Creating CRE Opportunities Where They Don't Exist

MIAMI—With land values and construction costs escalating, building affordable housing has become a daunting task. The solution has become creating opportunities where they don't exist, at least not to the naked eye.

Attorney Keith Poliakoff, who co-chairs Arnstein & Lehr's Government Relations Practice Group in Fort Lauderdale, is finding ways to create those opportunities for his clients. GlobeSt.com caught up with Poliakoff to discuss some of the tools he's using in part one of this exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: You recently secured the first private-public partnership, PPP, agreement in the City of Hollywood to allow the construction of affordable housing for seniors. How did you create that opportunity for your client?

Poliakoff Over the course of nearly 10 years, the City of Hollywood has issued three Requests for Proposals to see if anyone was interested in partnering with the City to develop a blighted property that the city had purchased several years earlier. Although there were several attempts in the past, the property was never developed for a variety reasons. 

When my client called me to see if I knew of any potential development opportunities, I immediately thought of this parcel, and the fact that the city had not sought a development partner for this parcel in several years. Since I had intimate knowledge the PPP legislation, I knew that a mechanism existed to enable us to submit an unsolicited proposal to the city. 

Since it was the first time ever that an unsolicited proposal was submitted of this nature, I made sure that our cover letter clearly went through all of the legal requirements of the statute, and it explained the entire PPP process. Our submittal immediately garnered the attention of the City Administration and the elected Officials. The city was incredibly open to this opportunity and it agreed to follow the State proscribed process.

GlobeSt.com: The state approved PPP legislation in 2013. How can that legislation help affordable housing developers find opportunities? 

Poliakoff: All developers, not just affordable developers, can start looking at government owned properties for partnerships and development opportunities. Many times I find myself driving down a street and seeing an incredible vacant parcel, or underutilized property, and later find out that it is owned by a governmental entity. This legislation gives a developer the right to make a formal offer, and I bet many developers will be surprised to hear how receptive government can be.