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Worldcenter Apartments Top Off

The first tower at Miami Worldcenter has topped off, bringing the massive, $1.2B development a little bit closer to reality. Caoba, the Spanish word for mahogany, is one piece of the Worldcenter puzzle — a 444-unit apartment complex at 698 Northeast 1st Avenue. Miami Worldcenter will ultimately take up 10 city blocks and 27 acres right in Miami’s downtown. When completed, it will include a train station…

Terra files plans for retail center in Doral

More retail stores and restaurants are coming to Doral, adding to the surge of mixed use-projects and residential development underway. Terra just filed plans to deliver Doral Square, a 145,000-square-foot retail center at the southeast corner of Northwest 36th Street and Northwest 87th Avenue, according to the South Florida Business Journal. Doral Square would rise on a 3.9-acre parking lot…

Miami leads the way for ultra rich overseas buyers looking for U.S. property

Per a new study Ultra-wealthy foreign buyers looking to scoop up some U.S. luxury real estate are turning to Miami, New York and L.A., according to a new report from Beauchamp Estates in association with Leslie J Garfield & Co — and Miami is leading the way. “Miami is a leading hub for overseas buyers investing in U.S. luxury real estate,” managing director at Beauchamp Estates Gary Hersham told Robb…

Miami river hangout spot The Wharf faces noise complaints

We “want to be cognizant of residents’ wishes,” owner says. As the area around the Miami river continues to transform — with more development than ever — residents are getting used to the new normal. Now the Miami Herald reports that new hangout spot The Wharf, which popped up in a previously empty lot near the river, is being called “ridiculously loud” by its neighbors. “I don’t expect it to be…”

The Weekly Dish: Brickell City Centre’s Italian food hall is finally opening & more

The three-story Italian food hall at Brickell City Centre is finally set to open Feb. 16, more than a year after the Shops at Brickell City Centre were completed. In all, the 40,000-square-foot space on the northeast end of the mall at 701 South Miami Avenue will have 14 restaurants, five bars, a cooking school, retail space, a wine store and more than 1,000 specialty products. It marks the largest new food…

Board approves Historic Designation for Coconut Grove Playhouse

The City’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board recommended 9-0, that the Coconut Grove Playhouse be included on the National Register of Historic Places at Tuesday’s meeting. Architect Jorge Hernandez who is working with the county on rebuilding the playhouse spoke for the county which was in favor of the nomination, but of course only for the section that they plan on…

Here are some issues in the tax law that remain foggy

In many ways, the new federal tax law is a major boon to the real estate industry. But several issues — including some surrounding the deep deductions awarded to pass-through entities — remain ambiguous. For one, it’s unclear how the 20 percent deductions on pass-through incomes will be calculated in certain cases. Many real estate companies own several different entities, some of which bring in…

Four Predictions For The Industrial Market In 2018

The industrial sector flourished in 2017. Real estate research firm Real Capital Analytics (RCA) noted in a recent report that the industrial sector, seeing gains from rising e-commerce sales and the resulting need for industrial facilities, was the only commercial real estate sector last year that saw an increase in transaction activity from January through November. NREI discussed possible trends to look out…

Commission rejects mayor’s plan to replace Dade County Courthouse

After Mayor Carlos Giménez asked his administration to reduce the cost and scope of a new county civil courthouse, Miami-Dade commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the original master plan for the courthouse, rejecting Mr. Giménez’s recommendation. “Today is a great day,” said Chief Judge Bertila Soto of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida at the commission…”

Coconut Grove waterfront soon to get major remake

The Chart House restaurant, a fixture of the Coconut Grove waterfront for more than 30 years, is history and the long-awaited redevelopment of the site is scheduled to begin in just a few weeks. Litigation caused years of delay for The Harbour project, and Hurricane Irma was the latest challenge to mess with the plans in September. But once demolition workers were done with Irma clean-up…

Carolina Herrera: President of the Builders Association of South Florida

When Carolina Herrera moved to Miami from Colombia, she hoped to use her law degree to get a job at a law firm. Instead, her first job was an assistant in the construction department at Lennar. “Once I started seeing the company, what we build, our customers and the product, I completely fell in love,” Ms. Herrera said, “and here I am.” Today, Ms. Herrera is director of land operations at Lennar and the…

Construction activity spotted at One River Point

The tower is expected to go vertical in early 2019 Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly’s luxury project One River Point is on its way to becoming a reality, according to The Next Miami, which scoped out construction activity at the project’s site along the Miami River. The 60-story project, which includes two towers connected by a “floating sky bridge,” is now expected to go vertical in 2019.

