Life hasn’t changed much for Michael Comras since the Miami Beach-based commercial real estate developer, investor and broker closed the $370 million sale of an entire block on Lincoln Road to Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, whose fashion empire includes Zara.
Comras and his joint-venture partner Jonathan Fryd had assembled the properties 18 years ago for about $12 million, later redeveloping them and securing leases with tenants such as Apple, Nike, Gap, Intermix and Athleta. The September 2015 sale to Ortega ranked as Miami-Dade County’s biggest deal of the year.
The original offering for 1001-1035 Lincoln Road had drawn about 10 bids, including some from ultra-high-net-worth families, state pension funds, a Middle East sovereign wealth fund, a Canadian pension fund and U.S. investment advisers, said Manny de Zarraga, an executive managing director at HFF and the lead broker on the sale.
“There is no other property, definitely in South Florida, that has the drivers of pedestrian traffic, with all the hotels and residential areas anchoring the ends of Lincoln Road,” de Zarraga said of the buildings.
He cited Comras’ and Fryd’s patience in leasing and their “carefully curated approach” in bringing together a compatible group of tenants as key components in the sale.
“We created a world-class asset for one of the world’s wealthiest men,” Comras, the president and chief executive officer of the Comras Company, told The Real Deal in March, seated in his office in Miami Beach. The New York native recounted his efforts to find new tenants for the retail strip after Williams-Sonoma’s and Pottery Barn’s 15-year, lower-rate leases expired.
Yet, while the high-profile sale may have catapulted Comras to the highest ranks of South Florida’s commercial real estate market, it has done little to change his lifestyle.
“What am I going to do, buy a new shirt?” he asked, tugging on the collar of his navy blue striped button-down. “Buy a new pair of jeans?”
Pressed for changes, he called out to his executive assistant: “Vanessa, has anything in my life changed?” “No,” she answered.
In the months since the sale, Comras, 54, has managed to avoid purchasing a new car, a new home (three years ago he bought a waterfront house on the Venetian Islands of Miami Beach, where he lives with his longtime girlfriend) or even a vacation retreat. In fact, the real estate executive does not own a second home. Though he loves to travel, especially to Colorado, he prefers to stay “in a great hotel and be treated like a king,” he noted.
“Material things don’t matter to me,” he said. “I don’t have any needs or wants.”
He also continues to work just as many hours, in what he calls a “24-7 business.” Last May, the Comras Company partnered with Federal Realty Investment Trust and Grass River Property to purchase a majority interest in the retail complex CocoWalk for $87.5 million, and in late September, an 85 percent interest in the Shops at Sunset Place, in a $110 million deal. The investors are aiming to redevelop, re-merchandise and bring new life to the two tired shopping centers located in demographically key markets.
“CocoWalk and Sunset Place need to create an environment that gets people out of their homes to shop, eat and meet their lifestyle needs,” Comras said. “Otherwise, they will sit at home and order everything online.” He said he would like to bring plans to the market in the next several months for both projects.
With CocoWalk, Comras said he hopes to create a retail center that will fit and connect better with the community of Coconut Grove, which draws 6,000 students a day as well as the parents who drop them off and pick them up at school. The goal is to make the retail center function around the clock. “People like to see people,” he said. “If they don’t see people, they run away.”
Comras’ focus is squarely on urban retail, and he doesn’t do big box stores. His overarching aim is to “create a lifestyle and a sense of place with the right mix of tenants,” he said. That formula worked in Midtown Miami. After Comras brought in Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill, the corridor became a popular restaurant row.
Now he is bringing that philosophy to the edge of Midtown, where he is leasing the new development District 36, which Comras envisions as a connector between the Design District and Midtown. He is even working with the Miami Parking Authority to design new underpasses that would invite pedestrians by offering a glimpse of a restaurant as they exit.
“All I think about is creating places that people want to be,” he said.
As Miami becomes increasingly dense, the city is also becoming more localized, said Comras, who lives less than five minutes by car from his Sunset Harbour office (eight minutes if the bridge is up for a boat to pass).
“I live, work and play here. If I go dinner, I go to Sunset Harbour,” he said. “I love to be able to do that.” Comras added that he sees that need for a hyper-local commercial area in Coconut Grove, where residents can shop, eat and exercise.
Growing up on Long Island and later living in Manhattan, the seasoned real estate executive honed his sense of what works to create a neighborhood that attracts people for strolling, shopping and sitting down with a cappuccino at an outdoor cafe. “There are experiences that stay with you and you carry with you,” he noted.
Even when he is traveling, Comras said he is always looking at new retail concepts and analyzing how neighborhoods become ignited by shops and restaurants. “I’m like a kid in a candy store when I go to any city,” he said.
HFF’s de Zarraga, who has known Comras for 25 years — since he worked with Comras’ grandfather at Sonnenblick-Goldman in New York — cited the developer’s deep knowledge of the retail real estate market. “He has an exceptional grasp of what tenants want, and that is extremely helpful and helps create a lot of value,” de Zarraga said.
“There’s no ego. He’s a straightforward guy,” the commercial broker added. “It’s easy in this business for someone to have a problematic ego, and he doesn’t have one.”
