Micro Apartments Are Coming To Miami

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Miami’s rental apartment market is about to get smaller — literally.

Micro-units — compact, affordable apartments aimed at young, single professionals who want to live in popular neighborhoods without paying exorbitant rents — are sprouting up in Wynwood, downtown Miami and other desirable areas where prices make it impossible for younger people to buy.

Wynwood 25 rendering

Groundbreaking is scheduled to begin in July on Wynwood 25, a $100 million mixed-use project by Miami’s Related Group and the New York-based East End Capital. The 400,000-square-foot development will occupy 2.3 acres and include 289 rental apartments, ranging in size from 400 to 1,200 square feet.

By comparison, the average two-car garage is 480 to 625 square feet.


More than 80 percent of the apartments at Wynwood 25 will be studios and one-bedrooms, starting at $1,400 per month. A limited number of three-bedroom units will go for $3,200 per month.

“Our approach to the building is to think about the type of person who would be drawn to Wynwood and want to live there,” said Jonathon Yormak, founder and managing principal of East End Capital. “This is not the same as Brickell or Miami Beach.”

Yormak said he hopes the micro-sized apartments will attract what he calls “the creative class — not just millennials but simply people who have a creative mindset and appreciate the arts, the entertainment and the grittiness that is cool about Wynwood.”

Apartment Boom In Wynwood

Wynwood 25 is one of three major residential projects Related Group is developing in the neighborhood. Another rental apartment building, Wynwood 26, is a joint venture with Block Capital Group that will feature 176 micro-units. Groundbreaking is scheduled for later this year.

Related’s third tower, Wynwood 29, a partnership with developer Tony Cho will offer micro-condos ranging in size from 416 to 900 square feet and priced from $200,000 to $500,000.

“If you go to Wynwood, the streets are always full, day or night,” said Jon Paul Perez, vice president of Related Group. “We think the first developer that gets to the residential market there will be the most successful.”

Wynwood 25 will be the first residential building to break ground under the regulations established by the Neighborhood Revitalization District plan (NRD), a joint effort hatched in 2015 between the city of Miami’s Planning and Zoning Department and Wynwood’s Business Improvement District (BID). The plan aims to help guide Wynwood’s transition from an industrial district to a standalone, self-sustaining neighborhood..

“The NRD is driven to shape Wynwood into a mixed-use, vibrant neighborhood with places to work and live, in addition to the existing businesses and restaurants,” said Steven J. Wernick, an attorney at Akerman LLP., who serves as land-use counsel for East End and assisted in the joint venture with Related. “Over time, we’ll see a diverse group of people moving into Wynwood — people who want to be close to places of work, arts and culture and restaurants. This building is an economic catalyst for more development in the heart of Wynwood, and it adds a significant amount of units to the neighborhood’s housing stock.”

Vice rendering

Micro-units are spreading to other neighborhoods, too. Scheduled for completion in fall 2018 is Vice, a 464-unit apartment rental tower at 230 NE Fourth St., in downtown Miami. The building is part of a nationwide rollout by developer Property Markets Group of a 5,000-unit pipeline of apartments, dubbed PMGx, pitched at millennials and young professionals in cities such as Miami, Denver and Chicago. (A Fort Lauderdale tower is planned for 2020.)

Vice, a 464-apartment rental tower at 230 NE Fourth St., is part of a national rollout of micro-units by developer PMG. Construction is scheduled to be completed by fall 2018.

Apartments at the Vice tower will start at 450 square-foot studios for $1,600 per month to three-bedroom, 1,400 square-foot units for $4,200. The building will offer common-space amenities, a jumbo-sized gym and high-tech features such as smart locks and thermostats. Flat-screen TVs and bookcases will be incorporated into some of the units, so tenants just need to bring a sofa, bed and dining table.

“Typically, as you progress through life and grow professionally you can afford better places to live,” said Ryan Shear, a principal at PMG’s Miami branch. “The building is targeted toward the younger demographic, because that’s the price point we’re trying to hit. But the term ‘micro-unit’ is often abused. 520 square feet in New York is not considered micro, but it is in Miami. We just see them as smaller apartments

Micro-units have already popped up around Miami as part of larger residential projects. The Flats Luxury Apartments in CityPlace Doral, for example, include a 518-square-foot studio for $1,645.

