Duke Sets April Start for 120,000-SF Spec Office

PEMBROKE PINES, FL-Indianapolis-based Duke Realty Corp. is planning to break ground in April on Pembroke Corporate Center, a 120,000-sf speculative office building near Interstate 75′s Pines Boulevard interchange.

The building is adjacent to the Shops at Pembroke Gardens and has housing, retail, dining and fitness amenities within a two-mile radius. The project cost was not revealed, but Duke began construction late last year on the 93,000-sf class A Sawgrass Pointe II office building whose project cost was $18 million.

Duke senior vice president of South Florida operations Ed Mitchell tells GlobeSt.com that the project is expected to be completed in March 2009. Leasing efforts have started on the project, but no signed leases are yet in place. “The project is located right off Interstate 75 so there is tremendous access to the expressways and the Southwest Broward housing market,” Mitchell says. “It’s on main and main so every amenity you can imagine is within the vicinity.”According to a CB Richard Ellis Q4 office market report for Broward County, Southwest Broward County–the submarket where the project will be located–is experiencing a 12.8% vacancy rate with 155,671 sf of negative absorption during 2007 and average asking rental rates of $21.39 per sf.

Pembroke Corporate Center is located about 15 miles away from Sawgrass Pointe II, but Mitchell says Duke does not view the projects as competing with each other. “They are located in two very different submarkets,” he says.