Florida‘s state legislature just convened for its 2020 session, charged with passing laws and an estimated $91.4B state budget over the course of the next 60 days.
In his annual State of the State speech to kick off the legislative session, Gov. Ron DeSantis touched on everything from raising teacher pay to reducing barriers for occupational licensing. DeSantis said he would like to see people who pollute water be penalized and that $1B in mitigation funds would soon be distributed to areas affected by hurricanes. The first-term Republican said the state had a chance to correct some environmental wrongs and brace for sea-level rise.
Real estate professionals from around the state talked to Bisnow about other measures the legislature will be considering that could affect the industry. Of the 3,000+ bills that get filed each session, fewer than 10% pass.
Florida NAIOP President Darcie Lunsford said her group will continue its years-long fight against the state charging sales tax on commercial rents — something that only Florida does. Some critics argue this amounts to double taxation in many cases, since tenants already pay for certain real estate taxes when they sign triple-net leases.
“It’s an onerous tax that is unique to Florida and makes us less competitive,” said Lunsford, an executive vice president at Butters Construction.
She said a bill hasn’t yet been filed, but probably will be in February. For three years in a row, the rate has been reduced by a fraction of a percentage point — it is now at 5.5%. Lunsford said that rolling back the tax is challenging because Florida doesn’t have a state income tax, so it relies on such measures to fund state government functions. She estimates the tax brings in about $1.8B per year. The recent reductions have resulted in about $156M less being paid to the state.
“NAIOP is pushing for legislation that would tax internet retailers the same way as brick-and-mortar retailers, which could bring in $300M to $400M annually,” Lunsford said. “It’s a way to shift some of the tax burden off the commercial real estate sector.”
NAIOP also hopes to revive the FAST Act, a measure that was proposed last year, which would require local governments to offer expedited permitting processes, cap fees, and establish timelines for issuing and replying to permits. Lunsford said that state law now requires permits to be issued within 120 days.
“But there’s no teeth in the law as cities struggle to keep up with demand,” Lunsford said. “Another proposal, HB469/SB1224, would drop the requirement that two witnesses sign leases, which is not necessary in the modern era, when people sign electronically.”
NAIOP will be hosting events at the Capitol Jan. 21 and 22 in Tallahassee.
The nonprofit 1000 Friends of Florida called for smart growth management, lest unbridled sprawl ruin the things that make the state an attractive place to live and visit. Water quality and traffic congestion are top concerns.
The organization has outlined its legislative priorities for 2020. These include repealing an amendment that passed last year that could make citizens pay a developer’s legal fees in certain cases — such as when a developer seeks an exemption to a local comprehensive plan, citizens oppose it, but the developer prevails.
“That amendment was tacked onto HB7103 on the last day [of the] legislative session. It never got vetted by the public, by committee, by subcommittee. There was no staff analysis,” 1000 Friends Policy & Planning Director Jane West said. “It was a dirty move — and it’s had massive repercussions in the state. People are dismissing cases that have been pending for years. People are opting not to challenge new projects.”
SB250, introduced by Sen. Lori Berman (D-Palm Beach), would repeal that amendment. 1000 Friends is also fighting the amendment in the courts, hoping to have it deemed unconstitutional.
Lunsford said that the CRE industry would see a repeal as “going backwards,” and that the law as it stands could benefit not just developers, but either party that prevails.
The legislature last year also authorized three new highways. 1000 Friends is hoping to see that decision reversed, but it would require a repeal, plus de-authorizing related funding that passed. Instead, the group is calling for generous funding for land acquisition efforts, such as Florida Forever, the Rural and Families Lands Program, Florida Communities Trust and other land protection programs.
“Our environmental tragedy is the destruction of our raw lands,” West said. “You see it in every part of the state you go to … sprawl after sprawl after sprawl.”
The only sure way to save Florida‘s green space is to buy it and protect it in perpetuity, she said. The Florida Forever program is set up to acquire recreation and conservation lands. It is funded by doc stamps, a fee paid when people buy and sell property. It had been popular with both the left and right, including Gov. Jeb Bush, back to the early 2000s, but was essentially wiped out under eight years of Gov. Rick Scott. The current budget includes $33M for Florida Forever; DeSantis is asking that figure to be bumped to $100M in 2020-2021.
