I just spent a fantastic day at the Akerman Real Estate Summit at the JW Marriott Marquis Miami. We did a live show on-site, and I had a chance to talk to some of the heaviest real estate hitters in the country.
They covered A LOT of ground. So much, in fact, that you really need to listen to the full show for all of the details.
Here are some of the highlights:
– Vince Signorello, President of Flagler Development Company, said the Florida East Coast Railway is working on All Aboard Florida, an east coast passenger line that will connect Miami to Orlando in the first phase. He said it will help to alleviate traffic congestion in the two largest metro areas in the country’s third-largest state.
– Tom Sittema, CEO of CNL Financial Group, said CNL wants to do more with alternative investment strategies that will make institutional-quality real estate investments available to retail investors. The company will continue to emphasize healthcare and multifamily development, and it will likely move into real estate credit, providing senior and mezzanine financing.
– Richard Bezold, Partner and Chair of the Real Estate Practice Group of Akerman, said the firm’s real estate group is now up to 100 attorneys. The firm will be adding new groups to cover the beverage industry, construction and land use.
– Neisen Kasdin, Miami office Managing Partner of Akerman, said interesting things are happening in transportation. Millennials, and even older generations, are getting used to walking and mass transit. On the horizon, the All Aboard Florida project will have stops in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. And a revival of BayLink is being studied, which would connect Downtown Miami, South Beach and Midtown.
– Steve Owens, President of Swire Properties, said the company’s Brickell City Centre project is bringing good retail alternatives to the Brickell Corridor. Soon to encompass five city blocks, the development will have retail on all sides in an effort to generate a neighborhood feel.
– Steve Polivy, New York office Managing Partner of Akerman, said lots of alternative financing is being used in New York City real estate development. There are many large-scale projects but not enough commercial and institutional sources of capital. The trend is toward EB-5 financing by foreign investors. EB-5 is a key component to almost every major real estate deal being done right now, he said. Commercial banks and venture capitalists are providing bridge financing.
– Paul Travis, Managing Partner of Washington Square Partners, said the only way to justify the cost of new development in New York City is to mix as many uses as possible. Cost to build is now $400 to $500 per square foot. He said his company only works in new emerging areas like Brooklyn and the Bronx.
– Bruce Mosler, Chairman – Global Brokerage of Cushman & Wakefield, said investment in gateway cities is causing record pricing. He expects to see investment move into secondary markets like Dallas, Houston, Seattle and Miami.
– Darryl Parmenter, Chairman and CEO of Parmenter Realty Partners, said vacancy is improving in the U.S. office market, and Houston is leading the way in job growth. Rents there are more than $40 per square foot net. Miami, he said, is emerging as a true world-class city, but it is not a corporate city yet, and office demand is still thin by comparison to first-tier markets.
– Ron Wheeler, CEO of The Sembler Company, said the firm is exercising caution in its development strategy. It is focused on grocery-anchored, drug store and build-to-suit credit deals. A regional center would be possible under the right circumstances, and it would be filled with goods and services that can’t be obtained online. Deals are not as abundant as they were pre-2007, but they are getting done, and Sembler has several in the pipeline.
– Michael Cohn, Regional President of Lennar Commercial Investors, launched this new subsidiary to take Lennar into commercial development, starting with retail. The company is working on several projects in South Florida, and it owns a lot of entitled land in California. The plan, he said, is to product projects in areas that have high barriers to entry and are significantly pre-leased with high-quality tenants.
Click here to listen to the full broadcast from the Akerman Real Estate Summit.