Details On 3 Miami Sites Considered By Amazon For HQ2

When Amazon sought bids from cities that could support its second headquarters, the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County’s economic development partnership, took the lead in preparing a presentation touting Miami. Phillip Pessar via Flickr Creative Commons The historically black Miami neighborhood of Overtown is being eyed for redevelopment. It was submitted as part of a package promoting…

Miami-Dade commission demands a new 26-story courthouse, old one to be sold

Private developers interested in building a new Miami-Dade courthouse in downtown Miami will have to make it 26 stories and 600,000 square feet in size. At the request of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Sally Heyman, county commissioners on Tuesday approved a rule specifying that bids to construct a new courthouse must conform to the terms of an 800-page master plan crafted last year with the…

Victoria’s Secret chief doubles down on brick and mortar despite falling sales

Weak holiday sales and declining same-store sales may be a warning sign for some retailers to cut back and reduce their physical footprints. But L Brands CEO Leslie Wexner is focusing on brick and mortar, so much so that the company, which owns Victoria Secret, has added stores over the past two years, bringing its total in North America to about 3,000, Wexner told the Wall Street Journal. He believes…

Miami Industrial Real Estate Market Report for the Year End 2017

2017 ends with only about 1.2M sq. ft. of positive absorption. A stronger market is closer to 2M sq. ft. (or more) annually. This being said, the overall vacancy rate slightly decreased to 4.0% and the average lease rate is at an all-time high at $9.76 per sq. ft. gross. Investors continue to purchase warehouse buildings also at record-setting prices per sq. ft. The fundamentals of owning tangible real estate as an…

Terra’s $72 Million Sale Of Doral Commons Is A Sign Of Strong Market In Doral

In the latest sign of intense demand for stable, well-positioned assets in Doral, Terra’s Doral Commons retail plaza has traded hands to Jamestown, L.P. The 140,000-square-foot center is 95 percent leased, with a tenant roster anchored by Publix Supermarket alongside TJ Maxx, Citibank, GNC, AT&T Wireless, McDonald’s, and others. According to public record, Miami-based Terra sold the shopping center…

Follow the construction of One Thousand Museum on the PBS doc Impossible Builds

The episode premieres on February 7  The Zaha Hadid-designed ultra-luxury condo development One Thousand Museum is getting a starring role on a PBS construction doc. Impossible Builds spotlights the world’s most ambitious, complex and technologically advanced construction projects, and now Miami’s own futuristic tower will be featured as part of this year’s episodes. One Thousand Museum by…

Construction starts picked up in 2017, thanks to large institutional and public works projects

Construction starts picked back up again last year, totaling $37.78 billion on the back of public works and institutional projects. That was the second-highest total since 2010, according to information from Dodge Data & Analytics reported by the Commercial Observer. Spending hit $41 billion in 2015, but then dropped to $31.93 billion the following year. In 2017, spending on institutional…

Survey finds Grove voters prefer smaller, cheaper redevelopment of playhouse

The future of the Coconut Grove Playhouse is still undecided, but a new report shows that residents prefer a cheaper, smaller redevelopment plan. Nearly 80 percent, or 312 of 400, of Miami residents surveyed by Bendixen & Amandi International favored Miami-Dade County’s $20 million plan to renovate and reopen the historic playhouse, according to the Miami Herald. GableStage, the theater…

Ex-Vornado CEO Fascitelli and partner score loan for South Beach hotel

New York-based Imperial Companies has secured $45 million in construction financing for a hotel in South Beach. Records show Washington Squared Owner LLC closed on the loan from Bank of the Ozarks, bringing the company’s total financing for the property to nearly $90 million. Imperial’s Michael Fascitelli and Eric Birnbaum are building the roughly 300-key hotel at 601 to 685 Washington…

Rent control push is spreading across US

Rent control, long the scourge of New York City landlords, is becoming more popular across the country. Lawmakers and tenant advocates in California, Illinois and Washington state are looking to repeal laws banning cities from imposing rent control or limits to regulate rent increases, the Wall Street Journal reported. California is poised to be the largest battleground this year. Advocates have gathered…