“We’d like to see it back to historic funding levels, over $300M,” West said. “But this is a nice start.”
Florida Realtors are also paying attention to Tallahassee. The group’s top legislative priorities for 2020 include environmental protection and full funding of housing trust funds, according to its website. For more than a decade, state money that is supposed to be in a trust fund to create affordable housing has instead been diverted for other uses, steering away some $2B.
Florida Realtors is also lobbying for a reduction in the business rent tax and will support initiatives that allow owners to rent out their private properties more freely on Airbnb, which was in a heated legal battle with the city of Miami Beach before settling in August.
Former Florida Speaker of the House Dean Cannon, the president and CEO of law firm Gray Robinson, now oversees lobbyists who closely monitor the state legislature. He said the commercial rent tax could likely get cut a bit more, and that water quality and environmental funding will loom large, especially because DeSantis has been vocal about those issues.
“The House and Senate will want to deliver a good environmental message because it’s an election year,” Cannon said. “I think they have the collective political will to get something done.”
Appropriations decisions — such as which projects get funding, and whether the affordable housing trust gets raided again — are likely be influenced by economic forecasts that legislators receive in February.
“That’s the last one we get before voting on the budget. It’s always sort of a question mark,” Cannon said. “All budgeting is balancing an infinite number of priorities against a finite number of dollar. There’s no perfect policy — just a best effort at balancing the interests.”
Source: Bisnow
Florida’s New Billion-Dollar Hemp Market Is At Risk, Industry Advocates Say
Florida’s grand plan for a multibillion-dollar hemp industry that would make the state an emerging leader in the nation’s latest green rush could be at risk, some industry advocates say.
A federal proposed rule for stringent testing would result in less “CBD content” in hemp crops, making them less attractive to buyers. That’s according to the Hemp Industries Association of Florida, which has complained to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is developing regulations to oversee hemp production.
As the rules stand, they would have a “serious chilling effect on the amount of acres planted” and would “increase prices for the consumer significantly,” according to the association’s letter to the USDA.
The most lucrative product to make with hemp is CBD oil, which some people use for anxiety and pain, but which doesn’t give users the “high” that marijuana does.
The result would be Florida consumers having to continue to buy out-of-state CBD oil, instead of potentially lower-priced alternatives from Florida growers. The state’s rules for CBD product quality and safety went into effect Jan. 1.
The Florida Department of Agriculture, headed by Nikki Fried, said the department “remains optimistic that our hemp rules, crafted with public input and to closely align with federal laws, will allow farmers and entrepreneurs to succeed in this emerging industry,” according to Max Flugrath, the department’s press secretary. Fried, a Democrat, has been championing hemp as making Florida “a national leader in this emerging new economy.”
Hemp became legal in Florida on July 1, 2019, and the state is now seeking federal compliance to launch hemp farming, to produce “Fresh from Florida” CBD oil and other hemp products. Hemp could be a new, multibillion-dollar industry for the state.
States must submit their hemp farming rules to the USDA to comply with federal regulations, being developed after the 2018 Farm Bill made U.S. hemp farming legal. The USDA’s deadline for comments on its interim rules was Jan. 30th. The final rules are expected in 2021.
The federal rules call for testing of the flower of the hemp plant 15 days before harvest. If it does not comply, the crop would be disposed of. That will put farmers at risk of losing their investment in the crop, critics say.
The federal government considers cannabis with scant amounts of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol — 0.3 percent or less — to be hemp. But any level above that is marijuana and illegal under federal law.
Mazzie said some Florida farmers are already scaling back hemp-growing plans because the proposed rules would make hemp production cost-prohibitive. Other states including South Carolina and Indiana, as well as national farmers’ groups, are asking the USDA to make changes to the interim rules, with trade publication Progressive Farmer calling the rules unworkable for farmers and a marketable industry.
Andrew Strickland, a cattle rancher near Starke who had hoped to farm hemp, said his plans are now on hold until Florida and the USDA work out the obstacles. Growing hemp for CBD is more lucrative, but he may end up “cutting out the aggravation” and producing industrial hemp for textiles or other non-CBD products.