Tight Rental Market

Despite all the new construction in South Florida, demand continues to outpace supply in the apartment rental market. A 2017 first quarter study by Cushman & Wakefield claims 30,093 new apartment units were built in the past five years, while the region’s population ballooned by 333,000 — just one unit for every 11 new residents.

Although smaller apartments cost less to build, that doesn’t always translate to lower square-footage pricing. The costs of the most expensive rooms in any apartment — the bathroom and kitchen, which require plumbing, tile, cabinetry and electrical — remain the same, no matter the overall size of the unit.

According to Trulia, the median rental price for one-bedroom apartments in Miami in May was $1,500 — roughly the same price of the new micro-units. But the trend toward smaller apartment living is spreading. Tom C. Murphy, co-president of Coastal Construction Group of South Florida, says the average size of units in multifamily residential projects (i.e. apartment buildings) has gone down about 10 percent over the last five years, from 950 square feet to 900 square feet.

“We’re also seeing a trend in design for units to go even smaller,” Murphy said. “Developers now want to get two bedrooms into a 600- or 800-square-foot space. This is happening all over the country.”

What’s unique about Wynwood 25 is that the building is spearheading an attempt to bring full-time residents to the neighborhood.

“By Miami standards, these spaces are smaller than what you might find in suburban areas, which are geared toward multi-bedroom, large family products,” said Albert Garcia, vice chairman of Wynwood BID and managing principal for Wynwood Ventures. “These are designed for young adults who see Wynwood as the amenity for living in this area. Their living room space might be smaller, but they are steps away from cafés, galleries, retail, entertainment venues and museums.”

According to a study by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, 61.6 percent of renters in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area were cost burdened (spending 30 percent of their income on housing), and 35.2 percent of renters were severely cost burdened (spending more than half their income on housing). South Florida ranked seventh out of 381 U.S. markets in the study.

Neighborhood As Amenity

The micro-unit trend started in large metropolitan areas such as New York and San Francisco four years ago, when a shortage of affordable housing led developers to try building smaller, more reasonably priced rentals.

Real estate analyst Jonathan Miller says the micro-unit concept hasn’t taken hold in New York City, because the rents aren’t that much cheaper on a square-foot basis than existing older buildings. But in a neighborhood like Wynwood, where residential is still a new form of construction and the target is a younger audience, the idea could sell.

“It’s very promising in terms of offering more affordability to an upstart market,” Miller said. “The premise is that in urban markets with a lot of restaurants and services, you don’t spend as much time at home, so smaller living spaces can be optimal. It will remain to be seen whether Wynwood will embrace this, but conceptually it makes a lot of sense.”

 

Source: Miami Herald

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“There Are Great Opportunities For Miami, But Traffic And Zoning Issues Must Be Resolved,” Says Developer Peebles

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Miami is a “city of the future” that needs to challenge “cities of the day” like New York and Boston to reach a new level, said developer Don Peebles, founder, chairman and CEO of the Peebles Corp.

Already a culturally developed, international tourist destination, Miami can achieve this by attracting new companies, allowing more construction and developing affordable housing for its workforce, Peebles told attendees at a Bisnow conference on transit oriented development Thursday at the Miami InterContinental.

“The region must get people out of their cars, improve mass transit and allow for denser development,” Peebles said. A strong draw for corporate investors is Florida’s low taxes who divides his time between homes in New York and Coral Gables. Why not go after the highly-taxed financial services industry in New York City, for example and bring them to this low-tax center?”

But there are impediments: traffic congestion and excessive complications for new vertical development and density. Miami employees typically spend as much as three hours a day going to and from work, which deals a major loss to productivity, he said. Miami’s workforce for the most part can’t afford to live where they work and lack access to the public transportation system.

The county has a rail system but it is not broadly developed. To access public transportation here today, people need to use cars. One answer is transit oriented development, which allows people to stay close to employment centers.