How to leave a job: Yellen bans a bank’s growth, warns of commercial RE prices

Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was succeeded by Republican and Fed governor Jerome Powell, President Trump’s pick for the role, but that doesn’t mean she’s stopped making headlines. In fact, her last day was one for the books. In a final interview taped Friday aired today, Yellen contemplated whether the American commercial real estate market was in a bubble. The market’s prices are…

Owner of Brightline operator offers to build new Miami-Dade courthouse

A group led by Florida East Coast Industries, the owner of the company that operates the Brightline passenger train service, made an unsolicited proposal to build a new civil courthouse for Miami-Dade County. County commissioners acknowledged the unsolicited proposal at a meeting in January without saying who made the proposal or what it entails. Tara Smith, director of the county’s Internal…

Miami Freezer Warehouse for Sale

This is one of the largest warehouses in Miami now listed on-the-market for sale. The property’s freezers and coolers make it ideal for the perishables industry. However, it could also be great for dry distribution and/or manufacturing. Investors may appreciate that the property is multi-bay and that the owner might lease-back about 65,000 sq. ft. The building, located at 18770 NE 6th Avenue, sits on 9.46 acres.

Slow Your Roll, David Beckham: Critics Vow To Fight His Miami Soccer Stadium Plan

After four years of false starts and a surprising last-minute injection of cash, David Beckham and his business partners announced Monday that Major League Soccer awarded them a new franchise and that a team will launch in Miami in 2020. But despite confetti guns that blasted during the announcement, a dozen-plus celebrities congratulating Beckham in video clips and Diddy offering to be the goalie…

Florida Turnpike Logistics Center Warehouse in Doral Leased

Leased! The ComReal Miami-Doral Industrial Team is pleased to announce that they have successfully leased the Turnpike Logistics Center located at 3450 NW 115th Avenue in Doral, Florida. The warehouse measures 87,531 sq. ft. and was 100% leased to a single tenant. The lease value was about $3.5M. The non-disclosed client of ComReal is in the international skin care production and distribution…

Miami is the 11th most expensive rental market in the U.S, per new study

See how the city’s median 1-bedroom rent price compares to the national median A new report by ABODO Apartments indicates that Miami apartment dwellers continue to pay some of the highest rents in the country. The February 2018 edition of the National Apartment Report includes new data and pricing for Miami. The February data shows that, as of this week, Miami is the 11th most expensive rental…

Loud thuds from barbells spark nuisance lawsuit at Mint on Miami River

Apparently, folks getting fit and shredded is too much to handle for the condo association of the Mint at Riverfront luxury high-rise in downtown Miami. The Mint Condominium Association in January sued three companies that own two commercial spaces in the 56-story building and their tenant Society Barbell and Fitness for breach of contract and breach of the condo’s declaration. The association claims…

Deco Capital Group buys missing piece of Sunset Harbour assemblage, plans new proposal to the city of Miami Beach

Deco Capital Group has closed on the missing piece of its Sunset Harbour assemblage with plans to submit a new proposal to the city of Miami Beach for a mixed-use project. The company, led by developer Bradley Colmer, paid $3.53 million for the Bay Road Animal Clinic building at 1730 Bay Road last week. “The original plan required additional height. We didn’t have this lot, which forced everything to…

Royal Caribbean’s sleek new terminal tops off at PortMiami

It’s slated for completion in October 2018 Royal Caribbean Cruises just hit a construction milestone with its sleek new Terminal A at PortMiami. Royal Caribbean and building contractor Suffolk celebrated in January with a party to commemorate reaching the highest construction point of the $247 million state-of-the-art terminal. The cruise terminal is slated to open in October, and will become home…

South Florida home prices rose 9% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2017

Home prices in South Florida keep rising, according to a new report from Attom Data Solutions. The index, which tracks prices in 112 U.S. metros, found that median home prices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach jumped by 8.9 percent year-over-year to $245,000 in the fourth quarter of last year. Ocala, Florida saw the biggest annual increases in home prices with a 14.3 percent jump…

Florida lawmakers advance bill allowing state to oversee vacation rental regulations

A bill that would allow the state to take over vacation rental regulations — eliminating local government authority — has cleared a Senate committee. The bill would allow for continuity across Florida, a state in which many municipalities have their own set of regulations, according to one of its authors. Under the proposed bill, vacation rental properties would be regulated like hotels and motels, meaning…

