Steven Hudson and Charles Ladd Jr. paid $7 million for two adjacent commercial properties in downtown Fort Lauderdale, expanding their East Las Olas Boulevard portfolio.
The duo bought the two-story restaurant building at 1103 East Las Olas Boulevard and the ground-floor retail and office space at the adjacent Villaggio di Las Olas condominium, Hudson said. The deal includes the garage for the Villaggio commercial space.
Seller Black Bay LLC is managed by the Carozzi family in Coconut Grove, state corporate records show. Ricardo Carozzi has been trading South Florida retail real estate, including selling a Bird Road shopping plaza near Kendall in 2019 for $5.1 million, and buying a Walgreens-leased building in Lauderdale Lakes in 2020 for $8.1 million.
The Las Olas Boulevard properties are fully leased, said Hudson, who co-founded Fort Lauderdale-based Hudson Capital Group with his father, Harris “Whit” Hudson.
The 1103 East Las Olas Boulevard building is occupied by Luigi’s Tuscan Grill and Ya Mas! Taverna. The Villaggio’s commercial space is home to Eve On The Water, a Thai restaurant, and 3,000 square feet of offices.
The purchase now gives Hudson and Ladd, who leads Fort Lauderdale-based Barron Real Estate, roughly 600 linear feet of frontage along the thriving East Las Olas Boulevard. Their holdings start from the newly acquired real estate and go west to include lots on Southeast 10th Terrace.
They bought the rest of the assemblage for $8.3 million in 2016, property records show.
The duo is starting construction in the coming months of a 138-key luxury hotel on the northwest corner of East Las Olas Boulevard and 10th Terrace. The city of Fort Lauderdale approved the project in May.
Hudson and Ladd completed the one-story retail building on the northeast corner of Las Olas Boulevard and 10th Terrace. It is fully leased to Warby Parker and Yeti, a coolers store, Hudson said. Their next-door building, at 1021 East Las Olas Boulevard, also is completely leased to B Square Burgers. They own an adjacent parking lot.
They plan to hold onto the recently acquired real estate.
“It’s a good investment, and we are very bullish on Las Olas and it’s really, truly our only walkable shopping destination in Broward County,” Hudson said. “It has such a great history and we think the future of Las Olas is great.”
Just west of their properties, Las Olas Square office and retail complex traded this month for $144.5 million. Related Fund Management, an affiliate of Stephen Ross’ Related Companies, and partner CP Group bought the two buildings spanning a full city block at 515 and 501 East Las Olas Boulevard, with an attached garage. The seller was a joint venture among Apollo Global Management, Steelbridge Capital and Square2 Capital.
Hudson and Ladd have been investing elsewhere in Fort Lauderdale. In October, they bought the South Harbor Plaza at 300 Southeast 17th Street for $40.5 million.