Source: SunSentinel
High Ceilings, Flexible Floor Plans And Exposed Columns And Pipes: Why Shiny New Tech Companies Love Old Industrial Buildings
A century-old loft building has been retrofitted for tech workers with fancy pantries, bleacher seating for all-hands meetings and a library for Kindle readers where the only books are decorations on the wallpaper.
In another part of Manhattan, Google is creating a vast campus with offices spread out among three loft buildings. Even some new office towers are being made to look like lofts, with high ceilings, flexible floor plans, and exposed columns and pipes that evoke old New York to tech newcomers.
The humble loft building helped transform New York into an industrial powerhouse in the first half of the 20th century, with expansive, light-filled floors packed with workers stitching shirts and textiles, forging metal and machinery, and toiling in assembly lines. It was a utilitarian version of a modern coworking space.
But the lofts that once defined the cityscape were eventually abandoned by businesses, left to artists and homeowners coveting more space, and were no longer favored by city officials who saw them as outdated relics. Now lofts are back in vogue, coveted by technology companies that want an authentic New York feel.
Technology executives say loft buildings are versatile, provide more space and character for less cost than cookie-cutter office towers, and better reflect their collaborative work culture. And the buildings themselves have a past that can be irresistible for companies with so little history of their own.
Citywide, there are fewer than 5,000 loft buildings, nearly all completed before the 1960s, according to the Department of City Planning. Zoning regulations since then have discouraged new loft buildings. The growing demand for lofts has alarmed community groups that say it could lead to higher rents, pushing out longtime residents and small businesses in favor of deep-pocketed technology companies.
City planning officials said they were considering changing zoning regulations to make it easier to construct new lofts. Currently, regulations adopted in 1961 favor buildings that are constructed for a specific purpose (such as office towers or small factories outside Manhattan) as part of an effort at that time to create an orderly and modern cityscape.
The goal now is to update those regulations to increase the supply of multiuse lofts that create jobs and help the city’s economy grow, while keeping enough of them affordable for smaller and less well-off tenants, city officials said.
For many technology companies, a building is just one selling point, of course, along with access to public transportation and a talented workforce. But Peter Turchin, a vice chairman of CBRE, a commercial real estate firm, said he receives a half-dozen calls a day from technology companies looking for renovated loft buildings.
In Long Island City, Uber, Lyft and Via have opened offices in the Falchi Building, a 1922 loft that was a warehouse for the Gimbels department store. Nearby, a loft that was used as a book bindery is being converted into laboratories and offices for up to two dozen bio-tech firms.
VaynerMedia, a digital marketing and communications agency, has an office at 10 Hudson Yards but is expanding in Long Island City.
Even new offices have been marketed as modern lofts offering the best of both worlds. Buildings in Chelsea and on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, have loft-style features such as high ceilings, open and flexible layouts, and oversized windows.
These days, the garment workers have been replaced by computer programmers, software engineers and graphic designers. Many building owners say they seek out “TAMI tenants,” or companies in technology, advertising, media and information.
At a loft building on West 41st Street in the garment district, 10 of the 15 tenants are technology companies, including Roku. The building caters to tech workers with lounges and pantries with cold-brew coffee and beer on tap. There are big-screen televisions and skateboards hanging on the wall, and a library with a pool table.
Last year, the city changed a long-standing regulation requiring garment district buildings to reserve half their space for manufacturers after building owners complained that they could not find enough tenants. That has attracted newcomers into loft spaces that would otherwise stand empty, creating jobs and supporting the local economy, said Blair, of the Garment District Alliance.
Well-funded technology companies have moved into the neighborhood after a large share of manufacturers’ leases expired over the past two years and cleared the way for lofts to be renovated. Joseph Ferrara, whose family owns Ferrara Manufacturing, said many manufacturers were paying about $20 to $30 a square foot.
Google led the way when it settled in a loft building in Chelsea in 2006.
As Google now expands in lower Manhattan, it is moving into two loft buildings and taking over the commercial space in a third, in a former industrial neighborhood near the Holland Tunnel that has welcomed newcomers with $27 million in improvements, including a park.
