Tag Archive for: mixed-use development

Red Percentage Symbol Surrounded By Dollar Sign

The past two years were like nothing ever before seen in South Florida.

A period of record growth was fueled by inbound migration, strong consumer spending and record low interest rates — all of which drove billions of dollars invested in the development of millions of square feet of commercial real estate.

Much of this was brought on by the pandemic. Now, the pandemic has subsided and the South Florida CRE market has come to a moment of reckoning. Or has it?

The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates five times this year, including the increase of 75 basis points on Sept. 21, all in an effort to stem inflation. The Fed’s effort to keep the economy moving at the start of the pandemic led to the slashing of its target rate to 0%-to-0.25%. It remained there for the next two years, until March, when it set its first increase of 25 basis points.

The era of relatively cheap money for commercial and residential borrowers has come to an end. While the current rate of around 3% to 3.25% still is historically low, borrowing costs are at their highest level since 2019. In June, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell noted that the rate could reach 3.8% by late 2023. Simply put: These are the most aggressive rate hikes in generations.

This leaves developers and owners of office, industrial and retail projects to perform a delicate balancing and forecasting act incorporating borrowing costs versus long-term demand.

With borrowing costs rising, and fears of inflation and a possible recession looming, how will CRE across South Florida respond? It’s impossible to judge from how other markets are responding. Some have seen commercial projects tabled and vacancies rising, even if rents remain stable.

South Florida Is The Outlier In The CRE Marketplace

Development remains robust. Warehouse, logistics and industrial projects continue unabated from Homestead in the South and Palm Beach County’s Western expanse to the North, with numerous infill projects in between. Luxury rental apartments in hot markets, such as Brickell, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village and downtown West Palm Beach, are rising to meet the demand of the more than 800 new arrivals still coming to Florida daily.

Conflicts exist between remote workers and their employers calling for a “return to the office;” and with the hybrid workplace model continuing to evolve, future office needs remain unknown. Yet, the region has numerous dedicated and mixed-use Class A projects in development.

While the concept of “headwinds” comes up in any conversation about the unknown impacts of rising interest rates, inflation and the possibility of recession, South Florida and the state are outliers for other reasons. Whether through REITs (real estate investment trusts), private equity, hedge funds and other institutional capital seeking a solid vehicle for their funds; family offices and investors looking for a hedge against inflation; Latin American families seeking a less turbulent harbor for their money; those looking to real estate as a hedge against inflation; or developers bullish on local market prospects, Florida is rich with liquidity.

 

Source: SFBJ

Hollywood, sandwiched between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, has seemed quaint and sleepy compared to its big-city neighbors, despite impressive community assets.

The 30-square-mile municipality’s amenities include an airport, a walkable downtown, 7 miles of oceanfront and a beachfront pedestrian walkway called the Broadwalk that’s lined with independent restaurants and hotels. Inland are golf courses, residential neighborhoods and the Seminole Hard Rock Resort & Casino. Port Everglades is partly within the city limits.

“Soon, a new wave of development is poised to transform Hollywood. The city currently has $1.2B in real estate development planned or under construction,” City Manager Wazir Ishmael said during a Bisnow webinar last week.

Ishmael outlined some of the major projects around Young Circle, the downtown city center with a 9-acre outdoor amphitheater and arts park, where Hollywood’s main east-west corridor meets north-south artery US 1.

On the southwest quadrant of Young Circle, the $60M Block 40 project is planned from GCF Development. It will have 166 residential units and 103 hotel rooms. On the southeast quadrant, a mixed-use project by BTI Partners will bring 366 luxury rental units and ground-floor retail. The east side of Young Circle is slated for matching towers with two levels of restaurants and retail, also by BTI. South of Young Circle, Hudson Village, a 108-unit mixed-income affordable project by Housing Trust Group, broke ground last year, and Pinnacle at Peacefield, a senior housing community, was recently completed.

Further east, on Hollywood Beach, Related Group last year completed the 41-story Hyde Beach House on the Intracoastal Waterway. In 2019, voters approved a $165M general obligation bond to finance more than 30 projects.

 “Beachfront properties farther south in Miami-Dade County are bloody expensive,” said Continuum Co. Chairman Ian Bruce Eichner, who has been looking to develop a 4-acre beachfront site in Hollywood. “But in Broward County, there’s still an opportunity in Hollywood for a beach that is certainly as beautiful as anything south, at a different price.”

Webinar moderator Raelin Storey, Hollywood’s director of the Office of Communications, Marketing and Economic Development, said the city has two opportunity zones — one downtown and one between Sheridan Street and Stirling Road near I-95. Storey said that over the past few years, the city adjusted its zoning to encourage development along its commercial corridors.

Keith Poliakoff, partner at law firm Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, said that his client, BTI, is about to break ground on Block 58, formerly known as The Hollywood Bread Building in the downtown opportunity zone. It’s planned to include approximately 366 apartment units with 15K SF of retail.

“Construction prices had risen about 10% since the project got underway, but the opportunity zone designation was helping them draw investment to offset the increased costs,” Poliakoff said. “If you do it right, that savings, that potential tax savings in the future, can actually offset the higher construction price.”

Inigo Ardid, co-president of Key International, which owns the Eden Roc and Marriott hotels in Miami Beach, has been exploring possibilities in Hollywood and said he was very bullish on leisure hospitality.

“What we’re seeing is in places that people can get to, mostly drive markets, the hotel markets have come back stronger than ever… Our average stay has gone up well in excess of 60% from where it was before,”  said Ardid.

Related Group Managing Director Eric Fordin said that the once-stunning but long-neglected Hollywood Beach Resort might be redeveloped in time.

“We had the majority of the unit owners under contract to redevelop that property,” Fordin said. “But the ownership structure is complicated. Not only is there a condo-hotel but an estate owns the land and the parking garage. A tentative deal he’d made with it fell through at the last minute.

That’s not all that makes it complicated.

“There’s a separate owner who owns the commercial unit on the first floor and a separate owner that owns the commercial unit on the second floor, plus 360 unit owners and 36 timeshares,” Fordin said.

But that’s not to say the project won’t happen.

“It’s a site that I am laser-focused on,” Fordin said.

Fordin lives in Hollywood himself. He said some residents love Hollywood’s slow vibe, independent stores and two-story motels that cater to Canadian snowbirds. They don’t want Hollywood to be like Sunny Isles, lined with tall towers that create a canyon-like feel. But the quaintness comes with blight.

“Hollywood is always going to be more of a boutique-friendly development opportunity experience,” Fordin said. “I believe once we’re able to assemble some properties along the Broadwalk, you’ll see some great development impacts for the city, but it’s a matter of really aligning all the stars for those things to take place.”

The panelists called for more public-private partnerships, but that hasn’t always worked out great for Hollywood’s taxpayers. For a Margaritaville Resort developed in 2015 by developer Lon Tabatchnick’s Lojeta Realty and Starwood Capital Group, the city invested $23M in the development and left the city potentially liable for $84.3M in bond payments for a connected parking garage, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

 

Source: Bisnow