Fortune and Premier Developers complete two major condo projects

Developers recently completed two large condo projects, adding about 300 new units to the South Florida market. Closings are underway at Jade Signature, a 57-story, 192-unit beachfront tower at 16901 Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach. The building is 96 percent sold, according to a spokesperson for developer Edgardo Defortuna. Defortuna declined to provide the projected sellout amount…

Self-driving cars could kill parking garages. Here’s how developers are responding

As the rise of self-driving cars threatens to make many parking garages obsolete, developers are thinking about ways to repurpose them. Architecture firm Gensler, for example, is working on ways to turn garages into affordable housing, for example by building modular units that can fit into existing structures. The firm also recently designed an office building in Cincinnati that includes three…

Biggest Change for Retail, Real Estate? No, It’s Not Amazon

The biggest game-changer for retail and real estate in the next decade probably isn’t what you think it is, insists Beth Azor, a longtime South Florida broker, owner and industry consultant. “Driverless cars will be the biggest disruption in real estate ever, way more than what Amazon has done,” Azor said Jan. 23 at a retail seminar in Plantation, FL sponsored by the Building Owners & Managers Association…

International Air Transport Association Leases 26,000 SF in Miami

International Air Transport Association leased 26,105 square feet at the 703 Waterford office building at 703 Waterford Way in Miami, FL. Occupancy is scheduled for June. The 10-story, 247,000-square-foot office building was constructed in 2001 on 14.2 acres in the Miami Airport submarket, within the Waterford at Blue Lagoon business park. The building is home to multiple tenants including Baxter…

Anatomy Gym Signs a 14,000-SF Lease on Second Avenue

Anatomy Gym signed a 14,000-square-foot lease at 3415 NE 2nd Ave. in Miami, FL. The three-story, 52,499-square-foot office building was built in 1960 and is currently under renovation. The building is located in the Biscayne Corridor submarket. Lyle Chariff of Chariff Realty Group represented Anatomy Gym. Joseph Del Vecchio with ABC Realty represented the landlord….

Fed leaves benchmark rate steady at Yellen’s final meeting

In Janet Yellen’s final policy committee meeting as Federal Reserve chairwoman, the benchmark interest rate was left unchanged in a unanimous vote, holding at between 1.25 and 1.5 percent. That leaves incoming Fed Chairman Jerome Powell — to be sworn in on Monday — with a decision to maintain the slow hike of interest rates or speed up the pace. Go too slow and the low borrowing costs…

NR Investments plans two new mixed-use projects for Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District

Miami’s Arts and Entertainment District is getting two more NR Investments projects. Just two blocks south of its Canvas luxury condo tower and its apartment building, Filling Station Lofts, the developer is proposing a two-tower, mixed-use project split into condos, a hotel and office space. And Just north of Canvas and Filling Station Lofts, NR Investments seeks to build a smaller development consisting of…

Spanish conglomerate Grup Peralada pays $58M for South Beach hotel

Spanish conglomerate Grup Peralada purchased the Hall South Beach hotel from Rockwood Capital. Property records reveal Inverama USA Corp., an affiliate of the Barcelona-based company, paid $58.2 million, or $357,000 per room, for the 163-key hotel at 1500 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. That price may not include furniture, fixtures and equipment. Grup Peralada is owned by the Suqué-Mateu…

Is a fight brewing for David Beckham over the MLS stadium location?

Opposition is heating up in Overtown The congratulations flowed freely at Monday’s David Beckham’s Miami MLS team official launch. But the community opposition to the soccer team’s proposed stadium (site) seems to be heating up. According to the Miami Herald’s Doug Hanks, community organizers in Overtown are passing out fliers that look like eviction notices to public housing residents near the…

Fed leaves benchmark rate steady at Yellen’s final meeting

In Janet Yellen’s final policy committee meeting as Federal Reserve chairwoman, the benchmark interest rate was left unchanged in a unanimous vote, holding at between 1.25 and 1.5 percent. That leaves incoming Fed Chairman Jerome Powell — to be sworn in on Monday — with a decision to maintain the slow hike of interest rates or speed up the pace. Go too slow and the low borrowing costs…

Privé developers win $26M jury verdict against Williams Island homeowners

Score a court victory for the developers of Privé at Island Estates in Aventura. Builders Gary Cohen and BH3 are walking away with a $26 million jury verdict against the Williams Island Property Owners’ Association, which had sought to stop the luxury two-tower development since 2013. On Tuesday, after a seven-day trial, a jury in Miami-Dade Circuit Court ruled that the association breached a…

