Avison Young Nabs Largest Lease Assignment in Florida in Years

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Greg Martin, Avison Young principal

Avison Young has been awarded what reportedly is the largest office leasing assignment in Florida in recent years, a 940,319-square-foot portfolio of nine Class A buildings in Broward County, AY announced Wednesday. The portfolio, which includes a vacant 6.2-acre parcel zoned for a three-story, 87,000-square-foot office building, brings AY’s total office leasing portfolio in Florida to 25 million square feet.

The leasing assignment comes from the portfolio’s new owners, Starwood Capital, Trinity Capital Advisors and Vanderbilt Office Properties, which acquired the portfolio from Duke Realty earlier this year as part of Duke’s move away from suburban office properties to focus on industrial and medical office space.

The properties are 89 percent occupied overall, with more than 100,000 square feet available for direct lease and nearly 90,000 square feet available for sublease. AY will handle both the direct-lease and sublease space, and Avison Young principal Greg Martin and vice president Justin Cope will lead those efforts.

“This transaction represents the entrance of new-to-market equity partners and solidifies South Florida as a stable location for this type of investment,” Martin told Commercial Property Executive. “Our historical knowledge of the area, combined with our platform and partners, were key factors in …securing this assignment.”

The portfolio comprises:

• Crossroads Business Park 1, 8201 Peters Road, Plantation
• Crossroads Business Park 2, 8151 Peters Road, Plantation
• Crossroads Business Park 3, 8100 S.W. 10th St., Plantation
• Crossroads Business Park 4, 8050 S.W. 10th St., Plantation
• Sawgrass Commerce Center A, 13800 N.W. 14th St., Sunrise
• Sawgrass Commerce Center B, 14050 N.W. 14th St., Sunrise
• Sawgrass Pointe I, 1000 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway, Sunrise
• Sawgrass Pointe II, 1200 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway, Sunrise
• Park Central Building I, 1100 Park Central Blvd. S., Pompano Beach

“One of the unique aspects of this portfolio is the opportunity to build another building in Sunrise, Sawgrass Pointe III,” Martin told CPE. “We are confident that the market dynamics are reaching a point where new construction is close.”

“The Broward market is very active at this time, with a number of expansion and relocation transactions,” he added. “Many tenants are looking at their future projections with confidence and are realizing that they will need more space to accommodate their growth and employment needs in the near future. Rental rates are increasing, and there seems to be limited supply of large quality blocks of space to accommodate the demand. This is why I am excited about the prospects of new construction.”