Welcome to NAI/Merin Hunter Codman's commercial real estate focused press releases, news pickups, market reports, transactions, property and social service event postings.
We’re thrilled that 1 E Broward was nominated for the NAIOP Award of Excellence for “Office Sale of the Year Over $50 Million”. 1 E Broward is a 351,705 SF Class-A office tower in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The $100 million-plus acquisition required extensive teamwork between the Seller, a local operating partner, and an institutional owner.
NAI/Merin Hunter Codman, Inc. would like to recognize CBRE, PCCP, SunTrust Bank, Shutts & Bowen and Kapp Morrison LLP for their parts in this complex transaction.
The Awards of Excellence are held annually and recognize various achievements in the South Florida commercial real estate market.
In addition to awards for the biggest and best of 2018, the evening also celebrated CBRE Senior Vice President Harry Tangalakis, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Congrats to all nominees and winners!
The NAI/Merin Hunter Codman, Inc. team and guests enjoyed the Awards on 3/14/19 at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa.
“SIORs are known around the world as the elite commercial real estate professionals in their respective market and specialty,” said Robert G. Thornburgh, SIOR’s Global President. “The Top Transaction Award Winners have truly distinguished themselves as the best of the best in the industry. We would like to congratulate all the recipients of this tremendous honor and for continuously delivering extraordinary results to their clients throughout the year.”
The top five transactions of the year are:
David Schmidt, SIOR, and Stephen Gibson, SIOR, both of Colliers International, arranged the $245 million sale of 445,058 square feet of office space in Santa Clara, California;
Damian Rivera, SIOR, of ESRP arranged the $110 million lease of 1,252,908 square feet of office space in Plano, Texas;
Neil Merin, SIOR, CCIM, of NAI Merin Hunter Codman arranged the $108.5 million sale of 351,705 square feet of office space in Fort Lauderdale, Florida;
Mark Detmer, SIOR, CCIM and Bo Mills, SIOR, of JLL arranged the $98 million sale of 1,009,387 square feet of industrial space in Phoenix, Arizona;
Mark Zorn, SIOR, of Colliers International arranged the $94.2 million sale of 702,663 square feet of industrial space in Rialto, California.
SIOR has also recognized the Top 50 Office Deals, Top 50 Industrial Deals, Top 10 Office Sales, Top 10 Office Leases, Top 10 Office Investment and Top 10 Industrial Investment. For a complete list of the 2018 SIOR Top Transaction lists, click here.
Call it the Facebook effect. New high-tech campuses in California built by social media giant Facebook and search engine Google have spurred workplace makeovers across the nation, and building owners have taken notice. In those campuses, the key is to make the workplace a fun place to hang out, with game tables and available food, with one benefit being that workers may hang around the workplace longer. As more offices adopt the practice, others feel the need to keep up.
Pexels.com/Marc Mueller
Savvy landlords are giving their office buildings a sense of place and making them sites for “playful entertainment,” said Neil Merin, chairman of the NAI / Merin Hunter Codman brokerage in West Palm Beach, Florida. “That’s the way people prefer to work today,” Merin said.
Out with the Palm Beach Post (campus) and in with The Press
— NAI/Merin Hunter Codman tapped to manage and lease former 300,000 square foot Palm Beach post campus. —
West Palm
Beach, Fla. – NAI/Merin
Hunter Codman, Palm Beach County’s leading commercial real estate firm, is
proud to announce the property management and leasing assignment of The Press, the
former 300,000+ square foot, 11.4-acre Palm Beach Post campus located at 2751 S
Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. Tricera Capital acquired the campus for $24
million from Palm Beach Post Newspapers, an affiliate of Cox Media Group in
early March 2019.
Tricera Capital, headed by Scott Sherman and Ben Mandell plans to transform the campus, now titled The Press, into a unique and innovative retail, entertainment and office space experience. The Press will consist of two concepts. The property’s warehouse component will be converted into The Shops at The Press and the office building will be transformed into The Workspace at The Press.
“Scott and Ben of Tricera Capital
have vision, determination and knowhow. They are experienced redevelopers who
successfully identify and develop unique and inspiring projects in sometimes
older, over looked areas. Areas that are rich in history with properties that
are begging for their unique stories to be told. NAI/Merin Hunter Codman is
honored to partner with Tricera, to tell the story of The Press”, stated NAI
Merin Hunter Codman Chairman, Neil E. Merin, SIOR, CCIM.
The NAI Merin Hunter Codman leasing team consists of Chairman, Neil E. Merin, SIOR, CCIM and Commercial Associates Christopher T. Smith and Jaime Chamberlin. To learn more about leasing opportunities please call 561-471-8000.
MHC and Fairway Office Center are happy to have hosted the highly anticipated broker event of the year, our 7th Annual 2019 Honda Classic luncheon.
Our exclusive guests par-tee’d at the 7108 Fairway building with a gourmet BBQ lunch, libations and prizes. After plenty of fun, food and laughs the brokers were shuttled to PGA National where they received Bear Trap access to enjoy the tournament.
This eagerly awaited event aims to showcase the available Class-A office space at Fairway Office Center. Fairway consists of three office buildings situated on a 16-acre campus within the PGA National Resort and Spa Community. Click here for more property information and to view current availabilities.
We’re so excited to share our volunteer schedule for this year and look forward to giving back to our community through philanthropic work with the following local organizations.
Excerpt from the Daily Business Review article by Lidia Dinkova; published 2/25/19.
Trophy office towers have been trading across South Florida in spite of the regional market slowing down after five years of robust growth.