Lofts have become hubs not just for technology companies, but for manufacturing companies that embrace technology. At the Brooklyn Navy Yard, companies are assembling robots, drones and 3D printers in lofts. Some have even asked that their buildings not be fixed up too much.
When Tim Armstrong was hired as Google’s first New York employee in 2000, he turned his loft apartment on the Upper West Side into the company’s inaugural office. Now his latest venture, DTX, a product, design and technology company, is based in a former metalwork shop in SoHo that was transformed into a loft. There are open areas with couches, long tables and rows of computers in an airy mezzanine. No one has offices or desks.
Source: SunSentinel
The CRE Issues To Watch As Florida’s Legislature Convenes
Florida‘s state legislature just convened for its 2020 session, charged with passing laws and an estimated $91.4B state budget over the course of the next 60 days.
In his annual State of the State speech to kick off the legislative session, Gov. Ron DeSantis touched on everything from raising teacher pay to reducing barriers for occupational licensing. DeSantis said he would like to see people who pollute water be penalized and that $1B in mitigation funds would soon be distributed to areas affected by hurricanes. The first-term Republican said the state had a chance to correct some environmental wrongs and brace for sea-level rise.
Real estate professionals from around the state talked to Bisnow about other measures the legislature will be considering that could affect the industry. Of the 3,000+ bills that get filed each session, fewer than 10% pass.
Florida NAIOP President Darcie Lunsford said her group will continue its years-long fight against the state charging sales tax on commercial rents — something that only Florida does. Some critics argue this amounts to double taxation in many cases, since tenants already pay for certain real estate taxes when they sign triple-net leases.
She said a bill hasn’t yet been filed, but probably will be in February. For three years in a row, the rate has been reduced by a fraction of a percentage point — it is now at 5.5%. Lunsford said that rolling back the tax is challenging because Florida doesn’t have a state income tax, so it relies on such measures to fund state government functions. She estimates the tax brings in about $1.8B per year. The recent reductions have resulted in about $156M less being paid to the state.
NAIOP also hopes to revive the FAST Act, a measure that was proposed last year, which would require local governments to offer expedited permitting processes, cap fees, and establish timelines for issuing and replying to permits. Lunsford said that state law now requires permits to be issued within 120 days.
NAIOP will be hosting events at the Capitol Jan. 21 and 22 in Tallahassee.
The nonprofit 1000 Friends of Florida called for smart growth management, lest unbridled sprawl ruin the things that make the state an attractive place to live and visit. Water quality and traffic congestion are top concerns.
The organization has outlined its legislative priorities for 2020. These include repealing an amendment that passed last year that could make citizens pay a developer’s legal fees in certain cases — such as when a developer seeks an exemption to a local comprehensive plan, citizens oppose it, but the developer prevails.
SB250, introduced by Sen. Lori Berman (D-Palm Beach), would repeal that amendment. 1000 Friends is also fighting the amendment in the courts, hoping to have it deemed unconstitutional.
Lunsford said that the CRE industry would see a repeal as “going backwards,” and that the law as it stands could benefit not just developers, but either party that prevails.
The legislature last year also authorized three new highways. 1000 Friends is hoping to see that decision reversed, but it would require a repeal, plus de-authorizing related funding that passed. Instead, the group is calling for generous funding for land acquisition efforts, such as Florida Forever, the Rural and Families Lands Program, Florida Communities Trust and other land protection programs.
The only sure way to save Florida‘s green space is to buy it and protect it in perpetuity, she said. The Florida Forever program is set up to acquire recreation and conservation lands. It is funded by doc stamps, a fee paid when people buy and sell property. It had been popular with both the left and right, including Gov. Jeb Bush, back to the early 2000s, but was essentially wiped out under eight years of Gov. Rick Scott. The current budget includes $33M for Florida Forever; DeSantis is asking that figure to be bumped to $100M in 2020-2021.
Florida Realtors are also paying attention to Tallahassee. The group’s top legislative priorities for 2020 include environmental protection and full funding of housing trust funds, according to its website. For more than a decade, state money that is supposed to be in a trust fund to create affordable housing has instead been diverted for other uses, steering away some $2B.
Florida Realtors is also lobbying for a reduction in the business rent tax and will support initiatives that allow owners to rent out their private properties more freely on Airbnb, which was in a heated legal battle with the city of Miami Beach before settling in August.