“People will need to access every part of their lives without getting into a car,” said Peebles, whose company is working on a variety of projects in Miami and the Northeast.

A major roadblock to developing new projects in the Miami area is a lack of unified zoning oversight, which limits density and structural height. Miami and Miami Beach are made up of many municipalities that each has its own city hall, police force and regulations for real estate.

“I never had to hire a lobbyist until I came here,” Peebles said. “Politicians here tend to reach out to small groups of people regarding real estate permitting. They can get elected with 4,000 votes. In New York City, the mayor has 10 million people, so what if 10,000 people get annoyed with him? In New York, people can express their views, but zoning is decided by people who are qualified. A central issue impeding development is there is no comprehensive oversight for real estate permitting, zoning, density and structural height. Miami has to realize that it is an urban center, and allow more supply.”

Peebles was one of several panelists that included Miami-Dade transport officials, real estate developers and attorneys. Others included Meg Daly, founder and president of Friends of the Underline (a park, path and trail built under the Metrorail), who said that bicyclists and pedestrians using the Underline have so far helped remove about 5 percent of cars from US-1 while attracting new customers to businesses along the route.

“Among other projects, Miami-Dade County is concentrating efforts to make first- and last-mile connections for all its rapid transit corridors,” said Aileen Bouclé, executive director of the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization. “Uber and Lyft are helping, but they both are operating at a loss.”

“Meanwhile, as infill increases in the downtown area, the bare bones Metrorail stations should incorporate amenities, and new stations should be added between existing ones,” said Humberto Alonso, vice president of Atkins North America.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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A Developer Talks Miami River, Market Challenges, And His Project, One River Point

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Despite the condo market slowdown, developer Shahab Karmely is confident his project and the Miami River are poised for big growth.

Click photo to view video of Shahab Karmely discussing the Miami River and One River Point at the TRD Broward Showcase and Forum panel by TRD’s Alistair Gardiner

In a post-panel interview, Karmely and The Real Deal South Florida’s Managing Editor Ina Cordle discussed One River Point and the river at TRD‘s Third Annual Broward Real Estate Showcase & Forum in April.

Presales at One River Point are about to pass the 18 percent to 20 percent mark. Buyers there are mostly from South America, but also from Georgia, New York and Canada.

“We have headwinds – not us, just everybody else,” Karmely said. “On the other hand, we are financially very secure. We have no financing.”

The Real Deal previously reported that Karmely’s silent partner is Daniel Loeb, the billionaire investor who runs one of the most prominent activist hedge funds, Third Point LLC. Karmely’s KAR Properties has spent more than $112 million on acquisitions along the River, in Wynwood and in Hallandale Beach since 2013, and more on pre-develoment costs.

Karmely was part of a panel discussion on the economics of new development amid a new administration and continuing global market fluctuation.

To watch the panel in full, click here.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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Miami’s Real Estate Drawing Middle Eastern Buyers

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Every month, the Miami Association of Realtors announces the top 10 foreign countries that use its website to search for Miami real estate.

As you might expect, this list typically features the “usual suspects” month after month, such as Colombia, Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and France. However, the most recently published report (from January 2017) included an unfamiliar newcomer: Turkey, ranked at No. 7.

Miami has always attracted foreign buyers, and we are very used to seeing strong interest from Latin America and Europe. But this marked the first time that a Middle Eastern country was included among that report’s top 10.

While time and circumstances could make this inclusion an outlier, it is also a fairly good demonstration of Miami’s rising profile among wealthy and sophisticated real-estate buyers from that part of the world.

Last September, CBRE Capital Markets reported that commercial investment in Miami from the Middle East totaled $517 million between January and June 2016 alone, making it the 10th most popular global market for Middle Eastern investment during this time period, and the fifth most popular in the U.S.

Why Miami?

A number of factors have coincided to propel this dramatic increase in demand for Miami real estate from the region. First, turmoil and unstable governments throughout the Middle East have pushed wealthy families to seek more and varied residency options, beyond the usual “comfort zones” of London and New York.

