|
South Florida Business Journal Awards 2003 "Deal of Year" to Swerdlow Boca Developers Group for Biscayne Landing
-Biscayne Lease Wins Out Over Every Category to Take Overall Prize-
Released December 4, 2003
Coconut Grove, Fla. - Swerdlow Group and its multifamily development
partner, Boca Developers, (collectively Swerdlow Boca Developers Group)
today announced that they have been awarded the South Florida Business
Journal's prestigious Best Overall Deal of the Year
for the monumental Biscayne Landing land lease they negotiated with
the City of North Miami for a 193-acre, multi-billion dollar mixed-use
development that is expected to have a far reaching impact on North
Miami for years to come. The award was announced at a special ceremonial
dinner that acknowledged over three dozen of the most important commercial
real estate deals in South Florida this past year, with Biscayne Landing
taking top honors in its category and top honors overall. Biscayne's
top prize was attributed to the complexity and size of the deal, the
risk involved, and the deal's enormous economic impact on South Florida.
South Florida Business Journal's Publisher, Gary Press, presented
the award.
Story Behind Biscayne Landing's Top Honors
The City of North Miami was a city struggling with a ballooning population
and a decreasing tax base, but they had something very rare along the
eastern corridor of South Florida -- a 193-acre parcel of undeveloped
land in a fabulous location, right along Biscayne Bay in the heart of
North Miami. Viewing the site as a springboard for redevelopment, the
City chose Swerdlow Group and Boca Developers as the most capable development
team to help recognize the great potential of the site.
Swerdlow Boca Developers Goup negotiated a 200-year ground lease for
the 193-acre site, a public/private venture with the City, with plans
for an over $2 billion mixed-used residential community. Called "Biscayne
Landing", the community is master planned around a town center
and will have up to 5,000 apartments with amenities such as multiple
club houses, pools and tennis courts along with a 35-acre park featuring
jogging trails, picnic areas, children's playground and more. The 100,000
square foot town center will feature restaurants and other retail amenities,
and a five-acre hotel and conference center will be intended for local
and City use and for joint programs with neighboring Florida International
University.
But it doesn't stop there. With the City's goal in mind to revitalize
the greater area and serve the public, Swerdlow Boca Developers Group
will also build a local charter school across from the property, 5,000
units of affordable housing within the City, a new library, and a state-of-the-art
Olympic training facility for sports like wrestling, fencing and judo.
These grand plans encompassed some of the most ground-breaking and
far-reaching negotiations anyone in the region had ever witnessed. At
the center of these negotiations were three community groups from the
eastern, central and western sections of the city, working together
with City management to collectively decide their future. Together,
they took part in one of the most public negotiating processes ever,
to the point that after each new draft of negotiating terms were drawn
up, of which there were dozens, there would be "town hall"
meetings for all of the communities to debate. (Usually such negotiations
are done behind closed doors by city managers and attorneys). The communities,
in fact, became such advocates for Swerdlow Boca Developers that they
often chided the City to ease up on them.
The many complicated obstacles included not just the economics of
the deal, but the many off-site considerations such as schools and parks
that would serve the community; the chance to bring in an Olympic training
facility (through an existing relationship Swerdlow Group had with Olympic
governing bodies) that would bring unheralded recreational opportunities
and chances for advancement to the community; the building of a new
library to replace one that would be unseated by the Olympic facility,
and the building of about 5,000 units of affordable housing in different
areas of the City to make sure that the City's plans for revitalization
took into account lower income brackets.
Biscayne Landing received overwhelming endorsement from all parties
involved, is expected to pump many millions of dollars in tax revenue
into the City of North Miami, and is a project that will have a very
broad and incredibly positive impact on the City and its surrounding
communities.
Swerdlow Group Background
Swerdlow Group, based in Coconut Grove, Florida, is a private real estate
company involved in a broad range of ownership, development, management
and leasing activities, with a proven track record of over 15 years.
The company has risen to preeminence as one of the most knowledgeable
and experienced development companies in the Southeast, and seeks out
opportunities in undervalued real estate sectors. Swerdlow Group owns
and operates a portfolio of approximately three million square feet
with developments ranging from retail centers, industrial and telecom
properties, to urban revitalization projects including themed city centers
and multifamily residential development.
|
