Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Builders race to capture a trendy crowd: 55-and-up buyers

Builders race to capture a trendy crowd: 55-and-up buyers

Baby boomers, retiring in large numbers, have created a vast market of empty nesters for homebuilders to target by offering active-adult communities that feature moderately priced, low-maintenance homes enriched by a plethora of high-end amenities and community activities. Mike Bachman, a local sales executive with Lennar, the nation’s largest homebuilder, says the key term is “aging in place.” [Source: Business Observer]

Nearly 1,400 apartments to rise near planned American Dream Miami, the nation’s biggest mall

For the South Floridians who may someday work at the proposed American Dream Miami megamall, they will have nearly 1,400 new affordable apartments to choose from as a place to live. The American Dream Miami megamall, which is still in the planning stages, would be the nation’s largest mall, situated near the Broward and Miami-Dade boundary line. And Miami developer David Martin says he intends to build 1,369 apartments not far from the shopping and entertainment behemoth. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Proposed commercial rent tax cut could cost Florida $829M in revenue over 5 years

A proposed bill to reduce commercial rent taxes by 0.5% could result in $829 million in losses in state revenue over the next five fiscal years. The measure would drop the tax rate on commercial rental or licensing fees from 5.5% to 5.0%. State budget experts agreed on the possible multimillion-dollar revenue hit at Friday’s Revenue Estimating Impact Conference. [Source: Florida Politics]

Housing money a rich target for lawmakers — again

With rising home prices driving the demand for affordable housing to levels not seen since before the Great Recession, advocates are rallying behind Gov. Ron DeSantis’s call for putting more state money into building houses and apartments for lower-income residents. But key lawmakers are not ready to commit. The Legislature has siphoned-off $2.3 billion in affordable housing money for other needs over the past two decades and some lawmakers appear ready to do it again. [Source: Daily Commercial]

Trade between U.S. and Latin American countries is boosting industrial real estate

Trade between Latin American countries and the United States is shaping South Florida’s industrial market. The amount of exports and imports traded increased by 9.1% year-over-year in 2018 up to 2.4 million tons, according the 2019 South Florida Industrial Market Outlook report by Houston-based commercial real estate firm Transwestern. [Source: ]

STAT OF THE WEEK
$6.6 million
A billionaire investor bought a food market in Overtown for $6.6 million, expanding his real estate portfolio in Miami. [Source: Miami Herald]

ALSO TRENDING:

› Clearwater office center sells for $15.4 million
A Boston-based company has paid $15.4 million for the Meridian Concourse Center in Clearwater. Although the property has undergone approximately $1.3 million in recent renovations to roofs, HVAC systems, exterior painting and signage, it was marketed as a "value add'' property with room for further improvements that could enable the buyer, Albany Road Real Estate Partners, to raise rents.

› Former Brightline executive forms Miami office real estate company
New players want to play in South Florida’s office market. The Orlando-based office management firm Parkway Property Investments, LLC launched Parkway Real Estate Services in Brickell. John Guitar and Phil Marchese, former Blanca Commercial real estate and railway executives, will provide office leasing, development, redevelopment, asset management and property management services for assets in Miami-Dade County and Broward.

› JEA CEO Aaron Zahn, utility lobbyist are partners in land deal
JEA’s embattled CEO Aaron Zahn and Deno Hicks, a local lobbyist whose firm recently received a $120,000 contract from the city-owned utility, are co-owners in an undeveloped Westside property they are preparing as a site for an industrial warehouse and trying to sell for nearly $2 million.

› Miami Beach sues own board to overturn decision on Crescent Heights’ and Terra’s proposed condo tower
Russell Galbut and David Martin’s quest to build a luxury condo tower at South Beach’s main entrance near the MacArthur Causeway has hit another snag. Miami Beach commissioners approved a development agreement with Galbut’s Crescent Heights for a 519-foot condo tower at 500-600 Alton Road last year. But now city planning officials are attempting to block Terra and Crescent Heights from getting an additional two floors.