Former Florida Speaker of the House Dean Cannon, the president and CEO of law firm Gray Robinson, now oversees lobbyists who closely monitor the state legislature. He said the commercial rent tax could likely get cut a bit more, and that water quality and environmental funding will loom large, especially because DeSantis has been vocal about those issues.
Appropriations decisions — such as which projects get funding, and whether the affordable housing trust gets raided again — are likely be influenced by economic forecasts that legislators receive in February.
Source: Bisnow
Boynton Beach Mall Could Face Overhaul With New Apartments, Hotel And Offices
Boynton Beach Mall could have half the square footage for retail businesses once it’s redeveloped, but it might add apartments, a hotel and offices.
The plans reflect attempts across America to transform malls as fewer people go there to shop. Apartments also are planned at the Coral Square Mall in Coral Springs and at the former Fashion Mall in Plantation.
The Boynton Beach Mall once had tenants including Burdines, JCPenney, Jordan Marsh and Lord & Taylor. But like other malls facing less in-store shopping and an increase in online shopping by consumers, retail tenants have dwindled over the years, with new types of tenants coming in.
The proposal would reduce the existing mall square footage for retail from about 1 million square feet to 482,750 square feet, and build separate, mixed-use buildings with retail use on the first floor and residential units above. Developers also would add up to 1,420 residential apartments on the site, along the north end and southwest side of the mall property, and inside the new mixed-use buildings. The redeveloped mall would include a 400-room hotel, 65,000 square feet each of medical office space, and general office space, and 35,000 of new restaurant space.
The master plan and rezoning request for the 116-acre site was filed with the Boynton Beach City Commission, which gave initial approval, but meets again on the plans Jan. 21. Some Boynton Beach residents expressed concerns on the NextDoor app about mounting traffic off Congress Avenue near the mall and that mall redevelopment plans didn’t seem to include any new entertainment venues for the community, such as a park, bowling alley or sports center.
The plan doesn’t affect Macy’s and JCPenney, the two major department stores remaining at the mall, which are owned separately, and Christ Fellowship Church, owner of a former Dillard’s department store space in the mall. The redevelopment would happen over five phases, with the first phase removing the former Sears buildings and adding a 400-unit apartment building, Washington Prime said.
In its proposal for redevelopment, Washington Prime says that “the current use of the property as an aging mall is in steady decline as it no longer meets the needs of the community and is slowly becoming a source of blight in the city.” Occupancy at the mall has dropped by 11.5 percent between 2015 and 2016, according to documents submitted to the city to justify rezoning.
Source: Sun-Sentinel
With Commercial Land Capped Out West, A Loophole Emerges For Self-Storage Facilities
Changes made to the Comprehensive Plan will now allow self-storage buildings to be exempt from commercial cap space in the Ag Reserve.
When is a 130,000 square-foot, three-story self-storage facility not a commercial business? When it’s in the Ag Reserve.
With the Ag Reserve already at a commercial square-foot cap of 1 million square feet, the builder’s agent, Ken Tuma, came up with a novel approach: Exempt self-storage buildings from the commercial cap.
The reserve was designed as a sanctuary for farming and a rural lifestyle, but much land has still been developed there as western property has boomed in Palm Beach County.
County planning commissioners, urged on by the Planning Commission staff and the Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations (COBWRA), agreed recently to recommend a change to the county’s Comprehensive Plan to accommodate a self-storage building on a 7-acre tract of land on the northwest corner of Boynton Beach Boulevard and Acme Dairy Road.
Because of the cap, the builder, Gary Smigiel of Lake Worth, was limited to a 40,000 square-foot commercial project, far less than the 130,000 square feet he needs for the self-storage building. He is proposing to build 20,000 square feet of commercial in addition to the self-storage. The commercial project will consist of retail and a restaurant. But the self-storage building won’t be considered commercial if the change to the Comprehensive Plan is made.
County commissioners are expected to act on the Planning Commission recommendation in 2020. Tuma told planning commissioners there is a real need for self-storage facilities as a number of large-scale developments have been built in recent years west of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. Many of these communities prevent homeowners from storing items in their garages, he noted.
