to the US economy, as the debt binge that funded it, hits its limit.

 

Source: The Real Deal

Developer Claims $350 Million ‘Plantation Walk’ Is A ‘Game-Changer’

31118274 - clock with words time for change on its face

Plantation Walk is the new name of South Florida’s latest live, work, and play destination, with Encore Capital Management recently labeling its $350 million mega-center that’s replacing Plantation’s former Fashion Mall.

Rendering of Plantation Walk (Courtesy of Encore Capital Management)

Located at 321 North University Drive, the 32-acre property will feature 700 luxury rental apartments, 200,000 square feet of retail, and an existing 160,000-square-foot Class A office building. It’s about a 20-minute drive from the 65-acre Metropica, which is currently under construction in Sunrise. The office building is expecting to open by the end of 2017.

The project has been billed a “game-changer” by Encore Capital Management CEO and Principal Arthur Falcone, who is also on the development team of another city within a city in Paramount Miami Worldcenter.

“The name Plantation Walk describes what this will be – a walkable, enjoyable hotspot unique to Plantation and South Florida,” Falcone said. “This is a game-changer for the city and region. Once people arrive, whether to work, shop, or live, they’ll have little reason to leave.”

The current parking garage and the 263-key Sheraton Hotel, which remains open, are undergoing renovations as well.

 

Source: Curbed Miami

Boynton Beach To Consider Proposal For Apartments, Retail And Hotel On Federal Highway

Boynton Beach officials will consider plans for the mixed-use Ocean One project along Federal Highway/U.S. 1.

Click on the photo for a SFBJ slideshow of the Ocean One project

Ocean One Boynton LLC, an affiliate of Washington, D.C.-based Washington Real Estate Partners, wants to rezone the 3.63-acre site at 114 N. Federal Highway to allow 358 apartments, 12,075 square feet of commercial/retail, a 120-room hotel and 439 parking spaces. The property runs along the highway from Boynton Beach Boulevard to Ocean Avenue. It is not along the water, but it’s a quick drive across the bridge to the beach.

The City Commission will hold the first vote on Ocean One on March 21 and, should it pass, then a final vote on April 4. Attorney Bonnie Miskel, who represents the developer in the application, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The vote would cover the rezoning and the site plan for the first phase, which would be developed on 1.93 acres of the site. The first phase calls for an 8-story building with 231 apartments in 218,935 square feet and 6,175 square feet of retail, including a health club, and a 7-story parking garage with 359 spaces.

The building would feature a public plaza, an interior courtyard with a pool, summer kitchen, grilling stations and a fountain wall. It would also have a clubhouse. The apartments in the first phase would break down to 152 with one bedroom, and 79 with two bedrooms. Units would range from 560 to 1,600 square feet.

Cohen, Freedman, Encinosa & Associates is the architect of Ocean One. The developer hopes to acquire 0.47 acre of the development site from the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency. Ocean One Boynton acquired the rest of the site for $9 million in 2005.

According to the Palm Beach Post, Washington Real Estate Partners Chairman F. Davis Camalier is seeking an incentive deal with the CRA to provide millions in property tax rebates for the project.

 

Source: SFBJ

Fort Lauderdale Development Likely To Intensify South Of The New River

Intense real estate development in Fort Lauderdale may shift from the downtown area and the beach to neighborhoods south of the New River and other areas.

“You’re going to see a tremendous development amount of activity downtown, and that will continue,” said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler. But in upcoming years, “I think you’re going to see more on South Andrews Avenue.”

Seiler was one of five members of a panel who spoke Wednesday night at the sales center for the Gale Residences Fort Lauderdale Beach.

Another panelist, Ken Stiles, co-CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based Stiles Corp., cited the potential for development of the area around the Broward Health Medical Center at 1600 South Andrews Avenue.

“It’s just waiting for somebody to step in and do something there,” Stiles said. “There’s not a lot of opportunity downtown anymore … so you’re going to have to look elsewhere. Yet assembling large tracts of land in the South Andrews Avenue corridor is a challenge. There are a couple of big landholders there that make it difficult for us to go in there.”

Fort Lauderdale-based developer Dev Motwani said the city’s planned streetcar system, the Wave, will reinvigorate the South Andrews Avenue corridor when it starts operating there.

“Imagine what’s going to happen when the Wave starts operating,” Motwani said. “Housing is an obvious play” for developers in the South Andrews area, “but there’s also retail opportunity. You can bring restaurants and shops that you didn’t have the daytime population for.”

Sean Jones, vice president of Milton Jones Development Corp. in Dania Beach, said he expects more new construction to unfold northwest of downtown Fort Lauderdale in the Sistrunk Boulevard corridor.

“You’re going to see more intense development in the northwest,” Jones said, citing such catalysts as the summer startup of the Brightline passenger train service at its Fort Lauderdale station, located at 101 Northwest Second Avenue.

The Fort Lauderdale economy is on a roll. Employment in metropolitan Fort Lauderdale increased by 28,604 jobs in 2016, more than in Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade County combined, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“But financing development in Fort Lauderdale still can be difficult,” Jones said. “It’s a great place. But many times, banks are looking at things on a national basis, and on a national basis, they’re starting to pull back on financing.”

 

Source: The Real Deal