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VOLUNTEER EVENT: Red Apple Supply Store

Our CEO and Board Member of the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County, Jordan Paul, along with MHC REAL Leaders, spent the morning of Friday, July 27th volunteering at the Education Foundation’s Red Apple Supplies Store. Volunteers helped organize the warehouse and prepare school supplies for local teachers for the upcoming 2018-2019 school year.

We often hear stories of teachers coming out of pocket to purchase essential school supplies. To address this issue, the Education Foundation launched Red Apple Supplies in 2016. Red Apple Supplies is a store which arms teachers of Title I Palm Beach County Schools with free resources for their students and classrooms. They now support 32 schools where 95-100% of the students come from low-income families who find it difficult to afford essential school supplies. Since it’s inception, Red Apple Supplies has given away over $460,750 in free supplies.

NAI/Merin Hunter Codman, a proud supporter of the Education Foundation, played a critical role in the launch of Red Apple Supplies by identifying the store’s site and negotiating the initial lease. We were thrilled to be able to support such a wonderful cause again through a great morning of social service and camaraderie.

Click here to learn more about Red Apple Supplies and learn how you can make a difference supporting public education.

 

 

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PRESS RELEASE: Hollywood Commerce Center Sells for $7,350,000 to New York Developer/Re-Developer

NAI/Merin Hunter Codman represented the purchaser of Hollywood Commerce Center

West Palm Beach, Fla. – NAI/Merin Hunter Codman, Inc., Palm Beach County’s leading commercial real estate services firm, represented Avid Asset Properties Hollywood, LLC, an entity controlled by noted New York investor Steven Samuels, in the purchase of Hollywood Commerce Center. The 60,000-square foot flex property sits on 2.5 acres and is located at 3301 N 29th Avenue, 3300 N 28th Terrace and 2850 Green Street, Hollywood, FL 33020. NAI/Merin Hunter Codman Principal, Spencer Grossman and Senior Associate, Jeff Cebula represented the purchaser. The Seller, OTW II, LLC was represented by Ted Konigsberg, SIOR of Infinity Commercial Real Estate.

Mr. Samuels, Principal of Avid Asset Management in New York and Zoning Commissioner of the Village of Atlantic Beach, New York, has redeveloped hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial properties in the Brooklyn, Holbrook, Lake Success and Long Beach, New York city markets.

Jordan Paul, CEO of NAI/Merin Hunter Codman said, “Outstanding teamwork and customer service matched a quality investor with a budding redevelopment opportunity. Jeff Cebula, who recently joined the firm after relocating from New York, had a client looking to secure a redevelopment investment opportunity in the South Florida market as part of a 1031 Exchange. To best serve his client, Jeff partnered with NAI/Merin Hunter Codman Principal and strategic advisory expert, Spencer Grossman. Spencer worked to identify area investment properties, negotiate and finally execute the transaction. This is a perfect example of NAI/Merin Hunter Codman’s team approach providing expert advisory and maximum value to property investors, locally and nationally.”

Hollywood Commerce Center, located across I-95 from Oakwood Plaza and the under-construction Dania Point development, was built in 1968 and recently renovated. The two-story property is fully air conditioned, offers large electric capacity, 8 dock-high doors, up to 24-foot clearance in the distribution space and features showroom and retail components. The second floor consists of elevator serviced offices.

CLICK HERE to view the full press release.

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Building along Interstate 95 in Broward to be renovated after $7M deal

New York real estate investor Steve Samuels acquired an industrial/office building along Interstate 95 in Hollywood and will make a significant investment in renovations.

The property was previously envisioned as a trampoline park called Off the Wall, but the seller recognized the opportunity to make a considerable profit by selling the property, said Ted Konigsberg of Infinity Commercial Real Estate, which represented seller OTW II LLC. The company is led by Samuel Eyal Yecutieli and Ervin Andrei Mendel.

The 55,221-square-foot building, at 2850 Greene St., was acquired by Avid Asset Properties Hollywood, managed by Samuels, for $7.35 million. It last traded for $5 million in 2016.

Jeff Cebula and Spencer Grossman of NAI Merin Hunter Codman represented the buyer.

Konigsberg said Samuels will spend over $1 million reconfiguring the building to appeal to a broader array of tenants, such as designers, showrooms and professional firms. The two-story building is half showroom and half office space.

This area of Hollywood has attracted many design firms, some of which left the Design Center of the Americas, Konigsberg said.

“I am very excited about the potential of this iconic building,” Samuels said. “Working with the city of Hollywood, we will be reconfiguring the entire site. It’s our intention to bring a new and innovative concept to the area.”

Samuels has previously redeveloped industrial buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

CLICK HERE to read the full SFBJ article.

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Need a big box? Four empty PBC retail spaces fit the bill

Article by Jeff Ostrowski – Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Entrepreneur Hannah Wickins scoured Palm Beach County for space suitable for the indoor pet park that she calls “Disney World for dogs.” She settled on the long-empty Home Depot Expo at Woolbright Road and Interstate 95 in Boynton Beach. Wickins signed a bargain lease for 20,000 square feet for her Dog Activity World Group.

“It was a very desolated plaza,” Wickins said. “But the location had potential. I knew it was only a matter of time before that plaza turns around.”

