Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

A new approach to dry cleaning in South Florida

Salomon Mishaan in 2000 tried a new concept for dry cleaning with his Hollywood-based OXXO Care Cleaners: Open-air stores, 24/7 service via an ATM-style pickup/dropoff and a GreenEarth liquid silicone solvent. He also has a phone app for scheduling pickups, delivery, tracking tickets and paying.

Mishaan says dry cleaners haven’t innovated in half a century and still use steam presses that burn clothes and perchloroethylene that leaves a smell and fades colors. GreenEarth is a liquefied silicone — think liquefied sand — that he says is non-hazardous and non-toxic, breaking down into sand, water and carbon dioxide if released to the environment, leaving no “dry cleaning” smell. He has three company-owned stores and 57 franchisee stores domestically and in Indonesia. Expansion plans include Florida, Texas, Georgia and the northeast U.S. and Latin America.

Business Briefs for Southeast Florida

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

  • An area of the newly incorporated Village of Indiantown was designated a low-tax opportunity zone, a federal and state designation that encourages private investment and job creation through tax incentives.
  • Allegany Franciscan Ministries of Florida is awarding $415,000 in scholarships for career training for 176 residents of Lincoln Park in Fort Pierce.

HEALTH CARE

  • Weston-based Cantex Pharmaceuticals received “fast track designation” from the Food and Drug Administration for a treatment for patients over 60 with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia. Fast-track designation is meant to expedite review of drugs that fill an unmet need for treating a serious condition.
  • The National Institute on Drug Abuse awarded a five-year, $3.68-million grant to Jupiter-based Scripps Florida researchers Laura Bohn and Thomas Bannister to advance their work on safer pain medications.
  • Martin Health System has proposed building a stroke, brain, spinal and neurology treatment facility near Traditional Medical Center in Port St. Lucie. It’s seeking tax incentives and impact-fee relief from Port St. Lucie.

RETAIL

  • Timothy J. Whall retired as CEO of Boca Raton-based ADT. President Jim D. DeVries will succeed him.
  • Mike Jackson is retiring after almost two decades as CEO of AutoNation. He becomes executive chairman.

TRANSPORTATION

  • Private intercity passenger rail company Brightline asked officials in Stuart, Fort Pierce, Sebastian and Vero Beach for help identifying sites for train stations in their towns. Brightline has stops in downtown Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach and is extending service to Orlando International Airport. As originally conceived, there were to be no stops between West Palm Beach and Orlando. Some cities and counties north of West Palm Beach have fought against the rail service.

ENTERTAINMENT

REAL ESTATE

  • Downtown Fort Lauderdale is seeing construction of the 550 Building and Stiles’ The Main on Las Olas, which has an office component.
  • Colliers International says 3,000 luxury rental units are under construction in downtown Fort Lauderdale, marketed to those “wanting a different pace than Miami.”
  • Outside downtown Fort Lauderdale, a 353-acre uptown urban village plan in the Cypress Creek corridor would allow 2,560 units and 225,000 square feet of retail.
  • Palm Beach developers in a recent quarter broke ground on 352,500 square feet in new office buildings slated for completion in the next three years, including two high-profile projects in Delray Beach. Big recent deals include Mobile Health leasing 54,000 square feet in Boca. Palm Beach Gardens is seeing DiVosta’s 222,000-sq.-ft. Valencia Cay at Riverland Gardens Corporate Center under way, the first new class A offering in the north county submarket since 2014, says Avison Young.
  • As of August, residential real estate in the Fort Lauderdale market was running 14.3% above longterm pricing trends while West Palm Beach was up 15.6%, according to Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business. Real estate economist and professor Ken Johnson tracks how prices change from repeat sales. Annualized property prices have increased in the last year by 10% in Fort Lauderdale and 8% in West Palm Beach. He says prices aren’t anywhere near the 2007 crash level when Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach were 63.4% and 58.3%, respectively, above the long-term trend.
  • Home builder GL Homes opened its 4,000-acre Riverland development. The 11,700-home project features golf-cart paths and a separate walkingcycling trail. GL sold 51 homes the day of its grand opening in August for Valencia Cay, the project’s 55-plus development slated for 1,071 homes with prices from the low $200,000s to mid-$400,000s.

Broward County Office Market
(classes A and B, 2nd quarter)

  • Total Inventory: 32,449,134 square feet
  • Vacancy: 9.42%
  • Lease Rate: $31.01
  • Notable: Broward’s population is growing at an annualized rate of 1.3%.

Source: Avison Young

Broward Industrial Market

  • Total Inventory: 93,878,266 square feet
  • Vacancy: 3.9%
  • Lease Rate: $8.29
  • Notable: Secondquarter sales activity totaled $199.7 million in 24 transactions.

Source: CBRE

Palm Beach County Office Market
(classes A and B, 2nd quarter)

  • Total Inventory: 27,588,610 square feet
  • Vacancy: 11.2%
  • Lease Rate: $33.85
  • Notable: The second quarter saw $126.3 million in total office investment.

Source: Avison Young

Palm Beach Industrial Market

  • Inventory: 46,453,268 square feet
  • Vacancy: 2.6%
  • Lease Rate: $9.57
  • Notable: The second quarter saw 11 transactions totaling $29.2 million.

Source: CBRE

 

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