Broward County bought a commercial building in Fort Lauderdale, with plans to replace it with a new police crime laboratory and medical examiner’s office.
Broward dropped $18.5 million for the two-story, 133,300-square-foot office building at 2000 West Commercial Boulevard, according to records and real estate database Vizzda.
An affiliate of Brooklyn-based Center for Allied Health Education sold the property. Completed in 1971, the building sits on 8.7 acres. CAHE had paid $15.7 million for the site in 2021, records show.
The county plans to demolish the building and develop a three-story, 230,000-square-foot Forensic Science Center, according to the county’s fiscal year budget for this year.
Broward wants to move its medical examiner’s office from the aging building at 5301 Southwest 31st Avenue in Dania Beach, which was completed in 1973, property and budget records show. The county also plans to move its sheriff’s office crime lab to free up space at the north wing of the Broward County Judicial Complex at 201 Southeast Sixth Street in Fort Lauderdale.
A 911-call dispatch center also could open at the new Forensic Science Center, according to the budget.
Broward estimates the project would cost $302.7 million over the next four years, including the land price and staffing costs. The county budgeted $262 million for the project in this fiscal year for design, construction and other expenses, the budget document shows. Broward could issue bonds to cover the cost.
The planned project shows some local governments continue to need office space, even as the overall South Florida office market has slowed. Over the past year, elevated interest rates slowed investment sales and leasing, with tenants pausing expansion plans amid more expensive capital costs.
In downtown Fort Lauderdale, Pebb Capital, Intalex Capital and CDS International Holdings paid $43 million for the 24-story 110 East office building at 110 East Broward Boulevard in May. The building was 28 percent occupied at the time of the sale, and the buyers have since increased that to 60 percent, a Pebb spokesperson told The Real Deal late last year.
On the leasing front, construction firm Moss & Associates took the entire 119,000-square-foot Park Center building at 6363 Northwest Sixth Way in Fort Lauderdale in June. Moss will move its new headquarters to the space this year from 2101 North Andrews Avenue in Wilton Manors.