Indeed. The former Home Depot Expo space has sat empty for nearly a decade. But in a recent flurry of activity, Wickins leased the 20,000 square feet at the south end of the property, and Illinois-based retailer Camping World this spring bought the other 88,000 square feet for $8.25 million.

Wickins hopes both tenants will open for the 2018 holiday season.

One empty big box has been filled, but other merchants’ struggles have emptied big boxes in Palm Beach County. Some call it “retail Armageddon.” The closing of a Sam’s Club and the collapse of the Gander Mountain and Toys R Us chains have vacated hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail space with tens of millions of dollars of taxable value in Palm Beach County alone.

As Wickins’ dog park and daycare illustrates, many of the new tenants for retail space aren’t traditional retailers. A trampoline park is moving into a former HHGregg electronics store in Wellington. Elsewhere, churches, charter schools, gyms and co-working spaces have filled empty stores.

“A lot of these boxes will become more focused on entertainment,” said commercial real estate broker Bill Reichel of Reichel Realty in Palm Beach Gardens.

Even as Amazon has decimated many merchants, Palm Beach County’s retail vacancy rate remains in the single digits. After Sports Authority closed its locations in 2016, its Palm Beach County spaces were filled by such retailers as Rooms to Go, HomeGoods and Burlington Coat Factory.

The return of homebuilding is buoying Palm Beach County’s retail market, said Bruce Corn of NAI/Merin Hunter Codman.

“They’re building again – and they’re building a lot,” Corn said. “With residential comes retail.”

CLICK HERE to view the full article and see which spaces are available.

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NAI/Merin Hunter Codman Office Renovations

As a leading commercial real estate firm, we know office space. Check out our new, invigorating and inspiring West Palm Beach office. The primary designer was our very own company Chairman, Neil. E. Merin – who infused today’s modern style with rustic charm. With this renovation we’ve not only changed the environment in which we work, but we’ve also changed how we do business.

Every square inch invites collaboration, creativity (white board walls) and fun (pool table and putting green); while the telephone booths, relaxation, club, and conference rooms offer privacy. Aside from the views, the central focal point, an area perfect for hosting firm and charitable events, is the café, complete with a 24’ red bar, 60‐specialty beverage touch coffee machine and industrial refrigerators.

This shift towards a more collaborative and flexible work space is taking over and with good reason. An innovative office design can inspire employees to do their best work. To keep employees engaged, a work space needs to be designed with that goal in mind.

Enjoy the video below showing our transformation.

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NAI Florida Semi-Annual PDM Meeting

Thank you NAI Florida Principals for joining NAI/Merin Hunter Codman in our NEW West Palm Beach office for the semi-annual NAI Florida PDM meeting, dinner and golf tournament! On June 25-26th, over 25 executives and staff from several NAI Florida offices joined us for this great occasion to brainstorm, get market updates, discuss current efforts, share successes and plan to keep a strong NAI Florida presence. Attendees includes execs from as far north as Jacksonville to as far south as the Bahamas and Puerto Rico.

Thank you again to NAI Florida’s golf tournament winners, Slaton Murray of NAI Talcor and Josh Rodstein of NAI Miami, for donating their $500 winnings to our local charity, the Palm Beach County Education Foundation.

Click here to learn more about NAI Florida and enjoy pictures below.

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Q&A: NAI Chairman and South Florida Broker Neil Merin on Bubbies, Bubbas and Brightline

NAI/Merin Hunter Codman Exec Expresses Concern About Rise in Sublease Space

In the 1970s, Neil Merin was making $160 a week running a production line for a toy manufacturer in the Northeast when he quit to move to Palm Beach County for a property manager position that paid 10 percent more.

The new gig would be short-lived.

“The company I went to work for down here went out of business six months after I joined, so I went and got a real estate license and started selling properties in 1976,” he explained.

Merin would start West Palm Beach-based NAI / Merin Hunter Codman in 1982, and today he is one of South Florida’s longest-tenured commercial real estate brokers.

While he handles all aspects of the brokerage industry, his specialty is the sale and leasing of office and retail properties. Just in the past two decades, Merin has represented tenants and landlords in negotiations totaling more than 30 million square feet and values exceeding $7 billion.

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EVENT: BDB Real Estate Round Table at Centurion Tower

Our firm was thrilled to have sponsored and hosted the May 16th Business Development Board Real Estate Round Table at our very own home in West Palm Beach, Centurion Tower. Over 70 guests enjoyed networking and breakfast in our new 7th-floor suite before heading to our 6th-floor vacancy for the “Planes, Trains & Autonomous Vehicles” panel discussion. The informative panel covered how recent trends and transportation changes could impact commercial real estate in our area.

Firm Chairman, Neil E. Merin, SIOR, CCIM, moderated the panel which included Lily Elefteriadou, Ph.D., Director of the University of Florida Transportation Institute, Patrick Goddard, President, Brightline, Stacy Miller, Director of Transportation Development, F.D.O.T., Bruce Pelly, Executive Director, Palm Beach County Department of Airports and Nick Uhren, Executive Director, Palm Beach County Transportation Planning Agency.

Centurion Tower was an ideal place to host the event, as it features a convenient central location close to I-95 with a covered parking garage and on-site security. Click here to learn more information about Centurion Tower and to see the space available for lease.

 

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