With limited space available for commercial development in the Ag Reserve, developers have yet to build a self-storage building.
The Ag Reserve is an area in the western end of the county with special rules designed to protect the region from over-development. It is the only part of the county with a cap on commercial development and a requirement that residential developers set aside a large portion of their property for open space.
Planning Commissioner Dagmar Brahs was a reluctant supporter of the “West Boynton Center” project. She said she is concerned about a precedent being set that could result in other self-storage facilities being built throughout the Ag Reserve.
The site currently consists of a retail store, a small office and an apartment. The northern portion of the site is utilized for a nursery.
Source: Palm Beach Post
CRE Florida Partners Reps Seller In Record Industrial Facility Sale
The building traded at $2,800,000, or $183 per square foot, marking the highest negotiated price for an industrial asset in Newport Center, a large, master-planned professional business park located 5 minutes from Interstate I-95, just south of SW 10th Street, with easy access to the Sawgrass Expressway. The park features two hotels, a daycare center, and is home to many notable businesses including JPMorgan Chase, UM Sylvester, Quest Diagnostics, Sandvik Corporation, HYLA USA, and the Mapei Corporation.
CRE Rauch, Robertson & Co. is seeking leasing and investment sales professionals for its growing commercial real estate expansion in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Multiple positions are available within these and other Florida markets that offer a unique ground floor career opportunity to work closely with the firm’s Founders Tom Robertson and Michael Rauch to move their vision for the CRE Florida Partners brand forward. Commission and benefits are commensurate with experience. A Florida Real Estate License and Commercial Real Estate experience are required. Only qualified candidates should apply by forwarding resumes to mail@crefloridapartners.com.
CRE Florida Partners Funds First Mortgage For Boynton Beach Client
Laskody
CRE Florida Partners Capital Markets is proud to announce the successful closing and funding of a first mortgage loan collateralized by a ±42,000-square foot single-tenant/owner-user industrial warehouse property located in Boynton Beach.
The $2.5 million loan was made at a 48% loan-to-value ratio and contained a 10-year term with a 25-year amortization schedule. The loan was procured and placed by Greg Laskody, CCIM, and was ultimately closed by a local private bank that will portfolio the loan on its balance sheet.
CRE Florida Partners (CRE) is a full-service commercial real estate company based in Boca Raton, Florida.
CRE Florida Partners Closes Sale Of Industrial Investment Property In Pompano Beach
Michael Rauch and Tom Robertson, Senior Managing Partners with CRE Florida Partners, represented the owners, T.G. Wright Jr. Properties LLC, in the sale of an industrial investment property located at 2150-2160 N. Andrews Ave. in Pompano Beach, Florida.
The ±16,438 square foot facility, which is situated on ±1.25 acres fronting Andrews Ave with easy access to Copans Rd.and I-95, sold for $1,515,000, or $92.16 per square foot on a 6.8% cap rate.
Built in 1984, the building features 24’ warehouse clear height, storefront hurricane grade windows, 1 dock loading door and 2 grade level loading doors.
CRE Florida Partners has represented the owners of this property since 2014.
CRE Florida Partners Grows Team
Michael Rauch and Thomas Robertson, co-founders of Rauch, Robertson & Co. and CRE Florida Partners, welcome Grant Rowars to its team of professional commercial real estate specialists.
Grant Rowars joins CRE Florida Partners as Vice President – Commercial Sales & Leasing, focusing on Industrial and Office properties in the Tri-County area.
As a real estate advisor, Grant works directly with the founding partners to bring over forty-five plus years of combined commercial real estate brokerage, development and management experience to his clients. His analytical background and degrees in finance and real estate bring unparalleled underwriting expertise and empowers his local market knowledge to help landlords and investors maximize their properties returns and execute strategically timed acquisitions and dispositions all while minimizing risk.
His focus at CRE Florida Partners is in the Industrial and Office sectors of the Tri-County area providing a wide range of services that include: investment sales, leasing, sale disposition, tenant and corporate representation, property underwriting, capital structure, financing, loan and asset due diligence, and IRC 1031 exchanges.
