South Florida’s workplace market has emerged as a examine in contrasts—outlined by headline-grabbing trophy gross sales in downtown cores and a quieter however more and more vital shift towards suburban property and smaller-scale areas.
As of mid-2025, business actual property gross sales throughout the tri-county area surged previous $5.6 billion, with workplace transactions alone accounting for a document $1.4 billion, greater than doubling year-over-year, based on Miami Realtors.
Broward County, led by main Fort Lauderdale workplace offers, posted notably robust development, outpacing neighboring counties in each quantity and transaction velocity. Amid this quickly evolving panorama, operational self-discipline, tenant engagement and strategic repositioning are proving to be vital differentiators for workplace buyers.
NAI Merin Hunter Codman Inc., a neighborhood business actual property brokerage, funding and property administration agency, has been energetic within the South Florida marketplace for greater than three many years. So we requested COO Matt Brown to share his views on the place alternatives lie.
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What tendencies are being underestimated in South Florida’s workplace funding market proper now?
Brown: A notable but typically missed pattern inside the workplace sector is the sustained demand for smaller, amenitized workplace areas and the growing migration towards lower-cost suburban markets. Though a lot consideration stays on premium, trophy workplace buildings, a strong and increasing section consisting of midsize and boutique skilled corporations are looking for trendy, versatile and appropriately scaled environments.
Buyers could not absolutely respect the long-term potential of well-situated suburban workplace properties that cater to tenants prioritizing comfort of commute and proximity to life-style facilities. Moreover, rental price escalation in central enterprise districts, pushed by latest developments in areas equivalent to West Palm Seaside or latest gross sales of Class A workplace property and substantial renovation capital plans in different CBDs, is pricing out a variety of corporations, prompting their relocation to suburban settings or away from prime corridors.
Why has South Florida—particularly Palm Seaside and Broward counties—remained a cornerstone of workplace funding?
Brown: South Florida presents a really perfect mixture of inhabitants and job development, tax benefits and a quality-of-life issue that’s exhausting to copy. Buyers are drawn to the area’s robust lease development, low emptiness charges in Class A property and the chance to capitalize on the continued migration of companies and capital from higher-tax, higher-cost states.
Throughout the 2020-2021 lockdowns, many CEOs and determination makers relocated their corporations from cities like New York and Chicago to South Florida, boosting the native enterprise ecosystem and expertise pool. Though the tempo of migration has slowed, South Florida will not be almost as seasonal because it as soon as was. Palm Seaside and Broward counties are additionally benefiting from a strong pipeline of latest mixed-use tasks, expanded health-care and academic choices.
A lot of your previous successes got here from repositioning underperforming property. What are the primary 90 days of possession like at NAI/MHC?
Brown: Our in-house acquisition, finance, leasing, development and property administration groups coordinate intently to develop strategic plans previous to closing. The preliminary 90 days concentrate on efficient implementation, together with a radical evaluation of every lease, evaluation of tenant rollover dangers and alternatives, evaluation of deferred upkeep and proactive engagement with the prevailing tenant base.
Tenant engagement is important. Starting with the due diligence course of, we conduct interviews with tenants to ascertain clear communication, collect useful suggestions for enchancment, assess house utilization and enterprise well being, and determine potential renewal or enlargement alternatives.
Moreover, we work alongside our brokerage and advertising and marketing groups to create a focused technique that reintroduces the property, communicates new possession and administration, and highlights upcoming property enhancements.
Inform us extra concerning the metrics that outline a value-add alternative in at the moment’s workplace market.
Brown: We goal gentle value-add, financeable workplace property throughout the Southeast U.S., with a powerful concentrate on Florida. For us, value-add means buying under substitute price, with in-place money movement and clear upside by leasing, lease development or repositioning.
Outdoors of a grocery-anchored retail heart we’re closing on this month on the Area Coast, our final three workplace asset acquisitions totaled $120 million, together with Bridgeport Heart in Tampa, EcoPlex in West Palm Seaside and Yamato Workplace Heart in Boca Raton. These have been all well-located buildings with untapped potential.
Throughout the portfolio, we’ve upgraded lobbies, restrooms, choose widespread areas and out of doors lounge areas. At Bridgeport, we added Café Luna, a high-end café/bistro, to activate the bottom ground and meet tenant demand for higher facilities, serving to enhance occupancy from 82 % in Might 2023 to 95 % at the moment.
In what methods did your leasing technique make a distinction in these turnaround workplace investments?
Brown: At a number of latest acquisitions, we’ve used proactive leasing to speed up lease-up and drive worth. For bigger areas—greater than 10,000 sq. ft—we’ve structured phase-in offers for rising tenants, serving to them scale into house over time whereas fixing instant emptiness.
Whereas we use digital advertising and marketing instruments like digital excursions and social media, we’ve additionally had success with focused junk mail campaigns, particularly for bigger customers. On the smaller finish, we’ve delivered spec suites throughout 10,000 to fifteen,000 sq. ft, damaged into 2,000- to three,000-square-foot turnkey models. By pre-marketing throughout development, we’ve constantly secured leases inside 60 days of supply, creating robust leasing momentum and quicker stabilization.
You’ve greater than 4 million sq. ft beneath administration. How does your in-house property administration arm improve your funding efficiency?
Brown: Our in-house property administration, development administration and accounting groups are a key benefit. They permit us to remain intently linked to tenants, tackle points rapidly and ship a full-service expertise to homeowners. From an funding perspective, this interprets to tighter price management, stronger vendor leverage and proactive upkeep that defend asset worth. These efficiencies instantly assist increased tenant retention, smoother operations and stronger funding efficiency for our purchasers.
In your view, what sort of workplace property will proceed to be in excessive demand throughout South Florida?
Brown: Trophy and Class A buildings that includes prime areas, modern facilities and hospitality-inspired options are anticipated to keep up robust efficiency amongst giant companies in a position to assist increased prices. Nonetheless, many Class B+ properties stay interesting to value-oriented organizations, notably these located in suburban facilities with handy entry to residential and retail choices.
Properties that present versatile layouts and smaller move-in-ready areas—1,500 to three,500 sq. ft— are nicely positioned to fulfill present market calls for. We generally neglect, however small companies represent the biggest section of private-sector employers within the U.S.
Moreover, attributes equivalent to power effectivity, hurricane resilience and backup energy options are more and more prioritized by tenants. Our EcoPlex facility in West Palm Seaside has demonstrated sturdy leasing exercise. Developed in 2008, the constructing is LEED Gold licensed and engineered to resist Class 4 hurricanes, that includes high-impact glass and three backup mills to make sure uninterrupted operations throughout energy outages.
Are you exploring funding alternatives in different U.S. markets by your funds and partnerships? Which areas present the strongest parallels to South Florida?
Brown: By means of our funding administration platform, MHCommercial Actual Property Funds, we goal gentle value-add and core-plus alternatives in workplace, retail and flex-industrial property throughout the Southeast U.S. Outdoors Florida, we see robust parallels in markets like Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; and Nashville, Tenn.—every benefiting from inhabitants development, pro-business insurance policies and numerous financial drivers. These fundamentals assist long-term tenant demand and regular money movement, aligning nicely with our funding technique.