Sergio Pino’s Century Homebuilders buys land, scores financing for new single-family home community near Tamiami

Sergio Pino’s Century Homebuilders Group just paid $8.85 million for a large vacant lot west of Tamiami and is about to break ground on Century Lakes III, a planned single-family home community, The Real Deal has learned. Century Lakes III will be built on a 12.5-acre lot south of Coral Way and just east of Southwest 152nd Avenue. The land traded for about $16 per square foot. Pino said the company…

3 Commercial Real Estate Trends To Watch In 2018

Political and economic uncertainty has pervaded the past year, with the U.S. economy showing signs of growth amid low inflation and a distressed retail segment in 2017, as accountants struggle to understand all the implications of the recently passed changes to the tax laws and Europe prepares for Brexit. Here’s a look at three commercial…

Miami office rents increased, I-sales fell in 2017: report

Despite increases in rent and absorption, sales volume fell dramatically for Miami-Dade’s office market in 2017, according to a report from Avison Young. Sales volume dropped 58 percent from the previous year to more than $816 million. In 2016, investment sales totaled more than $2.3 billion thanks to the $516 million trade of the Southeast Financial Center and the $220 million sale of the Miami Tower, both…

Miami beats out NYC and LA when it comes to renter-to-homeowner ratios, study says

Miami’s proportion of renters is 68 percent A new report claims that Miami beats out NYC and LA when it comes to the ratios of renter-to-homeowner. The Miami Herald scoped out a study from national apartment search website RentCafe looking at renter versus owner-owned housing in the largest 100 cities by population with data based on US Census Bureau’s public database. According to RentCafe…

Prestige Companies breaks ground on Hialeah apartments

Prestige Companies just broke ground on Las Vistas at Amelia, a 174-unit rental complex in Hialeah. The Miami Lakes-based developer expects to soon close on more than $18 million in construction financing from Centennial Bank, Prestige principal Alex Ruiz said. Las Vistas at Amelia will be built at 7925 West 2nd Court, just north of Florida State Road 924 and next to Amelia Earhart Park. Records show…

Developer neighbor of Ransom Everglades sues to stop Grove expansion

A Miami-based commercial developer who lives next door to Ransom Everglades is seeking a legal roadblock against the private school’s expansion plan. On Jan. 25, Caroline Weiss sued Ransom in Miami-Dade Circuit Court for breach of contract, alleging school officials violated a 2010 agreement to protect her four-bedroom estate at 3187 Royal Road from any negative impacts caused by future…

Video: Yardi-Matrix Director of Business Intelligence Doug Ressler Submits Multifamily Property Forecasts

In this video, Doug Ressler, Director of Business Intelligence at Yardi-Matrix, a leading provider of high-performance software solutions for the real estate industry, joins the show host Michael Bull on America’s Commercial Real Estate Show to assess as well as forecast the multifamily property market. Ressler and Bull discuss occupancy and vacancy trends for multifamily properties, economic growth that is…

Brightline owner offers to develop Miami-Dade County courthouse

With an unsolicited proposal from the developers of All Aboard Florida’s Brightline to build a Miami-Dade civil courthouse on the table, plans seem to be hitting another snag as the administration and Chief Judge Bertila Soto differ on the project’s scale and cost. At the Chairman’s Policy Council, commissioners asked attorneys to draft legislation to return to the original, more expensive plan for the…

Board OKs 688 Little Havana rentals on Miami River

The plan to build nearly 700 apartments on vacant land in East Little Havana near a bend in the Miami River has garnered approval from a city review board. Mast Capital hopes to have a groundbreaking within 10 months on the large mixed-use residential project to be called Miami River Walk. The city’s Urban Development Review Board last week recommended approval of the project, with a couple of …

Flagler Street apartments make a splash, but pool doesn’t

A new multi-family residential building is coming to a high-profile site on West Flagler Street in Miami. Romagna Mia Realties LLC, the owner-developer of 2744, 2780, 2810 and 2828 W Flagler Street, proposes Flagler Apartments, offering 208 dwellings in a 12-story building adjacent to a five-story parking structure with ground floor commercial uses. The garage would have space for about 330…

Partners float a heads-up idea for Miami-to-Beach transit

A display at a transportation summit last week laid out a tempting and innovative solution to unraveling Miami-Dade’s tangle of traffic woes. After a two-team competition for cutting-edge solutions days earlier had unveiled a phone app to reward carpooling and transit use, a four-team consortium offered its own answer: aerial cable cars linking Miami to Miami Beach. At least it’s new. New to Miami…

Must a commercial landlord consent to a lease assignment?

