👏 Snaps of Luxury

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Happy Saturday Highest & Best! Today we’re talking luxury, leasing and lockouts. Here’s the rundown:

💅Fort Lauderdale gets a glam-up
💎 Fancy neighbors at this new Miami Beach office
👋 Eviction woes for the Blue Dog

Let’s get to it!

Fort Lauderdale Going Glam

Fort Lauderdale gets overshadowed in South Florida’s real estate chatter, caught between Miami’s glitz to the south and West Palm Beach’s polish to the north. But the city’s biggest real estate players appear determined to rewrite that narrative.

💎🛳 Just one month ago, Related Group revealed plans to build a “Mini Monaco” at Bahia Mar, Fort Lauderdale’s largest marina, with visions for a St. Regis hotel, (replacing a DoubleTree), yacht slips for 350-foot vessels, and a condo tower where $4.4 million is the starting price.

And then there was this week:

🦺Fort Lauderdale’s City Commission gave the green light to the first phase of the $1.5 billion Nautico District. That’s the plan by developer Cymbal DLT for a new hotel, restaurant and residential neighborhood along the New River waterfront, just south of downtown, at 400 SW Third Ave.

The first phase of construction is triple play of 30-floor towers: a 37-story luxury condo, a 30-story apartment building, and a 30-story hotel. Also: a marina offering “yacht valet” service, where the swipe of a phone app will summon your fully stocked and catered 61-foot yacht, the Sun Sentinel reported this week.

And then….

💰 New York developer Naftali Group — which this year began construction on its first Florida project, a Miami condo skyscraper — announced its second act, this time in Fort Lauderdale.

Naftali launched sales this week for 370 condos at a planned 45-story tower it’s building in partnership with the Viceroy hotel brand.

The Viceroy Residences Fort Lauderdale, will range from studios to sprawling penthouses, with prices that start at $520,000 and go up beyond $10 million, according to the developer. A spa, martial arts studio, karaoke room, and resident-only juice bar are the standard building amenities here. As are indoor and outdoor co-working lounges. Construction will start at the end of 2025.

“There is not as much inventory or competition in Fort Lauderdale,” Miki Naftali, CEO of Naftali Group, told the Real Deal in November. “Yet, there is a lot of demand and money.”

🤔 He has a point. Not a single condo priced at $5 million or above came to market in Broward County last month, according to a new report by appraiser Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. And a year ago, in November 2023, there were also zero listings that came to market in Broward in that lofty price range. Compare that to Miami, where 80 new listings for condos at or above $5 million came to market in November. That’s the most for any month in records dating back to 2019, according to Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel.

Naftali’s Fort Lauderdale site, at 201 N. Federal Highway, (which the developer bought for $20 million in 2022), has authorization from the city to build up to 936 units, across two buildings of over 40 stories, the Real Deal reported.

❗❗But there’s still some unsettled business: Developer Jake Wurzak, who owns the 25-story Dalmar Hotel adjacent to Naftali’s site, is suing the city of Fort Lauderdale over its approval of the towers, arguing that their size and scope violates the city’s master plan, according to the Real Deal. That suit is still pending.

⏪ Catch up on recent Highest & Best issues:

• Big Deals Appeal, Nov. 23, 2024

• Billion Dollar Bay Boom, Nov. 10, 2024

• Office Sours?, Oct. 26, 2024

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Boca Dreams on the Rocks for this Blue Dog

Not every New York-to-Florida move works out.

The Blue Dog Cookhouse and Bar is finding out the hard way.

The Manhattan-based restaurant, which opened its first Florida location in 2022, is in a legal showdown with the nation’s largest mall landlord, Simon Property Group, after falling behind on its rent at Boca Raton’s Town Center mall.

The trouble started in May, when Blue Dog, which leased a 5,600-square-foot space for $34,100 a month at the Simon-owned mall, defaulted on its rent. Then the restaurant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 15 — exactly one hour before a court-ordered deadline to pay up or face eviction.

Since then, the checks haven’t come, and the restaurant is on the hook for over $128,000 in back rent.

This week a federal bankruptcy court lowered the boom: it ordered Blue Dog to cover November and December’s obligations by December 15—or face eviction from the mall.

(Which, let’s be honest, is a little awkward—especially when Auntie Anne’s is still there holding down the fort).

In its bankruptcy filings, Blue Dog blamed its financial woes on a series of challenges, including the classic curveball: embezzlement by management. The restaurant said it bounced back from that hurdle, but a slump in business over the summer pushed it into default. Blue Dog is now hoping to use Chapter 11 to restructure over $700,000 in debts and stay in its prime Boca location.

Simon, however, has other thoughts. The mall owner is seeking more than $143,700 in unpaid rent and legal costs, along with permission to evict Blue Dog if payments aren’t made by Dec. 15.

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Love Thy Neighbors

If you could pick your neighbors, would you choose one with a Lamborghini, a yacht, or a luxury watch collection?

Ares Management Corp gets all three. The Los Angeles-based investment giant is moving into approximately 12,000 square feet at Eighteen Sunset, a new office building in Miami Beach that’s set to open by the end of the year, the Business Journal reported.

Ares, which manages $464 billion in assets, gets an equally exclusive group of neighbors at the now fully-leased building. The directory reads like a sponsor list for a yacht race:

Lamborghini will open a ground-floor showroom in the building. Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet is leasing the topmost floor, with plans for a retail shop. Yacht brokerage Kitson Yachts is also a tenant, alongside investment manager Pretium Partners, a New York-based firm with $50 billion in assets under management, according to the Business Journal.

For Ares, this move marks a physical foothold in South Florida to add to its growing financial commitments there —such as its $225 million investment in Inter Miami, the area’s professional soccer team, where Lionel Messi plays.

Miami Beach commands the second-highest office rents in the greater Miami area. The average asking rate for Class A office in the neighborhood was $100.21 per square foot in the third quarter — a 30% jump from a year earlier, according to brokerage CBRE.

The sharp annual increase was “predominantly” due to the leasing of Eighteen Sunset where asking rents hover at $190 per square foot, CBRE said.

Eighteen Sunset was developed by Deco Capital Group and RWN Real Estate Partners.

That’s it for today!

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