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Partners Begin $10M Infrastructure for Metropica

By Marita Thomas

Last updated: March 31, 2005 09:24am

SUNRISE, FL-Aventura-based K-Group Holdings begins infrastructure development of 26 acres of land for the $160-million, 65-acre Metropica mixed-use development planned here adjacent to Sawgrass Mills Mall. The infrastructure development cost is estimated at $10 million, according to Joseph Kavana, K-Group CEO.

Phase I will include 500,000 sf of office space in four six- to seven-story buildings, 363 residential condos in two eight-story structures, parking garages and a 62,000-sf

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That's exciting news to hear about Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood making plans to densify. Its also about time, Broward County started taking rail transit serious. I think, once rail is put in place, FTL will be able to build the desired number they originally stated. I'm looking forward to see what type of urban development proposals are announced, as a result of these changes.

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Posted by FTLMAN @ SSC

By Scott Wyman

Staff writer

Posted April 5 2005

Hoping to keep a federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale and relieve overcrowding in state courts, Broward County is touting a plan for a new judicial campus on the site of the current state court building downtown and on nearby land.

The proposal presented to Chief U.S. District Judge William Zloch and county commissioners during the past week calls for a high-rise state court to be built on the southwestern corner of Third Avenue and Southeast Sixth Street. The oldest part of the current state courthouse would then be demolished to make way for a new federal court center.

The county began looking for land for a joint federal-state judicial campus two months ago after Zloch suggested closing federal court operations in Broward and sending local cases to Miami and West Palm Beach. Zloch had long been frustrated in his efforts to replace the current federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.

"I think we've developed the most workable plan that has been considered in the past 15 years on construction of a new federal courthouse," County Administrator Roger Desjarlais said Monday. "We would be able to build what we need while assuming the least amount of risk possible because we own most of the land already."

The total project would cost at least $240 million, about $120 million for each courthouse. Desjarlais said the county has $50 million set aside for a new state court building and could borrow money to pay the other $70 million in its construction costs.

Zloch could not be reached for comment. Desjarlais and Fort Lauderdale attorney Bill Scherer, who has been active in negotiations between the county and federal court system, described Zloch as open to the idea, even though Desjarlais said Zloch would prefer locating the federal court on a larger parcel of land a block south of the state courthouse.

"I think this works," Scherer said. "You get a new state facility with the feds right there."

Desjarlais said he will ask county commissioners to pursue more detailed discussions with federal officials and talk to landowners about whether they are willing to sell their property. Commissioners have said they would condemn land for the project if necessary.

Under the county plan, the federal government would trade its current courthouse at Third Avenue and Broward Boulevard for the site of the current state courthouse. The county would then decide whether to sell the Broward Boulevard property to developers or use it as part of other plans it has to build a new county government center.

To create the judicial campus and meet federal security requirements, the county also would close Southeast Sixth Street. Desjarlais said it would be turned into a pedestrian mall.

The county has been looking to build a new family court building to ease overcrowding at the state courthouse but scrapped the last plans to do so two years ago. The main section of the courthouse was built in 1955 and is outgrowing its 1995 expansion.

Scott Wyman can be reached at [email protected] or 954-356-4511.

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Robotic parking garage approved for downtown Fort Lauderdale

Robotic parking -- like valet parking, but without the valet -- is coming to Fort Lauderdale.

A totally automated parking system that racks and stacks cars in less space than a conventional parking garage was approved Tuesday night for a condo project downtown, "The Exchange."

The mechanical parking structure is the first to be approved in the city, and if built, would be the only one like it in the state, according to parking industry representatives. Only two fully automated systems like the one approved Tuesday are built in the country, in Hoboken, N.J., and Washington, D.C., while scores of them are under consideration or getting approved, according to manufacturers.

"It's very, very cool," said developer Danny Bivens of Tarragon South Development Co.

Unlike many other loft projects in the Flagler Village area north of Broward Boulevard downtown, The Exchange won't be new construction but rather a transformation. An old 1930s telephone switching center, with concrete floors and giant concrete columns, exposed pipes and air ducts and 14-foot ceilings, will become a hip loft address. Its 87 units will sell for prices ranging from the low $300,000s to the $500,000s, Bivens said.

A seventh story of bungalows will be added to the pink, six-story building that currently stands empty, its windows sealed and painted over, at 115 NE Third Ave., on the southwest corner of Northeast Third Avenue and Northeast Second Street.