Many commercial leases include a provision concerning the tenant’s right to assign the lease or sublet the leased premises.  These provisions often require the tenant to get the landlord’s consent to any assignment or sublease.  This is for good reason – the landlord (or perhaps its predecessor-in-interest) had the opportunity to vet the tenant before signing the lease and generally wants similar…

WeWork’s newest location is in Coral Gables

The shared office space will open next month WeWork’s newest shared office space outpost is set to open next month, according to South Florida Business Journal. The city’s mayor Raúl Valdés-Fauli will host a ribbon-cutting for the Coral Gables WeWork on February 6.
The address for the new space is 2222 Ponce De Leon Boulevard, and WeWork’s website touts amenities like a custom terrazzo bar…

There’s a phase 2 in the works for Brickell City Centre’s Climate Ribbon

According to architect Hugh Dutton It’s been more than a year since the opening of Brickell City Centre’s Climate Ribbon — a futuristic, undulating outdoor canopy meant to lower stifling temperatures. Now the Next Miami unearths a fascinating interview with the mind behind the project, Hugh Dutton of Paris architectural firm HDA, who looked back on the process with the Financial Times.

Rents in major US cities fluctuate as much as 5.8% during the year

Renters in the nation’s largest cities could save as much as $2,200 a year on rent if they wait for the right time of the year to sign a lease, according to a newly released report. Renthop found that rents during the most expensive and least expensive months last year fluctuated by 4 percent to 5.4 percent for one-bedroom apartments and from 2.3 percent to 5.8 percent for two-bedroom apartments…

Miami, New York, LA home prices continue to rise

Home prices continued their upward streak in November. The 20-city index registered a 6.4 percent growth rate year-over-year, marking the biggest increase since June 2014. The monthly data was released Tuesday by the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index. The November gains were spread unevenly. The best performing cities were again in the West. Seattle led the nation with a 12.7 percent annual…

SoFla lease roundup: Ross Furniture Logistics moves to Hialeah & more

Ross Furniture Logistics takes 115,000 sf at Hialeah warehouse. Freight forwarder Ross Furniture Logistics just inked a 115,000-square-foot lease in Hialeah. The company, of no relation to the retailer, is moving into a 215,000-square-foot warehouse at 6699 Northwest 36th Avenue, owned by Seagis Property Group of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. The Easton Group’s Mike Waite and Jim Armstrong brokered…

Is South Florida Approaching the Tipping Point For Luxury Rentals?

The 35-story New River Central luxury apartment in Fort Lauderdale is expected to be delivered by 2021. Nine days into the new year, a development partnership announced plans for yet another luxury rental in downtown Fort Lauderdale, FL, this one featuring 401 units in a 35-story tower with 5,500 square feet of ground-floor retail. Silverback Development and Bizzi & Partners Development…

David Beckham and a whole lot of celebrities welcome MLS Soccer to Miami

“Today, you made my dream come true.” “Bringing an MLS club to Miami has been a hell of a journey,” David Beckham said today at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts as he officially announced that Major League Soccer awarded a franchise to Miami. Today, after a years-long attempt to bring a professional soccer team to the city, it’s official. “There were times when we sat back and said, this…

Kickoff time: David Beckham and partners officially launch Miami MLS franchise

He’s gone up against the toughest bruisers and tactical minds in world soccer. But even for David Beckham, bringing Major League Soccer to Miami was a monumental challenge. Soccer fans drowned out the sounds of Gloria Estefan’s “Conga” at the Adrienne Arsht Cente Monday as they prepared for the official launch of the franchise, brought to the city by Beckham and…

Top 10 US malls haven’t gotten the memo that malls are dying

The traditional American shopping mall may not be the retail powerhouse it once was, but the best properties in the sector are still delivering for tenants and landlords across the country. The 10 most valuable malls owned by REITs — which includes Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise — are generating between $960 and $1,450 in sales per square foot, and are worth billions, research firm Boenning…

Arquitectonica’s first commercial building to get the wrecking ball

After recently losing its short-lived landmark status, an eye-catching building on Brickell Bay Drive, designed by Arquitectonica, may be demolished. In a 4-1 vote, Miami commissioners moved to overturn the Babylon Apartments’ protected architectural landmark status, according to the Miami Herald. It was granted landmark status last year by the city’s historic preservation…