Second, Miami is considered a relatively new city, with many recently-constructed buildings and houses that offer state-of-the-art amenities, which appeal to prosperous Arabs.

Third, with the recent addition of world-renowned luxury hotels, restaurants, architecture, retail and cultural offerings (Four Seasons, Zuma, Zaha Hadid, Art Basel, etc.), Miami now enjoys a higher level of sophistication than in years past.

And finally, more direct flights from Dubai, Doha and Istanbul have literally put Miami within reach for more Middle Eastern buyers.

Put all these elements together, and Miami is now viewed as a secure, modern, upmarket, accessible and (important for Middle Easterners!) warm American city, with reasonably-priced real estate and amenities curated for high net-worth individuals.

(Recent buyers from Turkey present specific and compelling evidence of this observation. A few years ago, there was a big spike in their attention to projects like the Four Seasons in Surfside and the Capri in South Beach — just around the time that Erdoğan was elected president and began seriously consolidating power in that country.)

Three Broad Categories

Miami’s Middle Eastern buyers fall into three broad categories:

  • Wealthy individuals seeking pied-à-terres, to enjoy a few months of leisure
  • Investors looking to purchase at big projects like the W Downtown and the St. Regis Bal Harbour
  • Students attending college, usually at the University of Miami. Our country attracts many foreign students, and let’s face it — what 20 year-old wouldn’t love to spend four years here?

The really interesting phenomenon is that many of these Middle Eastern college students become the “gateway” for other family members, encouraging mom, dad, grandma and others to join them in Miami. Family is extremely important to Middle Eastern buyers, and real-estate professionals should be prepared to find housing for them that is suitable for and capable of expansion, or has more available units nearby.

No Trump Concerns

While President Donald Trump’s Middle Eastern travel/emigration policy (or “Muslim Ban,” as it has been described) draws international headlines and lots of cable news chatter, you might be surprised to know that clients from that region pay it little attention.

Prosperous Middle Eastern individuals do not feel unfairly “targeted” in any respect and feel no need to protest or complain. Their concerns are about finding safe, secure and reliable investments should they need to flee their home countries due to political, religious or military turmoil. This would be the case regardless of who occupies the White House.

While the region continues to be very unstable and capable of dramatic change, a mass influx of Middle Eastern buyers is not expected to Miami in the near or distant future. However, the trend of more wealthy individuals choosing Miami over major U.S. cities like New York or Los Angeles is here to stay, and Turkey and other Arab countries may become regulars on that list of online real-estate Web searchers.

 

Source: Miami Herald

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American Dream Miami Construction May Not Begin For Another 8 Years

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Speaking to a Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce crowd, an American Dream Miami consultant said construction on the massive theme-park-oriented mall may not begin until 2025, three years after all roads and expressway interchanges into the development have been completed.

In the meantime, fostering more development around public transit hubs is the key ingredient in creating the kind of critical mass that will transform Miami into a true urban center, according to a panel of downtown and Brickell developers.

“Bringing in the Brightline commuter train into downtown is going to be transformative for the city,” said Greg West, president and chief development officer at ZOM. “It not only elevates Miami, but all of South Florida on the global stage. It should bring more population.”

West joined Swire President Kieran Bowers and Henry Pino, managing member Strategic Properties Group and Alta Developers, in a discussion about builders capitalizing on Miami’s continuing evolution. It was the second of two panels during the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce 2017 Real Estate Summit held at Jungle Island on Friday.

Pino said his companies have plans to develop two mixed-use sites near Miami-Dade Metrorail stations south of Miami.

“We are trying to expand our projects to be closer to the train stations,” he said. “We just closed on a property that will be 900 feet from the Dadeland South Station,” Pino said. “We have another one in South Miami that is across from city hall and within walking distance to another Metrorail station.”

Earlier this week, Alta paid $11 million for a 1.45-acre industrial site at 9600 South Dixie Highway to complete an assemblage that also includes a 6,250-square-foot site with a retail building at 9514 South Dixie Highway and a 3,125-square-foot site with an office building at 9516 South Dixie Highway. Alta plans to seek county approval to redevelop the sites into a mixed-use project that includes 420 apartments, roughly 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, a pool, a fountain and a fitness center.