"This is probably one of the most interesting forms of recycling I've ever seen," Commissioner Dean Trantalis said before the project got unanimous approval Tuesday night.

Bivens, who had no parking requirement because of the project's downtown location, said he had talked to the city about leasing spaces in its City Hall garage next to his project, but that fell through.

At $30,000 a space, the 130-space robotic parking tower is about double the cost of a conventional parking garage, Bivens said.

The robotic parking system is a rarity in this country but popular in Europe, company representatives said.

"In Europe it's there simply because the older cities, they don't have any space to build on, and so they have to accommodate everything underground," said Ken Livingston at SpaceSaver Parking Systems in Chicago, the company Tarragon will use.

The way it works is, a driver pulls in and drives onto a parking tray. The machinery does the rest.

"You get out of your car," said Bivens. "It'll scan your car to make sure there's no dog in there or baby or husband."

The tray rises into the structure like an elevator and shifts the tray into an empty spot, returning with another empty tray.

"It slides them like an electronic Rubik's cube," said Bivens.

The sensor also measures the car.

"Hummers don't fit," Bivens said. "We don't want Hummers." When the resident is ready for the car, a handheld device can be scanned in the elevator on the way down. The car will be waiting.

The machinery "learns habits," said project architect John Paul Barranco of Architecture Design Studios.

For instance, if one driver always leaves at 6 a.m., that auto will be stored near the bottom for easy access.

With urban infill the rage in downtowns across the country, The Exchange is not the only project considering stacking cars on shelves stretching into the sky.

"There's a great deal of interest. We get calls every day," said Hal Reilly, senior sales engineer at Robotic Parking Systems, a Florida company.

Robotic, which built the Hoboken garage, and rival company SpaceSaver, responsible for the D.C. version, both say they have projects in the works all over the country, including South Florida, though they declined to give specifics about local projects.

Americans may not have gotten used to the idea of leaving their precious autos inside a machine, Reilly conceded, but he said they should.

"If you think about it, it's not like getting in an elevator, where your body is at risk. It's only your car."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Posted on Wed, Apr. 20, 2005

FORT LAUDERDALE

County, court centers advance

Broward County commissioners and courthouse officials want to move into bigger, more modern buildings in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

BY BETH REINHARD

[email protected]

Broward County took steps Tuesday toward a new county government center and state courthouse, two mega million-dollar developments that would transform downtown Fort Lauderdale.

The County Commission chose national consulting firm HDR Inc. of Omaha to study potential costs and designs of a complex that could include government offices, housing, park space and shops. The county expects to spend $500,000 to $600,000 on the study.

Full article: Miami Herald

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Sawgrass Mills sets upscale expansion

The Colonnade at Sawgrass will feature luxury retailers and upscale restaurants. The project is expected to open by November.

BY ELAINE WALKER

[email protected]

Value shopping at Sawgrass Mills is about to enter a new realm: luxury retail.

The developers of the Sunrise outlet mall revealed a preliminary lineup of tenants for The Colonnade Outlets at Sawgrass, an expansion of the mall featuring upscale tenants in a stand-alone, open-air center. The opening is expected by the holiday season.

The Colonnade will feature Barneys New York, Salvatore Ferragamo, Coach, David Yurman, Crate & Barrel and Miss Sixty.

Also, relocating to the 110,000-square-foot project are several of the mall's existing premium outlets including Escada, St. John, Hugo Boss, Cole Haan, Max Mara and an expanded Neiman Marcus Last Call....

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11859559.htm

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Topical Currents, a local affairs program on public radio station, WLRN, recently featured an hour-long frank discussion on the future of Broward County. Topics included city-county cooperation, mass transit, affordable housing, urban sprawl and redevelopment, pedestrian-friendly development, and school overcrowding. Featured guests included Stacy Ritter, chair of the Management Efficiency Study Committee, convened to study and review ways to improve county government, and Kristin Jacobs, the Mayor of Broward County.

You can listen to the hour-long program here until the end of the week: Topical Currents - June 13th

The two were especially enthusiastic about transit-oriented developments and the future proposed light rail lines. All of these issues not only affect and pertain to Broward, but all of South Florida.

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Two new condo towers are to be built on the site formerly occupied by the Cleveland Clinic Florida, at 2835 N Ocean Blvd, on Fort Lauderdale Beach. The hospital relocated to Weston in 2001. The Altman Companies plans to build The Sapphire, featuring two 12-story towers, totalling 172 units, with prices starting at $400k.

more: Sun-Sentinel (for a limited time)

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