Italian Fashion School Opening First U.S. Campus in Miami

Istituto Marangoni, an Italian fashion and design school, is opening its first U.S. location in Miami after leasing the entire seven-story building at 3700 NE Second Avenue. The Miami-Dade Beacon Council, the county’s economic development arm, said the school’s 21,957-square-foot campus will create 35 full-time jobs over three years with an average salary of $85,000. It also brings $10 million of…

Declining Sales Volume Ahead For US Real Estate, Economist Warns

Interest rates are creeping up, confidence in the dollar is waning and real estate transaction volume keeps slipping despite an abundance of investment capital. Combine those factors and you have a recipe for a looming recession, according to economist Hugh Kelly. “It’s not just about preparing ourselves for a slowdown three, four years down the road, but also for a contraction,” said Hugh Kelly, principal…”

New Comfort Suites in Miami Springs secures $15M construction loan

The developers behind a planned 120-key Comfort Suites hotel in Miami Springs scored a $15.2 million construction loan for the project. The hotel is among a few set to go up near Miami International Airport. Developers Steven Marin and Michael Pfeffer want to build an eight-story Comfort Inn & Suites at 665 Mokena Drive, right along Northwest 36th Street, according to a news release. The area has…

New co-working concept in Overtown adds to a growing list

A new co-working concept geared to the Overtown community is opening, part of a growing number of shared-space buildings that are popping up in South Florida. Tribe Co-Work and Urban Innovation Lab will open Feb. 5 out of a historic building in Overtown, co-owner Felecia Hatcher said. Miami Innovation District developer Michael Simkins owns the building at 937 Northwest Third Avenue.

Apartment builder plans mixed-use apartment tower in Little Havana

A multifamily developer based in Miami Beach is jumping on the Little Havana apartment boom. Alan I. Amdur is proposing a 19-story mixed-use project on a 2.84-acre block between West Flagler Street and Northwest First Street. It will feature 719 apartments for seniors and workforce housing, 150,000 square feet of retail and 959 parking spaces. The Miami City…..

Q&A: Is Downtown Miami the Best Fit for Amazon?

Miami Worldcenter is currently in development on 27 acres in Downtown Miami. The mixed-use project could potentially accommodate Amazon should the online retailer select the city for its second headquarters.-Rendering courtesy of Miami Worldcenter Associates
Amazon short-listed South Florida for its coveted second…

Head of Miami’s EB-5 regional center quits

The city of Miami’s EB-5 regional center is getting a major overhaul. Managing Director Mikki Canton resigned on Wednesday due to the changes brought on by Miami’s new city manager, Emilio González, according to the Miami Herald. González cut Canton’s salary and role with plans to use the money to staff his office. Regional centers submit applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration…

South Florida by the numbers: Alexa, add Miami to the Amazon HQ2 shortlist

“South Florida by the numbers” is a web feature that catalogs the most notable, quirky and surprising real estate statistics. Miami and South Florida got some exciting news last week, when e-commerce giant Amazon announced that the city/region had made the shortlist of candidates for its second national headquarters, or “HQ2”. The bid was formally and collectively submitted last year by South Florida’s…

South Florida’s new commercial construction spiked in 2017

South Florida in 2017 was a tale of two sectors when it came to new commercial and residential construction. On the commercial side, developers were putting shovels in the ground at a rapid pace, with $5.7 billion in new construction. That amounted to a 27-percent increase from 2016, according to Dodge Data & Analytics’ year end report. The commercial sector, including multifamily and industrial…

Another year of declining sales volume ahead for US real estate, economist warns

Interest rates are creeping up, confidence in the dollar is waning and real estate transaction volume keeps slipping despite an abundance of investment capital. Combine those factors and you have a recipe for a looming recession, according to economist Hugh Kelly. “It’s not just about preparing ourselves for a slowdown three, four years down the road, but also for a contraction,” said Hugh Kelly, principal…

Video: Yardi-Matrix Director of Business Intelligence Doug Ressler Delivers Office Property Forecast

In this video, Doug Ressler, Director of Business Intelligence at Yardi-Matrix, a leading provider of high-performance software solutions for the real estate industry, joins host Michael Bull on America’s Commercial Real Estate Show to assess as well as forecast the United States office property market sector. They discuss recent tax rate changes and tax reform, go through a recap of the 2017 office buildings…

