Procacci Begins Hurricane-Resistant Spec Office Properties

This phase includes two 73,500-sf spec buildings named Emerald View at Vista Center, which borders Emerald Dunes Country Club here. A third, 40,000-sf building will follow on a parcel across from Phase I. Procacci also plans Crossroads at Dolphin Commerce Center in Miami, which is zoned to accommodate six office buildings aggregating 630,000 sf and a 100,000-sf warehouse/flex facility. All of the buildings are designed for category-five hurricane resistance, "and all were planned based on the hurricane activity in South Florida last year," Philip Procacci, president, tells GlobeSt.com.

"We believe this is the first time this combination of hurricane-resistant materials and technology has been used in a class A office property in Florida," he says. While John W. Knezevich, VP of Fort Lauderdale-based LZA Technology, cannot confirm Procacci's first-time claim, after hearing a summary of the building specs for Emerald View, he tells GlobeSt.com the combination does constitute an unusually high standard of hurricane-resistant measures. He points specifically to the materials used to resist high wind speeds and the planned generator as particularly effective and unusual. LZA is a division of Thornton-Tomasetti Group, an independent engineering practice focused on hurricane-resistant buildings and not a client of Procacci.

The primary hurricane-resistant features of the Procacci buildings are:

• Solid concrete roof and solid concrete, steel-reinforced tilt-up wall panel exterior that is in compliance with the Florida building code to qualify as a hurricane shelter. Knezevich confirms, "while the code doesn't specifically require concrete, concrete is the best solution."
• "Large missile" high-impact exterior glazing system, which Knezevich says is now required for all new buildings in the state. Procacci acknowledges this is not unique, "but our system is designed to meet a higher standard to resist winds up to 185 miles per hour," he says.
• HVAC systems and a 29,000-gallon diesel-powered generator in each building, protected in an independent enclosure also designed to withstand 185-mile-per-hour winds, a feature Knezevich singles out as unusually stringent.
• Emergency generator, which starts after a loss of power to provide 100% "business as usual" electrical and HVAC service to the entire building for 10 days. "My non-professional knowledge regarding duration tells me this is beyond normal," Knezevich says.

The average asking rental rate will reflect the premium. Rates will be $24 per sf, Procacci says, "which is 10% to 12% over the average class A rate in this area. We believe professional firms, such as law offices and engineering companies, or any business that can't afford to be out of business for any duration, will find the premium worthwhile." The buildings, he adds, "will look like any other class A building."

GlobeSt.com was unable to identify any other South Florida class A office buildings constructed to these hurricane-resistant specifications. However, during the 1990s, LightSpeed Infrastructure LLC, an affiliate of Swerdlow Group, developed several category-five hurricane resistant telecommunication buildings in Dolphin Commerce Center.

Telefonica S.A., a South American-based telecom operator, entered the US with a lease for 173,000 sf at the center, where it recently renewed. Eduardo Gomez-Leal, the Telefonica Data hosting business manager, then called it "the only location in the Southern US that fits our demanding criteria in terms of connectivity and category-five hurricane resistance." Recently Cable & Wireless, formerly Exodus Communications, a web-hosting firm, inked a lease for 356,000 sf in the center.