Colliers Presses Into Urban Core Strategy

Ken Krasnow, executive managing director and market leader of Colliers International in South Florida, tells GlobeSt.com there’s plenty of opportunity in urban cores.

MIAMI—With Downtown Miami still growing, Colliers International South Florida just launched an urban core division. The firm added two commercial real estate brokers to run the group: Marika ‘Mika’ Mattingly and Gerard Yetming . The rapid shift toward urbanization is attracting new residents, hotels , restaurants, retail and entertainment options to urban cores across South Florida. As Colliers sees it, the trend toward 24/7 environments in high-density, mixed-use settings will drive ongoing demand for both investment opportunities and development sites. “The City of Miami saw $1.035 billion worth of new construction last year, with much of it concentrated in the urban core,” Ken Krasnow , executive managing director and market leader of Colliers International in South Florida, tells GlobeSt.com. “Many of those development sites began with a real estate transaction so there is a huge demand for the type of services our Urban Core division will provide to our clients. Creating the Urban Core team led by two seasoned brokers is Colliers International’s response to the rapid urbanization of South Florida’s urban cores. We are just in the beginning of this trend and the best is yet to come.” Industry veteran Yetming brings the depth and knowledge Colliers needs to navigate complexities that can arise with buying and selling assets in the urban core. Yetming has brokered landmark deals such as the $125 million sale of Epic East, the largest land sale in the history of Downtown Miami. Yetming also brokered the sale of the prime 2.78-acre Capital at Brickell development site in the Brickell Financial District. The sale to a subsidiary of Beijing’s China City Construction Co. was the largest direct Chinese investment in Miami’s urban core. All told, Yetming has been involved in $7 billion of assignments, mostly in South Florida. His recent focus on urban land sales in the region has resulted in $1 billion of transactions since 2012. “The urban core division will be entirely neighborhoods-driven, as opposed to having a focus on specific product types,” says Yetming. “In the urban core, it is critically important to know every detail on every building on every block, whether they are multifamily , retail , office , mixed-use and so on. Each property has a history and a story and we need to know it. In addition to leveraging our relationships, we will have access to key information by building the DNA of our team around newly developed technology.” Mattingly understands the challenges buyers need to overcome to assemble properties in the urban core. She has been involved in over 67% of the deals closed in the last two years in Downtown Miami. Specifically, she has brokered 53 transactions worth $306 million targeting commercial properties on East Flagler Street and surrounding areas since 2014. She was also an instrumental player in major assemblages, including serving as lead broker on behalf of investor Moishe Mana, who has acquired a major presence in Downtown Miami. “Colliers’ national and international platform will help us access a larger pool of investors, pioneers and visionaries who are eager to tap into the potential of South Florida’s urban cores,” Mattingly said. “South Florida is on everybody’s radar when it comes to investing for the long haul.” Colliers International’s expansion into the urban core sector comes as domestic and foreign direct investment is fueling the urbanization of South Florida. The Greater Downtown Miami’s population grew from 40,466 to 80,750, or 99.6 percent, between 2000 and 2014, according to the Downtown Development Authority . Overall, South Florida’s metro areas recently became the eighth-most populous region in the US, surpassing 6 million residents, according to the U.S. Census. Long-neglected central business districts in the region are emerging as live, work and play destinations. Colliers expects that trend to gain speed with the introduction of All Aboard Florida’s Brightline, a passenger rail set to connect Downtown Miami to Orlando with stops in downtown Fort Lauderdale and downtown West Palm Beach.