First SF Trader Joe’s inks lease in Pinecrest

September 20, 2012 03:45PM

9205 South Dixie Highway

It’s happened: South Florida will finally see its first Trader Joe’s open in Pinecrest, the Miami Herald reported. South Florida has been pining for a Trader Joe’s since January when West Palm Beach city commissioners considered renaming their town Trader Joe’s. Now the California-based company has inked a lease at 9205 South Dixie Highway for approximately 13,500 square feet. The store is scheduled to open sometime next year.

“It’s a great location and a wonderful neighborhood that seemed like a great fit for us,” Alison Mochizuki, a Trader Joe’s spokesperson, said.

The grocer has been scouting South Florida locations for years but until now had failed to commit to a location. Last month it was speculated that a Trader Joe’s could open in Palm Beach Gardens’ PGA Plaza.[Miami Herald] – Christopher Cameron

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Perez Trading signs 280,000-square-foot lease with Prologis — marking largest deal of 2012

September 20, 2012 03:00PM 

By Alexander Britell

Prologis Gratigny

Perez Trading has signed a deal to lease 280,601 square feet at Prologis Gratigny Industrial Park, making it South Florida’s largest industrial lease thus far in 2012. The deal comes just a few weeks after the previous 2012 high, a 200,214-square-foot lease by AeroTurbine in Broward.

“The North Dade, North Central Dade market is very strong, and Miami-Dade County is very strong,” Smith told The Real Deal. But these submarkets in North Dade and Medley have also come roaring back — rents are up, occupancy is up and if you’re a tenant in the [75,000]  to 150,000-square-foot range, there’s not a lot to choose from.”

Landlord Prologis was represented by Cushman & Wakefield directors Brian Smith and Audley Bosch. Jones Lang LaSalle’s Steve Medwin, managing director, and Nick Wigoda, vice president, represented Perez Trading.

Cushman said it had been marketing the building for approximately six months.

“The timing just worked out,” Smith said. “They were in need of expansion, the building was right side, and it had some critical things they needed, like rail, and surplus land.”

The lease also brought the 2 million-square-foot Prologis Gratigny Industrial Park, which is located at 3380 NW 114th Street in Miami, to 100 percent occupancy.

Smith and Bosch previously represented the park in a 33,500-square-foot lease by Falcon Distribution earlier this year.

“I do think you’re going to see inventory dwindling [in North Dade],” Smith said. “That market is going to continue to get tighter — landlords are tightening the squeeze, and they’re not giving away the house to keep tenants.”

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Developments prepare to reach mile into the sky

September 19, 2012 03:45PM

The Dubai skyline with Burj Khalifa, center.

A mile-high skyscraper may be closer to reality than most people think. By 2020, construction could be underway on such a structure for completion by 2025, Timothy Johnson, the chairman of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, told Bloomberg News.

The tallest tower today is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which extends just beyond half a mile in the air. The Kingdom Tower in Jeddah will overtake the 1 kilometer milestone when it’s completed in 2018, leaving only the mile marker to be surpassed. In fact, before the recession, one Middle Eastern developer in China had eyes on building a 1.5-mile tower, Johnson said.

The tallest towers are being built in China, which has nine of the world’s highest 20 buildings under construction, and the Middle East, where Dubai, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates combine for five of the 20 tallest buildings.

The push for the tallest tower is largely an ego-driven pursuit, according to Johnson. Nations that use such structures to flaunt their wealth, largely achieved through the oil trade, need only to overcome challenges posed by traditional construction material and elevators.

“Technologically, mile-high buildings are feasible to do, you can build them now,” Johnson said. “Maybe the one-mile building will be in Africa, a place that needs to somehow say ‘look, we are also here.’” [Bloomberg] — Adam Fusfeld

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Forbes’ billionaires list: which real estate magnates made it?

September 20, 2012 02:15PM

From left: real estate billionaires Donald Trump, Mort Zuckerman and Stephen Schwarzman

Forbes annual billionaire list is out, and Richard LeFrak and the Blackstone Group’s Stephen Schwarzman tied for the top spot occupied by a real estate baron, the New York Observer reported. Both men show a net worth of $5.2 billion, good for the 63rd spot on the list, according to Forbes.

Other real estate pros on the list include Related’s Steven Ross, at $4.4 billion, Hartz Mountain Industries’ Leonard Stern, at $4.2 billion, and attorney Sheldon Solow, at $3.5 billion.

Donald Trump was 128th overall with a reported $3.1 billion — a figure that has beendisputed. John Catsimatidis, whose reported interest in the Food Emporium chain may soon diminish his fortune of $3 billion, took the 132nd spot. Tishman Speyer’s Jerry Speyer was tied with him.

New York Daily News  head Mort Zuckerman, of Boston Properties, was ranked 190 with $2.4 billion. [NYO] – Guelda Voien

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Coconut Grove’s Mayfair Hotel to unveil renovations

September 18, 2012 03:00PM

The Mayfair Hotel

The Mayfair Hotel & Spa in Coconut Grove will debut its renovated property this week, the company announced. The 179-room hotel, which first opened in 1985 as the Mayfair House, began the renovations during the summer. Jonathan Eismann’s Spartico restaurant will reopen at the hotel Oct. 15. Saun Lightbourne, executive director of sales and marketing at the Mayfair, said the upgrades were an “effort to return to its former glory.” They also included an overhaul of the pool and its surrounding 15,000-square-foot bar space. — Alexander Britell

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Investment group begins marketing nearly 500 units in the Midtown Miami complex

September 18, 2012 12:45PM

Midtown Miami and Ronald Krongold, managing partner, Gold Krown FinancialMiami’s massive inventory of condos, abandoned by the busted housing market, has nearly vanished and theMidtown Miami complexis now one of the last large blocks of boom-era housing yet to be absorbed. But Midtown is starting to see new life, according to the Miami Herald. The Bush group, an investment group led by Miami investor Ronald Krongold and including former Governor Jeb Bush, has begun marketing nearly 500 condos is the complex.

Last year, the investment group purchased 538 condos in the complex, which is located at the NW 36th Street and Miami Avenue, for $110 million from HSBC. According to study by Goodkin Consulting cited by the Hearld, only an estimated 2,200 of the 22,000 new condos built in the Miami area during the boom remain unsold. Meaning that Krongold’s group, Gold -Krown Financial, controls approximately one in five boom-era units.

“We bought right,” Krongold said. “We’re able to sell at a good profit, but less than anyone else.” Prices in the Midtown complex start at $232,000 and run to $2.4 million, giving an average of about $350 a square foot. [Miami Herald] – Christopher Cameron

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Kardashians eye $5.8M Miami mansion

September 17, 2012 12:45PM

Reality show stars Kim and Kourtney Kardashian are eyeing a $5.8 million Miami mansion, the Daily Mail reported. The celebrity sisters will be moving to Miami for approximately three months while filming their reality spin-off “Kim and Kourtney Take Miami.” The six-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom house sits on over 5,000 square feet of land and features a pool and 100-foot yacht dock – the address is not listed.

The Kardashian are looking for a home rather than a hotel for their short stay because of the recent birth of Kourtney’s second child, Penelope Scotland. However, the Kardashian have yet to close a deal on the property and are currently still shopping around Miami, according to the Daily Mail. [Daily Mail] – Christopher Cameron

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