Be Flexible, Office

Creative office space is one thing, but now that South Florida's got one of the hotter local economies in the country, office tenants are looking for flexible office space, brokers tell us—space in which it's easier to grow. (So make sure the space has plenty of water and sunlight.)

When it comes to flexibility, International Place I in the Sawgrass International Corporate Park has an on campus ace-in-the-hole in the form of a Regus Business Center—one of an international chain of office suite properties that lease to small tenants—until they’re ready to become larger tenants. (Like an incubator or a Triple A baseball team.) Many tenants eventually outgrow their executive suite-style offices, Taylor & Mathis director of leasing Donna Korn explains (second from left). For example: Resort management firm Playa Resorts Management USA recently inked a 6,000 SF lease at International Place I, as it prepares to make the jump from Regus Business Center. Donna and colleague Jennifer Gemma repped International Place's owner, the Brookdale Group, with Rick Hansen of EWM of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell, repping the tenant.

Stiles Realty director Madelayne Garcia tells us that over the last 12 months, she's repped the owner of the 175k SF Commercial Place I & II in Fort Lauderdale in 47k SF of new leases and renewals, mainly from large and midsize users looking for flexible space. One recent large lease involved HDR Engineering taking 10k SF, with Keith Edelman and Scott Goldstein of JLL repping the tenant.