NEWS FRONT
Pembroke Pines Apartments Sell for $193M
PEMBROKE PINES, FL—In what marks South
Florida’s largest multifamily sale in three
years, CB Richard Ellis Investors has
acquired the Resort at Pembroke Pines
for $193.5 million. The 1,520-unit gar-den-style apartment community is nearly
94% occupied.
CBRE Investors acquired the property, which is located about 20 miles
from both Fort Lauderdale and Miami,
from a partnership between Chicago-based investment and management firm
Heitman and the California State
Teachers Retirement System. The partnership has held the multifamily investment since 2005. Greg Engler, president
of Alpharetta, GA-based Engler Financial
Group, represented the sellers in the
transaction, though he declined to comment on its terms. Neither Heitman nor
CalSTRS was available for comment
when contacted.
“We got an attractive discount to
replacement costs,” relates Stephen
Gullo, director of the Multi-Housing
Group for CBRE Investors. “The prop-
erty has two complete sets of amenities,
which gives us the flexibility to sell the
property in different phases at different
points in time.”
South Florida’s multifamily sector is
heating up, with the completion of sev-
eral transactions in the past month
alone. Addison, TX-based commercial
real estate investment firm Behringer
Harvard acquired Parrot’s Landing
Apartments in North Lauderdale;
Chicago-based Equity Residential bought
a 22-acre site from Huizenga Group that
is zoned for 500 multifamily units near
Sawgrass Mills; and Acumen Real Estate
Advisors shelled out $28.5 million for
Sunset Gardens in Kendall.—Jennifer
LeClaire
CHARLOTTE, NC—Bank of America Merrill
Lynch promoted Ron Curtis to president
of its Commercial Real Estate Banking
business. Curtis succeeds Gene Godbold,
who becomes the bank’s new Corporate
Workplace executive.
For more executive moves, please visit
www.globest.com/executivewatch.
Vital Signs
The Orlando apartment sector reached a
turning point in the first half of this year,
but a sustained and vigorous rebound in
primary measures of property performance will not occur until economic
expansion accelerates, according to
Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment
Services. The firm reports that total
employment will increase 0.9% in 2010
with the creation of 8,700 positions, the
first annual job gain since 2007. Last year,
50,100 jobs were eliminated.
07 08 09 0 1
6%
Orlando Apartment Sector Rebounding
Metro Area
Year-over-Year Change
Sources: Marcus & Millichap Research Services, BLS, Economy.com
Miami Bets Big on the Biotech Sector
For years, South Florida’s business and civic leaders have been
promoting Miami as a gateway city. But the region’s economic
reliance on the tourism and residential real estate industries
has meant that when the economy recedes—as was the case
over the past two years—Miami finds itself waiting out the
downturn until the next boom.
Recognizing that a truly international
city requires a diverse economy capable of
riding out down cycles, Miami is now turning to the life sciences
and biotechnology sector as the proverbial
third-leg of the economic stool—with the
region’s proximity to the Americas playing
a key role in that plan.
At the center of this big bet on biotech is
the University of Miami Life Science & Technology Park, a state-of-the-art research complex underway in Miami’s Health District.
A predominantly privately funded project developed in association with the University of Miami, the park is drawing interest
among knowledge-based research and product-development
teams seeking to advance the creation and commercialization of
life science and technology products, services and treatments.
By Joe Reagan
The park’s first phase is a 252,000-square-foot LEED Gold
pre-certified building that will house wet and dry labs, offices,
retail and lab-ready suites ideal for research-based tenants
seeking turnkey workspace. The building topped-off construction in mid-September and is now 40% leased, with completion scheduled for mid-2011. The project’s current master
plan calls for five buildings totaling as much as two million
square feet, which would make it the largest facility of its kind
in South Florida.
Our firm set its sights on Miami (after finding success building similar research parks with universities in Baltimore,
Philadelphia and Chicago) in large part because of the
University of Miami’s initiatives. An added advantage is Miami’s
existing business infrastructure and potential as a global center for scientific innovation.
In contrast with other life science clusters across the nation,
the UMLSTP is just minutes away from an international airport and Downtown Miami, one of the country’s largest centers of global banking and commerce.
Joe Reagan is vice president of Wexford Science & Technology LLC in
Hanover, MD. He may be contacted at jreagan@wexfordequities.com. The
views expressed here are the author’s own.
