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Commercial brokers keep inking big leases in down market

Barbara Liberatore Black, a principal at CresaPartners Miami

Times aren't quite tough all over. Some South Florida commercial real estate brokers are still flying high despite the downturn. Indeed, looking back over the last year, some brokers appear to be defying the market.

Keith O'Donnell, managing director of Flagler Real Estate Miami, is a good example. O'Donnell led the way for all commercial brokers in the state from August 2008 to July 2009 with 12 leases worth $276.2 million. The previous year, he brokered only one sale -- for $3.5 million. O'Donnell was key in the 635,000-square-foot lease of the Office Depot headquarters in Boca Raton. The deal included acquiring 54 acres at Arvida Park of Commerce. It became the nation's largest build-to-suit lease.

Barbara Liberatore Black and Matthew Goodman, principals of CresaPartners Miami, are also among the top brokers on the commercial side. The duo closed 24 leases worth $107 million, including negotiating a 10-year deal for Merrill Lynch International at 701 Brickell Avenue. Black and Goodman then brokered a 6,000-square-foot expansion for a total lease deal of 346,455 square feet, making it the largest Merrill Lynch lease in Florida. Most recently, Black and Goodman represented Miami Law firm Bilzin Sumberg in the largest new lease of the year in South Florida. Black's boss, David Preve, founding principal at CresaPartners Miami, did 42 deals of his own, worth $66 million in the measured period.

"It was very difficult to find the bottom of the market because there [were] so many opportunities available to a large tenant like Bilzin," Black said. "It was a continual negotiation. The landlords did not want to give up. They all wanted to compete. It was a good deal in the end for both landlord and tenant. It's definitely a tenant's market."

Black said her business is booming, in part, because she represents tenants -- tenants whose leases eventually expire. She sees very little growth, plenty of shifting between buildings, and some workout deals where companies are restructuring and downsizing. She doesn't expect the market to fully recover for several years.  

Norm Adams, director of Leasing at Stiles Corp. in Fort Lauderdale, is another standout. He did 27 deals valued at $67.5 million, including work on the 105,000-square-foot lease by AutoNation at 200 Las Olas Circle. Adams' colleague Madelayne Garcia, another director of leasing at Stiles, did 15 deals worth $37.8 million, including a 28,230-square-foot lease for New York Life at the Lake Shore Plaza II.

Other notable commercial leasing brokers include Juan Ruiz, a vice president at Miami's Flagler Real Estate Services. He inked 98 leases worth $34.1 million while his Flagler colleague George Pino, also a vice president, brokered 62 leases worth $25 million and added another $1 million in sales. Other brokers doing big deals are Jon Blunk, senior vice president at Crocker Partners in West Palm Beach, who closed $30.6 million worth of leases, and William Reichel, president of Reichel Realty & Investments in Palm Beach Gardens, who did 35 leases worth $26 million.

Then there's Alan Kleber, senior director of Cushman & Wakefield Miami, who inked 36 leases worth $96 million, including a 10-year lease for Brown Mackie College. Brown Mackie leased 50,785 square feet at One Herald Plaza in Miami. Kleber agrees with Black that it's a tenant's market, but there are also some benefits to the landlords to do deals.

"If landlords can get some more term from these tenants it can help them," Kleber said. "They might give up a little bit on the front end to get these tenants in place, but as they go to restructure their debt on the project they'll have a long-term tenant in place rather than exposure in the marketplace that's getting continually soft, at least for the next couple of years."

On the sales side of the commercial brokerage table, South Florida has a much smaller roster of all-star brokers, demonstrating the lack of available credit. But there are a few brokers in the region that broke through the obstacles to close some significant deals in the face of declining property values.

Evan Kristol, senior vice president and Still Hunter III, first vice president of Marcus & Millichap Fort Lauderdale, closed 20 sales totaling $133 million. Kristol sold the Wilton Tower, an 11-story, 150-unit apartment building in Wilton Manors, for $15.1 million.  Their colleague, Lori Schneider, a senior vice president at Marcus & Millichap Fort Lauderdale, did 19 deals worth $90 million, including the $20 million sale of Winter Haven Citi Center.  

Finally, Avery Klann, a principal at Apartment Realty Advisors in Boca Raton, did three sales -- including the Arbor Oaks at Boca Raton for $40 million -- with a total value of $46.8 million. Arbor Oaks is the largest multi-family transaction in South Florida over the past year.