Liability for construction defects in Florida

Construction defects can be costly. Where they involve large commercial developments, the price tag for mitigating defects in construction can easily run into the millions of dollars. In the case of an undiscovered defect, if it results in personal injury or death, the financial and legal fallout can be disastrous. Whenever a defect of design or construction is present, the potential for construction…

Get ready for more live events at Herald Plaza

The former site of the Miami Herald will become an event venue The waterfront site on Biscayne Bay that once housed the Miami Herald is going to be home to many more live events. The owner of the site, Resorts World Miami, kicked off hosting events at the sites with the Art Miami and Context Art Fair in December. Now, Resorts World Miami is bringing in event group Loud and Live to keep the…

Toys “R” Us is closing three South Florida stores

Toys “R” Us plans to close 180 stores as part of the company’s attempt to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Wayne, New Jersey-based company will be shuttering three stores in South Florida — in Coral Springs, Boca Raton and Royal Palm Beach. Toys “R” Us is also closing 15 stores in New York, including its Union Square Babies “R” Us…

Genting inks multi-year deal for events at former Miami Herald site

Malaysian gambling giant Genting Group isn’t redeveloping the former Miami Herald site in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District – at least not for now. Genting’s Resorts World Miami inked a multi-year deal with Miami-based Loud and Live to use the 14.6-acre property as an event venue, according to a press release. The announcement comes less than two months after Art Miami and Context moved…

The stock market is booming. So why are REIT shares falling?

Does no one like real estate investment trusts anymore? While the overall stock market is surging, real estate investment trusts are the odd one out. Last year, the S&P 500 stock index rose by 21.8 percent, but the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs index rose by a mere 8.7 percent. And over the first few weeks of 2018 REIT shares are even down 2.4 percent while the stock market overall continued to climb.

Brazilians are getting in on the EB-5 game in a major way

The United States welcomed 282 Brazilian immigrants last year through the EB-5 investor visa program, as the country rose to become the third largest user of EB-5 visas for the first time, a new report from the U.S. Department of State shows. Brazil’s rise to number three for fiscal year 2017 came on an 88 percent increase in new visas issued year-over-year. In 2015, just 34 EB-5 visas were issued to Brazilians.

Dezer allegedly pushing tenants out of North Miami Beach mall

Since it paid millions for the property in 2013, Dever Development has tried to evict at least six tenants from its Intracoastal Mall in North Miami Beach. Attorneys for the tenants claim Dezer is ringleading efforts to push tenants out in order to move ahead with its redevelopment of the mall, according to the Daily Business Review. Under a 2015 rezoning of the property, Dezer could build up to…

Biggest Change for Retail, Real Estate? No, It’s Not Amazon

The biggest game-changer for retail and real estate in the next decade probably isn’t what you think it is, insists Beth Azor, a longtime South Florida broker, owner and industry consultant. “Driverless cars will be the biggest disruption in real estate ever, way more than what Amazon has done,” Azor said Jan. 23 at a retail seminar in Plantation, FL sponsored by the Building Owners & Managers Association…

In this video, Doug Ressler, Director of Business Intelligence at Yardi-Matrix, a leading provider of high-performance software solutions for the real estate industry, joins the show host Michael Bull on America’s Commercial Real Estate Show to assess as well as forecast the multifamily property market. Ressler and Bull discuss occupancy and vacancy trends for multifamily properties, economic growth that is impacting it, multifamily rent growth, areas of demand, the pros and cons of renting vs owning, and factors driving the multifamily property market overall.

In this video, Doug Ressler, Director of Business Intelligence at Yardi-Matrix, a leading provider of high-performance software solutions for the real estate industry, joins host Michael Bull on America’s Commercial Real Estate Show to assess as well as forecast the United States office property market sector. They discuss recent tax rate changes and tax reform, go through a recap of the 2017 office buildings property sector, vacancy rates in office properties, economic growth, inflation, potential opportunities, trends in urban compared to suburban office properties, effects of e-commerce on office properties, potential investor opportunities, office market cap rates and NOI, and employment.

In this parody video, queued up to 3:39 where Miami enters to make its pitch, Pitbull joins to do his thing following pitches by Boston with an “impassioned” Casey Affleck (who quickly recommends Los Angeles instead), Atlanta, and Corey Booker pitching – sort of – New Jersey. This is not SNL’s best work, but for those in Miami, it is worth the chuckle.