Bowers said Brickell is a good example of how residential development close to a Metrorail station creates critical mass and encourages people to use public transit

“My experience with Metrorail is that it is fine once you get on it,” Bowers said. “But getting to the stations is the real problem.”

During the earlier panel, three developers building massive projects in the northwest area of Miami-Dade discussed the challenges they face breaking ground, noting it can take years to cut through the regulatory red tape. The panelists were Jose Gonzalez, vice president of corporate development for Florida East Coast Industries, Stuart Wyllie, CEO of the Graham Companies, and Edgar Jones, president of Edgar Jones & Co., which is part of the development team building American Dream Miami.

Gonzalez talked about the hoops Florida East Coast jumped through simply to prepare a former landfill for development into an industrial park.

“We bought the land in 2004,” Gonzalez said. “We literally just broke ground last year. And it will take 10 years to build out that park.”

Jones said that construction of American Dream cannot begin until the state and county finish building all the roads and expressway interchanges that provide access to the gargantuan entertainment and shopping destination.

“That will be completed in 2022,” Jones said. “Construction of the mall won’t start until three years after that.”

Jones also groused about amount of time the developers have been required to spend on traffic studies to convince county officials that American Dream will create more gridlock in an area already plagued by traffic congestion.

“The development team has widened the scope of the areas that may be impacted by more traffic so much that we now know the traffic impact in Santa Monica, California,” Jones said in jest.

He also claimed that if American Dream opponents succeed in killing the project, the massive assemblage of land would be developed into industrial parks.

“You will have trucks on the road at significant levels,” Jones said. “Those trucks will be out during rush hour.”

 

Source: The Real Deal

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Check It Out: The View From The Top Of Florida’s Tallest Building

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Future tenants of Brickell’s mammoth Panorama Tower are a little closer to being able to look down on the rest of Miami.

Developer Tibor Hollo’s Florida East Coast Realty is celebrating the topping-off of its 830-foot luxury rental tower at 1101 Brickell Ave.. The ceremony is a customary way for builders to commemorate the completion of the top floor of a new structure.

At 85 stories, Panorama Tower will be the tallest building in Florida and the tallest residential building south of Manhattan, according to the developer. The tower will house 821 apartments, ranging in size from one to three bedrooms and starting at 1,135 square feet., along with a sick array of amenities, including a lap pool, sun deck, weight room, pet groomer and a serenity pool for when you’re stressing about your high rent — an average of $3 per square foot.

Another 208 rooms will serve as a boutique hotel. The structure will house 100,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of high-end retail shops and restaurants.

Construction on the Panorama, which is estimated to cost a total of $800 million, is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The leasing program has not officially started, but more than 100 units are already reserved.

Including the building’s antenna, the Panorama Tower will reach 868 feet into the sky, which is higher than two football fields stacked end-to-end and taller than the Four Seasons Hotel Miami, which measures 800 feet to tip.

Panorama will only hold the crown of Miami’s tallest for a couple of years. The building will be dwarfed by at least two other giant skyscrapers in development, both expected to reach 1,049 feet: One Brickell City Centre and One Bayfront Plaza.

 

Source: Miami Herald

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Sears At Aventura Mall To Shutter, Be Redeveloped Into Mixed-Use Project

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The Sears at Aventura Mall will close this summer and the site will be developed into a mixed-use project. 

Rendering of Esplanade at Aventura

Sears, at 19505 Biscayne Boulevard, will begin its liquidation sale at the end of April and close by mid-July, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The landlord, Seritage Growth Properties, will break ground on Esplanade at Aventura, with 215,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space, later this year. Aventura approved the site plan in December.

Seritage purchased 235 Sears and Kmart stores from Sears Holdings Corp. earlier this year. Under terms of the sale, Seritage recaptured the property, which allows the real estate investment trust to develop the site. It has 224 properties leased to Sears Holdings operating under Sears or the Kmart brand.

In November, the REIT settled a lawsuit that it filed against the owners of Aventura Mall to stop the shopping center’s expansion plans, which are underway.

