Former Ryder HQ Gives Way to 53-Acre Town Center

Plans call for a six-story, 218,000-sf office building with 932 parking spaces, 135,000 sf of retail space and more than 2,500 residential units. The residential component will include townhouses, carriage homes, apartments and lofts. A Shoma spokesman tells GlobeSt.com all of the housing will be for-sale units, and prices will begin in the $300,000s. Shoma's president Masoud Shojaee is out of the country and could not be reached by deadline. The Shoma spokesman declined to disclose an estimated construction cost for the development.

Shoma's cost of the lion's share of the Park Square site is $48-million. Shoma acquired the former five-story, 40-acre Ryder complex following Ryder's contract in late 2002 for a build-to-suit in nearby Beacon Station, which has now reached completion. Coral Gables-based Codina Realty Services marketed the property for Ryder, and Miami-based Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc. represented Shoma in the acquisition. Tere Blanca, C&W senior managing director for South Florida, confirms the price tag.

Shoma also assigned leasing of both the retail and office components of Park Square at Doral to the same C&W team. Blanca says, "the project is still going through the entitlement process, so costs and pricing are not yet firm." She estimates pricing for the office space at $18 per sf, triple net, and says retail pricing has not been set.

The main entry to the commercial area of the town center fronts NW 36th Street and features an elliptical shaped pedestrian plaza for concerts, art festivals and other events. The residential entry point is gated, off NW 33rd Street, and includes park space and landscaped pedestrian paths. "The need has intensified for a complete environment where people can work, shop and live," Shojaee says in a statement. Miami-based Bernard Zyscovich is the architect. Shojaee expects the office tower and major portions of the retail and residential components to reach completion by February 2007.