Stephen Nostrand

Colliers International South Florida has named Stephen Nostrand managing
director, after having been with the firm for five years as executive
vice president. Nostrand has been in real estate for 35 years, and is
also a professor in the Master’s Program for Real Estate and Development
and Urbanism at the University of Miami. The firm, which was formerly
Colliers Abood Wood-Fay, recently completed the lease of a
30,527-square-foot mixed-use property at 200 Crandon Boulevard, Key
Colony Plaza on Key Biscayne. TRD

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Click image for larger version (Source: Real Capital Analytics)

South Florida saw a promising level of building sales activity in the first quarter of this year, with a near 50 percent increase in total sales compared to the same period of 2009, according to data compiled by Real Capital Analytics for The Real Deal. The three counties of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach collectively saw $512 million in total sales in the first quarter, up from $345 million a year ago during the midst of Wall Street’s meltdown. Still, the numbers largely fell from a high-flying fourth quarter of 2009, when building sales broke the billion-dollar mark, hitting $1.27 billion.

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From left: John Crotty, Crotty playing for the Miami Heat in 1996-1997 (Source: miamiheat.com)

John Crotty had finished his career as a point guard for seven teams, including the Miami Heat, in the National Basketball Association. He was on a surfing trip to Costa Rica in 2004 with Michael Fay, a frequent partner on the waves and a good friend. Fay was a commercial real estate broker in Miami, and Crotty had been interested in the field. Driving back from the beach, he told Fay he wanted to move into the business after his 11-year basketball career. A few months later, the two spoke again, and before long, Crotty, 40, was learning the real estate world as a commercial associate at Fay’s firm in Miami, Colliers Abood Wood-Fay. Now, after 11 seasons in the NBA, including a stint with the Heat in 1996, the former point guard is carving a niche in the Miami commercial real estate market. 4 Comments

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Two buyers made successful preemptive bids late yesterday, winning the
two sites that were slated to be auctioned this morning at a joint
AmeriBid-Colliers Abood Wood Fay auction at the Miami Marriott Biscayne
Bay. The sites, a temple in Miami Beach and a piece of vacant land in Little Havana, each went for more than the minimum bids. The
minimum on the 14,000-square-foot temple site, which was purchased by a
church, was $900,000. The minimum on the 11,700-square-foot vacant lot
just north of Calle Ocho, was $350,000, purchased by a multi-family
builder. AmeriBid said it would not disclose the specific prices and
buyers until the properties close. [more]

Miami has five major buildings that will change their names as previous
corporate backers stop spending money on the right to put company
names on towers. Miami Tower, formerly the Bank of America Tower at
International Place, is the best known name-changer. But other changes
are in the works. Law firm Greenberg Traurig will shift its
signage to the new Met 2 Financial Center from its old headquarters at
1221 Brickell Ave., and three other towers will have naming rights
changes this year. Bill Cutler, senior vice president with Colliers
Abood Wood-Fay in Coral Gables, said even though the market is
weakened, to have a signature tenant put up their name can be a big
draw for the rest of the building. [GlobeSt]

The Peter Chamberland Trust of Deerfield Beach has sold a 16,800-square-foot, single-tenant industrial building at 1600 S.W. 34th Avenue to an unnamed local investor for $2.2 million deal, or roughly $131 per square foot. Meanwhile, Donna Abood, CEO of Colliers Abood Wood-Fay Commercial Real Estate
Services, has been named one of the nation’s most accomplished women in commercial
real estate by ALM’s Real Estate Forum magazine. Also, a vacant service station in North Miami Beach sold for $950,000 as First Bank of Florida unloaded some of its real estate assets. The 2,364-square foot property fetched $402 per square foot. Click here for more. [more]

PNC Bank, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group, has filed to foreclose on the Flamingo Commons Office Park in Davie. The seven-building, 73,499-square-foot complex at 4351 S.W. 124th Avenue was built in 2003 and has a mortgage which was last modified at $13 million in 2007. The office vacancy rate for Broward County exceeded 14 percent in the third quarter, according to Colliers Abood Wood-Fay. [SFBJ]

Coral Gables-based commercial real estate firm Colliers Abood Wood-Fay has started a receivership business to meet the growing demand for foreclosure resolutions in the region. The new unit will work with banks and special servicers that have been forced to take back properties, and will be led by David Garfinkle, an asset manager with a background in distressed and underutilized properties. Nine other employees will work with all commercial sectors, including fractured condominium projects. [GlobeSt]

Overseas buyers may again take advantage of their stronger currencies
to pick up South Florida real estate as an ongoing weak dollar policy
will likely stay in place to help U.S. exports. Year-to-date, the
dollar has fallen 3.7 percent against the euro and 21 percent against
the real of Brazil. Manuel Lasaga, president of Miami-based economics
and finance consulting firm StratInfo, said import-export companies in
South Florida are going to see this as a growth opportunity in those
countries whose currencies will appreciate with respect to the dollar.
Albert Bolter, a real estate analyst for Colliers Abood Wood-Fay, said
overseas buyers, particularly closed-end funds, want AAA office class
product. They want long-term leases and leased-up buildings with a
fixed net return, and are looking at potential bargains. [Miami Today]
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Florida East Coast Realty, headed by developer Tibor Hollo, announced
that its Coral Gables building, 2020 Ponce, has received a certificate
of completion and is ready for occupancy. The 14-story,
Mediterranean-style tower has a total of 130,000 square feet including
ground-level retail, seven stories of premium office space and a
six-level parking garage. Colliers Abood Wood-Fay, the leasing agent
for the property, said there is 40,000 square feet of space remaining
for lease. TRD [more]