Grant is also serving as a 1st lieutenant and Executive Officer in the United State Army National Guard where he is responsible for the readiness and training of soldiers and the maintenance of +$50 Million in assets. The skill sets utilized in his military career are reflected in his dedication to the commercial real estate industry, which results in an unwavering commitment to loyalty, work ethic, and leadership.
Prior to joining CRE Florida Partners, Grant was a member of the Investment Sales and Capital Markets group of Colliers International where he worked on identifying, underwriting and brokering investment properties in the Tri-County area.
CRE Industry Veteran Dan Casey, CCIM Joins CRE Florida Partners To Expand Commercial Investment Brokerage
Michael Rauch and Thomas Robertson, co-founders of Rauch, Robertson & Co. and CRE Florida Partners, welcome Dan Casey, CCIM to its team of professional commercial real estate specialists.
Dan Casey, CCIM is a senior real estate advisor with over twenty-five years of commercial real estate brokerage, development and management experience. His extensive market knowledge and broad-based expertise enables him to identify sound investment opportunities and develop value-enhancing strategies that maximize investment returns and minimize risk.
Dan has brokered commercial property acquisitions, dispositions and provided underwriting and due diligence advisory services on property and portfolio transactions of more than $500 million. He has represented commercial property owners and tenants in office, industrial and retail lease transactions totaling 510,000 square feet. His extensive background includes complex property transactions and successfully implemented distressed real estate workout and repositioning plans.
His management experience includes asset management of institutional property portfolios of 3.7 million square feet of Class A office. As a Development Project Manager, he oversaw the design and construction of over $68 million of new construction and capital improvements projects, as well as tenant improvement projects of more than 350,000 square feet of Class A office and retail space.
Dan earned the prestigious CCIM designation in 2010 and has been an active member of the CCIM Florida Chapter since moving to the state from Southern California in 2009. In 2017, he sat on the CCIM Florida Chapter’s Executive Committee, served on the East Coast District’s Board of Directors since 2015, and is currently serving his second consecutive term as District President. Dan is a graduate of Trinity University where he majored in History and minored in Business.
CRE Rauch, Robertson & Co. is seeking leasing and investment sales professionals for its growing commercial real estate expansion in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Multiple positions are available within these and other Florida markets that offer a unique ground floor career opportunity to work closely with the firm’s Founders Tom Robertson and Michael Rauch to move their vision for the CRE Florida Partners brand forward. Commission and benefits are commensurate with experience. A Florida Real Estate License and Commercial Real Estate experience are required. Only qualified candidates should apply by forwarding resumes to mail@crefloridapartners.com.
CRE Florida Partners Completes Boca Raton Office Building Sale
Michael Rauch and Tom Robertson, Senior Managing Partners with CRE Florida Partners, represented the owners, MDS Builders, in the sale of an office building located within Boca Raton Professional Plaza at 301 Crawford Blvd. in Boca Raton.
The office building sold for $2,700,000 ($180 per square foot) with a cap rate of 6.4%.
The 1979-built 2-story office building, which is located in the heart of Downtown Boca Raton’s business district, totals ±15,004 square feet and is 100% occupied. It has recently been updated and renovated.
CRE Florida Partners Closes On Deerfield Beach Industrial Sale
Tom Robertson, Co-Founder and Senior Managing Partner with CRE Rauch Robertson, CRE Florida Partners company, recently completed the sale of an industrial property located at 3411 SW 11th Street in Deerfield Beach to RMB Holdings LLC for $2,700,000.
This ±21,165 square foot facility, built in 1987, is situated on ±1.3 acres, which fronts both SW 10th and SW 11th Street.
Robertson has represented the leasing and sale interests for this building since 2002.
The available sale inventory is low and CRE Florida Partners is currently working with several buyers looking for similar properties in North Broward and Southern Palm Beach County.
CRE Rauch, Robertson & Co. is seeking leasing and investment sales professionals for its growing commercial real estate expansion in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Multiple positions are available within these and other Florida markets that offer a unique ground floor career opportunity to work closely with the firm’s Founders Tom Robertson and Michael Rauch to move their vision for the CRE Florida Partners brand forward. Commission and benefits are commensurate with experience. A Florida Real Estate License and Commercial Real Estate experience are required. Only qualified candidates should apply by forwarding resumes to mail@crefloridapartners.com.