MIAMI—Lease or buy—it's an option that helped The Exchange, a six-building office complex in Fort Lauderdale, FL, close a string of transactions in recent months. The lease or buy strategy is rare among large Broward business parks.

Recent wins include Talk2Rep, which leased 9,228 square feet for its corporate offices, and the law firm of PeytonBolin, which purchased a 6,240-square-foot office condo suite. Asset manager and broker George Sacks, managing principal of Commercial Florida Realty Services, represented owner, The Exchange of Fort Lauderdale LLC, in the transactions.

“As Broward's office market slowly strengthens, we're seeing higher demand for small blocks of space in suburban locations,” Sacks says. “We have activity from professional firms and marketing-related companies that need 10,000 square feet of corporate space or less and are anxious to lock in costs before economic conditions shift. They're keenly aware of the market's signals, with Broward property values recovering and lease rates starting to increase in some of the county's class A complexes. They know interest rates will inevitably rise.”