The mall, owned by Turnberry Associates and Simon Property Group, plans to open a new three-level wing in November with Topshop Topman and Zara, all part of Aventura Mall’s 315,000-square-foot expansion.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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There’s A New Trend Among Office Tenants

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Mayfair in the Grove is set to be a transformative office project. With three separate buildings in the center of Coconut Grove and the pent up demand for innovative office projects in the city, developers expect strong leasing momentum.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Chris Dekker, vice president of Mayfair Real Estate Advisors, the project’s developer, and Tere Blanca, president and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, to get their take the types of tenants that flock to Coconut Grove. (You can read part one: Coconut Grove sees a 30-year first in commercial real estate development.)

GlobeSt.com: What kind of tenants are most interested in taking Coconut Grove office space?

Dekker: Coconut Grove has emerged as a hotbed for entrepreneurial companies and global brands, including professional services firms, media companies, design firms, international finance, investment shops, and more. The offices at Mayfair in the Grove are a good example, which is home to major organizations like Publicis/Sapient, Crispin Porter, Regus, and GE as well as an assortment of local firms that make for a vibrant tenant mix.

The common denominator across companies at Mayfair in the Grove—and those that will relocate to Terra’s new class A development at Mary Street—is that they see value in locating in an urban, walkable neighborhood that still preserves the spirit of Coconut Grove. Mary Street will also appeal to business decision-makers coming from points south who are seeking a shorter commute by comparison with traveling to Brickell and Downtown as well as those seeking office space benefiting from a modern architectural design.

GlobeSt.com: Are there specific amenities that are appealing to tenants touring new buildings in today’s market?

Blanca: The same way consumers are gravitating toward authentic, urban neighborhoods, we’re seeing office users trend toward walkable neighborhoods that offer a strong sense of community and rich amenity base. In many ways, Coconut Grove is an amenity itself and has already successfully attracted major brands including Sony Music, Sapient Nitro and Virgin Hotels.

Beyond that, tenants today value office space that enhances the lifestyle experience. At One CocoWalk, the office building is being designed with these needs in mind. We’ll have favorable parking ratios, a rooftop terrace, a private entrance and lobby for office guests, office spaces with abundant natural light and waterfront views, and an on-site fitness center inside CocoWalk. The ownership is also planning to design and build One CocoWalk to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.

 

Source: GlobeSt.

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Coconut Grove Sees A New 30-Year First In Commercial Development

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GlobeSt.com caught up with Chris Dekker, vice president of Mayfair Real Estate Advisors and Tere Blanca, president and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, to get their take on the office aspects of this project in part one of this exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: It’s been 30 years since a new office building was built in Coconut Grove. Why are two new buildings launching at the same time?

Dekker: Coconut Grove is experiencing three decades of pent-up office demand from in and around the area that has led to a submarket vacancy rate of less than 2%—the lowest in all of South Florida. The Grove is coming alive with new condos, restaurants and shops, so we view the development of new Class A office space as the final ingredient that will complete the neighborhood’s comeback. Mary Street, like Terra’s nearby towers at Grove at Grand Bay and Park Grove, represent a new wave of design-driven infill development that is taking advantage of Coconut Grove’s walkability and central location.

GlobeSt.com: Coconut Grove has primarily been known as a retail and residential destination. How does office space factor into the neighborhood’s commercial mix?

Blanca: The addition of new class A office space at One CocoWalk will make the CocoWalk shopping complex more relevant for locals again, after more than a decade of being a destination for tourists. By welcoming new companies and hundreds of additional employees into the neighborhood, we’ll be boosting the area’s daily population and driving more activity on the streets throughout the day, which will benefit the Grove’s retailers and restaurants on a daily basis.

 

Source: GlobeSt.

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Miami’s Class A Office Space Likely To Get Pricier

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Rents for Class A office space in Miami are high, at $50 or more per square foot, and will continue rising as the market tightens, real estate experts told attendees at a recent conference.

Panelists also said that, despite the city’s increasing traffic problems, they expected sustainable demand growth for Miami commercial properties in the future, since the city is an appealing location and a gateway to Latin America.

