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Week of September 30, 2004 |
| Developers plan office tower in Park West Sherri C. Ranta A Boca Raton developer and Miami parking-lot owner are joining forces to build a 27-story office tower in the Park West area. The project, 1001 North Miami Avenue, is a joint venture of Royal Palm Communities and land owner Greg Mirmelli. Work on the tower is expected to begin next year with completion in 2007, said Frank Reilly, manager of Sports and Entertainment Realty. Developers say Miami telecommunications firm Terremark Worldwide and the city's Community Redevelopment Agency are interested in leasing 36,000 and 6,000 square feet, respectively. Terremark expressed interest but a deal is not in place, said Ed Jacobsen, president of the firm's subsidiary Terremark Technology Contractors. "We'd love to have Class A office space in the neighborhood," Mr. Jacobsen said. "We need office space, and our customers might need space in the future." The building would be about a block from Technology Center of the Americas, 50 NE Ninth St., where Terremark's network-access point is housed. Steve Magenheimer, who specializes in office leasing and sales in South Florida, said the project would be a pioneer in Park West, north of the Central Business District. "That whole area has been rough for years," he said. "It's improving, but it's still in transition." Plans for 1001 North Miami Avenue, Mr. Reilly said, include executive suites for small businesses. The idea, he said, is for owners in similar industries to congregate on one floor and share facilities such as conference rooms and a receptionist. "The whole building is for sale," Mr. Reilly said. "Even the Terremark lease will be sold. It's kind of exciting. Most office condos are conversions, not new construction." Terremark Worldwide's interest in a planned office building in Park West could be the catalyst for other tenants to consider the often-overlooked Miami neighborhood. Though the Miami company may lease space in the planned office-condominium building at 1001 N. Miami Ave., developers hope its interest will encourage other office users to consider the area. "The whole building is for sale," said Frank Reilly, a manager with Sports and Entertainment Realty. "Even the Terremark lease will be sold. It's kind of exciting. Most office condos are conversions, not new construction." Office-leasing expert Steve Magenheimer said the building, if constructed, would be a "pioneering project." "That area has been rough for years," he said. "It's improving, but it's still in transition." The new building, expected to begin construction next year with completion in 2007, is about a block from Terremark's NAP of the Americas, a network-access point in the Technology Center of the Americas, 50 NE Ninth St. The lease on Terremark's headquarters, 14,000 square feet at SBS Tower in Coconut Grove, will soon be up for renewal, and the company is looking at its options, said Ed Jacobsen, president of Terremark Technology Contractors, a subsidiary of Terremark Worldwide. "We'd love to have Class A office space in the neighborhood," Mr. Jacobsen said. "We need office space, and our customers might need office space in the future." About 1 million square feet of office-condo projects are planned from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach counties, said Kenneth Weston, a Miami broker specializing in the office-condominium market. Whether they will be built "is anyone's guess," he said. Lower interest rates and the instability of the stock market, Mr. Weston said, makes owning office space more attractive and a trend nationwide. "We've been doing this under the radar for a long time," he said. "More and more people have plans to do this. It's definitely a viable alternative in the marketplace right now. Office condos, he said, work for users who don't expect major fluctuations in the size of their offices. They typically are more suited for the small to midsize user. The concept works well for doctors and dentists, Mr. Weston said, because the costs for interior improvements are typically very high.
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