“In South Florida in general, (we are) attracted to the job growth and the population growth,” said Kevin Chin, senior vice president with PCCP LLC, which bought two South Florida office towers last year. “There is substantial development going on in downtown.”
The real estate finance and investment management firm with offices in California and New York bought downtown Miami’s SunTrust International Center for $127 million and as part of a joint venture bought downtown Fort Lauderdale’s 1 E Broward for $108.5 million.
1 E Broward “is a well-leased building. It’s the closest office building to Brightline, so we thought that was attractive as well,” Chin, who is based in New York, said using Virgin Trains’ previous name.
PCCP bought the 19-story Fort Lauderdale building in a joint venture with West Palm Beach-based NAI/Merin Hunter Codman from Ivy Realty.
For NAI/Merin, a commercial real estate services firm that has started buying as well, the purchase was motivated in part by Fort Lauderdale’s growth.
“I can tell you a lot of the young people in my office who formerly would have gravitated to Miami or Delray Beach are now choosing instead to move to Fort Lauderdale,” said Neil Merin, NAI/Merin chairman, and founder.
The purchase also made sense for PCCP because the $127 million price tag is much less than new construction, Chin noted. Both SunTrust and 1 E Broward offer an upside in rental revenue, too.
Ivy Realty, which sold 1 E Broward, invested $5 million in renovations in the 1984 tower and raised the occupancy to 91 percent. Since the sale, the rate is up to 93.5 percent.
At the same time, rents have remained below market, according to Merin.
The average now is $18 per square foot, triple net, compared with the average market rate of $30 to $35 per square foot, he said. Rents won’t be increased to the market rate but may hit $28 a square foot.
Aside from the Fort Lauderdale train station, the tower is just south of FATVillage, a once dilapidated warehouse district that’s experienced a rebirth.
“It looks very much like Wynwood five or maybe six years ago,” Merin said, referring to FATVillage. “Instead of being adjacent to the worst neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale, it (1 E Broward) is adjacent to the most attractive neighborhood in the city.”
CoStar shared information about Hinshaw & Culbertson’s 16,696 SF lease renewal at 1 E Broward, facilitated by Max Pawk and Neil Merin, who represented the Landlord. Please find an excerpt below.
Chicago-based law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson has renewed its lease on the 10th floor of the One East Broward office building at 1 E. Broward Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The tenant will remain in its 16,696-square-foot suite under a new five-year deal.
The U.S. law firm has three locations in Florida, including the downtown Miami and Tampa areas. Attorneys in its Fort Lauderdale office in particular specialize in corporate and business law matters, real estate, financial planning, liability and corporate organization, construction litigation, environmental law and labor/employment law, according to its website.
Built in 1984, the 19-story, 351,705-square-foot, 4-Star office tower sits on 4.6 acres in the Downtown Fort Lauderdale submarket of Broward County. The building underwent a common-area renovation in 1999 and it features reserved parking in a subterranean garage, 24-hour availability, an atrium, on-site banking and convenience store, conferencing facilities, a fitness center, restaurant, cafe and other tenant amenities.
We’re incredibly honored that NAI Global has highlighted our firms’ commitment to the community through our annual volunteer efforts in the beautifully written piece below:
West Palm Beach, Florida – It started as a way to connect with people and industry in South Florida over thirty years ago, when NAI Merin Hunter Codman Chairman, Neil E. Merin, SIOR, CCIM was just beginning his commercial real estate career. Back then, community engagement and volunteering was practically the only way professionals, including attorneys and CPAs, could market themselves and their firms.
As Merin’s business grew and thrived, he added partners, staff, and many of the top-performing brokers serving South Florida. While community service had always played a central role in the firm’s activities, it wasn’t until 12 years ago that Merin, his partners and entire company made it a cornerstone of their enterprise. That’s when Merin and two other Palm Beach County business leaders spearheaded the first Get Down to Business Lunch to impress upon the business community the importance of giving back. Since its inception, this signature annual event has doubled in size and raised over $1.2 million dollars in support of Easterseals’ West Palm Beach Igoe-Amar Child Development Center, which provides services for children that are developmentally disabled. Merin was and remains an Honorary member of the Palm Beach Advisory Board for Easterseals and an Honorary Co-Chairman for the Get Down to Business.
“You could say the inception of the Easterseals’ luncheon was the moment when we pivoted as a firm and formally adopted the NAI Merin Hunter Codman Real Leaders program, the firm’s commitment to community service,” said NAI Merin Hunter Codman, Inc. CEO Jordan Paul, which is based in West Palm Beach with regional offices in Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach Gardens and Wellington, FL.
Our REAL Leaders weren’t afraid to get messy at our first volunteer event of the year. On Friday, February 15, our group helped transplant endangered bromeliads and orchids throughout a few different trails.
Grassy Waters Preserve is a 23 square mile wetlands ecosystem that serves as the freshwater supply for the City of West Palm Beach and the towns of South Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island. Grassy Waters was both a key component of the Greater Everglades watershed and the headwaters of the Northwest Fork of the Loxahatchee River.
Grassy Waters remains a pristine remnant of the once great Everglades system and is a mosaic of wetlands, tree islands, and forested hammocks. It’s also home to a variety of native wildlife. Commonly sighted species includ the Everglades snail kite, wood stork, white ibis, great blue heron, white tailed deer, otter, bobcat, and alligator.
Our team had the best time transplanting orchids high along their Swamp Tromp trail, which took us through the wet and muddy cypress swamp. This rugged trail required stepping over and ducking under vegetation, with water as high as our thighs!
We were happy to help out such an important cause and encourage you to see how you can help! Click here to find out more information about volunteer opportunities and enjoy some pictures of our volunteer day below.
