Florida East Coast Industries is planning to build a Fort Lauderdale Brightline office and retail tower, amid demand for new office development.
FECI aims to build 101 Fort Lauderdale, a 14-story building at 101 Northwest Third Street Street in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It will feature 175,000 square feet of office space across 7 floors and 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and amenities. The property will also have 2.5 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet leased, according to a CBRE press release.
FECI is the parent company of Brightline, a high-speed rail service connecting passengers from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The 60,000-square-foot Brightline Fort Lauderdale Station is located at Northwest Second Avenue, between Broward Boulevard and Northwest Fourth Street.
FECI hired CBRE to lease its office space. CBRE’s Christopher Gallagher and Jeffrey Kelly were hired for office pre-leasing at the tower, which has not yet received approval.
The office tower is located in Progresso Village in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Its ground-level retail will include food and beverage, fitness and shared conference facilities, according to the release. In addition to Brightline, the property also connects to Broward County Transit, Sun Trolley and is near Tri-Rail.
Fort Lauderdale’s downtown office market has largely remained strong in recent years with vacancy rates at 12.2 percent in its most recent quarter, according to JLL. But there have been no major office buildings completed in the downtown area since the recession in 2008. Stiles Corp., which built the last major office tower there, is currently developing a 350,000-square foot-office building downtown with plans to open in 2020.