JLL Inks Downtown's Largest Office Lease

MIAMI—It's the largest office lease in Downtown Fort Lauderdale, FL so far this year. JLL just inked a 52,683-square-foot headquarters lease transaction at Tower 101 in Downtown Fort Lauderdale.

The tenant is Uniforms Direct, a provider of quality professional uniforms and scrubs. The company is relocating its corporate headquarters from Plantation, FL.

JLL senior vice president Alice Lucia Jackson and vice president Brady Titcomb, completed the transaction on behalf of the property's owner, Banyan Street Capital. Baynan acquired the two-building office complex in 2012. Matthew Cheezem and Zach Wendelin of Cresa represented Uniforms Direct. Banyan was not immediately available for comment.

“Exceptional collaboration amongst the landlord, tenant, the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance made this significant transaction for the downtown Fort Lauderdale office market possible,” says Jackson. “It is very exciting to have a newcomer like Uniforms Direct join the Fort Lauderdale skyline.”

Uniforms Direct will have up to 200 employees occupy its headquarters space, which consists of the penthouse level, the 20th floor and half of the 19th and 16th floors. That makes Uniforms Direct the newly renovated 21-story office tower's largest tenant. Other tenants including Kemet Corp., Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, the City of Fort Lauderdale, and Advantage Opco, LLC.

Located at 101 Northeast 3rd Avenue, the office property offers a 177,000-square-foot office tower and a 50,000-square-foot six-story building. Tower 101 sits within Fort Lauderdale's Central Business District, just one block north of Broward Boulevard and next to the Federal Courthouse.

In the last 12 months JLL has completed more than 15 transactions totaling over 112,000 square feet. Occupancy in the entire project has gone from 79% to 93% over the last 12 months.

“We continue to see a market shift as tenants relocate from the suburbs to Downtown Fort Lauderdale,” says Titcomb. “The relocation of Uniforms Direct's headquarters will have a positive impact on downtown's vacancy rate, set to drop to 12.7%. One of the factors drawing tenants to Fort Lauderdale's urban core is the live-work-play environment taking shape, making it more attractive for tenants and adding amenities like cafes and restaurants.”

Indeed, 110 Tower is also on a massive leasing roll. The class A office building in Downtown Fort Lauderdale has inked over 50,000 square feet of office space over the past 12 months. Like Tower 101, the building is turning more heads with recent renovations.

Broward has also seen plenty of activity on the acquisition front. KBS Realty Advisors just snapped up Weston Corporate Center I and II, a class A development. The assets are located three miles south of the intersection between Interstate 75 and Interstate 595. And it's not all class A, either. Miramar Professional Plaza, a 29,400-square-foot office building in Miramar, FL, recently sold for $3.3 million. That's not a high price but the appreciation is staggering. The property tripled in value within two and a half years.