“The market is tightening up,” said Angelo Bianco, managing partner at Crocker Partners during the Bisnow panel event. “Developers are getting better rates and lower concessions.” At the same time, he added, “Capital markets seem to be taking a break and people are more cautious. Deals are taking longer to close.”

Asked if office rents in Miami were becoming too expensive, W. Allen Morris, chairman and CEO of The Allen Morris Co., said that rents here were high compared to a city like Atlanta, “but they’re low compared to other global cities like New York, London, San Francisco or Chicago.” If developers can find any additional land – without condos – they would build more commercial space, Morris said.

Panelists at the conference at the Wells Fargo Center in Miami also discussed attracting new commercial clients. Many cities like Miami constantly compete to attract new companies and their tech-savvy millennial employees. Smart CEOs want to ensure that they locate or relocate in a place where millennials will be pleased with attractive, often non-traditional office space; nearby amenities (restaurants, retail); transit options (millennials rely less on their own cars); cultural opportunities and good schools. The city needs to develop more “live, work and play” communities, they said.

“It’s attractive to live in Miami,” said Rudy Touzet, CEO of Banyan Street Capital. “Over the next 5 to 10 years, millennials will be moving to Miami, Tampa, Atlanta. Things like education and transportation have to be improved,” he said. The attractiveness of Miami “will fluctuate, but demand will be sustainable if development is controlled.”

“It’s a cool, international city,” Bianco said.

Parking remains an issue, however. While parking availability is currently a necessary part of an office complex, some developers are looking at making changes, such as building parking garages that can easily be converted into other types of commercial space as car use diminishes in crowded urban centers.

And even though Uber and other companies have located their headquarters in Wynwood, the trendy area has problems.

“It’s not easily accessible by bus or trolley routes,” said Barbara Savage, senior associate principal and Stantec Architecture & Design. “Wynwood doesn’t have the views of high-rise buildings but the area has ample amenities and works well for certain types of clients in the range of 5,000 to 15,000 square feet. Art Basel, a major international event and a big draw for wealthy individuals from the U.S. and overseas, “made it challenging for people to get in an out of the area.”

Moderator Brian Gale, vice chair at Cushman Wakefield, noted that four projects have been proposed for Wynwood, totaling about 700,000 square feet, but “We’ll have to see if they are developed,” he said.

Speakers gave mixed reviews on the impact the new Trump administration would have on future growth and business confidence. The government’s moves to reduce regulations in the Dodd-Frank Act “will be good and will allow new credit” for real estate and the rest of the economy, Morris said. The economy is growing and jobs are increasing, he added. But restrictions on immigration could affect Miami. Overall,  Morris expects “positive growth” under the new government.

“I’m disturbed by what we see in Washington,” Bianco said. “We are the place that people go for stability and investment. Even after the financial crisis – which we caused – people still bring their money here. Trump’s aggressive, un-presidential behavior and constant tweets are creating confusion. No one knows what he will do. They should, at least take away his cell phone.”

Members of a second Bisnow panel saw employees of the future working remotely from home (or anywhere else); open, informal, shared workspaces, and an emphasis on mixed-use “live, work, play” developments. Echoing some of the millennial preferences discussed in the earlier forum, the panelists said these preferences will drive major changes in how and where people work. Innovation and technology will play much greater roles for future employees.

“Why own a car if you can Uber everywhere?” asked Juliana Fernandez, founder of AEI.  “Why own an apartment if you can Airbnb? Where do I want to work today?”

Co-working in shared spaces will likely appeal to people who don’t want to always work from home. Moreover, shared workspaces offer employees and the self-employed opportunities to meet, exchange ideas, talk and collaborate with people from different businesses.

Other members of workplace panel were: Laura Kozelouzek, CEO of Quest Workspaces and the moderator; Grant Killingworth, first vice president, CBRE; John Guitar, senior vice president, Brightline; Natalia Martinez-Kalinina, director, Cambridge Innovation Center, Miami; and Edward Owen, Swire Properties.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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