Fontainebleau’s $51M shopping center project breaks ground with new owner

Less than two weeks after acquiring Fontainebleau Square, Jacksonville-based Regency Centers Corp. has launched construction for a $51 million retail project, the Daily Business Review reported.

Regency bought the 37-acre former mobile home park for $17.1 million, with the intention of turning it into a shopping center by late 2014. A lake is currently being filled in at the site, located at 10001 West Flagler Street in western Miami-Dade County’s Fontainebleau.

Fontainebleau Square is 86 percent leased: Target, Publix, Hair Cuttery, Panera Bread and Verizon Wireless brand Viva Movil.

“We are close with a couple of junior anchors,” Josh Spooner of Regency told Daily Business Review. “In a couple of weeks we should have two more deals signed.”

Regency, who owns several South Florida shopping centers, is heading up leasing and management. Master Development Inc. president Robert Shapiro and Regency teamed up to secure entitlements for the project. Miami-based Blue Lake Development Corp. had owned the property since 1967 and was trying to sell it for years, Daily Business Review said.

Related Development is working on the two-phase apartment complex Fontainebleau Lakes nearby.

Miami-Dade retail vacancies have held steady at a scant 4 percent over the last two years, according to CoStar Group data cited by the publication. [Daily Business Review] – Mark Maurer