Comras graduated from the University of Miami in 1983 and then worked in Manhattan for Williams Real Estate Company, a firm that focused on the commercial office and retail markets, for 10 years while earning his M.B.A. at Pace University. He moved back to Miami in 1993, when he was 31, following the birth of his first child — the eldest of three children from a former relationship — because he didn’t want to push a stroller around Manhattan. Though he didn’t have a job at the time, Comras said he knew he wanted a better lifestyle.
When he returned to Miami, he witnessed the popularity of the News Cafe on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, but there were no national retailers in sight. “I saw all the beautiful people hanging out at the News Cafe, but at that point there were no contemporary national retailers on Miami Beach,” he said. “It was an obvious call to make: Wouldn’t it be great to put a Gap here?”
When he lived in Manhattan in the early ‘80s, he had noticed that wherever Gap opened, the area became hot. So he figured that if he could find a place for the Gap in South Beach and then buy additional buildings in the area, it would become valuable retail space.
Comras ended up bringing a Gap store to Collins Avenue and 7th Street in mid-1994 and eventually Diesel, Sephora, Club Monaco and other high-end retailers, leading to the development of the Collins Avenue Fashion District. “This business is all about connecting dots,” he said.
He also acquired 826 Collins Avenue and redeveloped it to house a Levi’s Store. He created a third-floor loft with a rooftop pool, where he lived for several years before buying his home.
Today, representing landlords and tenants is still the mainstay of the Comras Company’s work. He and his staff of 10 brokers, including, most recently, his girlfriend of more than a decade, jewelry designer Daniela Swaebe — handle leasing throughout Miami-Dade County. That includes projects in Wynwood, Midtown Miami, the Design District, Brickell, Coral Gables, Aventura and Doral — as well as in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
When it comes to retail, he is cognizant of the challenges posed by online shopping. “What we need to be mindful of is this online business and embracing it rather than being afraid of it, and to understand what it means to the consumer and offer them something they can’t get online — an experience,” he said.
Comras still spends about half his time acquiring and developing commercial property. Among his projects is redeveloping the former Gardner’s Market shopping center on South Dixie Highway in south Miami-Dade. His holdings also include properties in Wynwood, the Design District, Midtown Miami, MiMo, Coconut Grove and Miami Beach.
He still holds investments in property on Lincoln Road, including 744 Lincoln, primarily occupied by BCBG, and 701 Lincoln, leased to Forever 21 and a Peter Lik gallery. Comras has no plans to sell those assets, he said.
Yet not all his deals on Lincoln Road have panned out smoothly. In October 2012, he had a deal to buy 940 Lincoln and 947 Lincoln in partnership with the Cayre family of New York, including Robert Cayre and his uncle Harry Adjami. That attempted purchase has led to years of litigation that is still ongoing.
Nearby, Comras Company also represents Vornado Realty Trust, which owns the 1100 Lincoln Road building. Comras and his team of brokers are working on splitting up what is now Anthropologie’s space into four bays, to bring in new tenants when the store moves to a new building under development at 801 Lincoln Road.
Throughout Comras’ career, matching tenants with retail space has not always proven to be an easy proposition. He has grappled with issues related to merging contemporary retail with historic preservation in Miami Beach. “There’s a constant battle to reach a compromise, working together with the city to find a happy medium,” he said.
It took him several years to get the Apple lease deal approved. “I worked on three different buildings with Apple before I finally got the new location nailed down,” Comras said, noting that he had wrangled with the city of Miami Beach over the design of a building, “which nearly killed the deal,” and forced him to find a different site.
“Every deal has challenges,” Comras said. “It’s a matter of how you manage those challenges.”
Even some who have litigated against him say they respect him, like Miami Beach landowner Sam Herzberg, who began buying property along Lincoln Road in the late 1990s, about the same time as Comras.
The Comras Company sued Herzberg’s firm in 2000 over the payment of a $65,000 commission for having secured Victoria’s Secret at 901 Lincoln Road, according to the complaint. But they settled the lawsuit “amicably” after a couple of years, said Herzberg, who owns the Sterling Building at 927 Lincoln as well as 901 Lincoln. “It hasn’t made any dent in our relationship,” he said. “We are still very, very, friendly.”
Even now, Comras continues to handle Herzberg’s leasing. “He is a great asset in the sense that he has contacts with all these big national retailers,” Herzberg noted, adding that Comras also has a knack for “fitting the right tenant in the right location.”
“Michael is a very bright, hard-working individual, and he deserves all the success he has,” Herzberg said.
Source: The Real Deal
As Miami-Dade County’s condo market shows signs of slowing due in part to a stronger dollar, an out-of-state developer envisions a pair of new condo towers with more than 550 units combined as a key component for a proposed $160 million mixed-use project in Coral Gables.
The latest condo project proposed for the Coral Gables area — a wealthy suburb of local residents and foreign investors — is the Gables Station complex slated to be developed on a 4.3-acre site located on the north side of the 200 block of South Dixie Highway near the upscale Shops At Merrick Park retail center, according to city of Coral Gables records.
“The applicant is proposing a mixed-use residential/hotel/retail project, which will be composed of three towers with a maximum height of 155 feet with about 168 hotel units totaling 111,583 square feet, 554 luxury condominium residences and 87,900 square feet of retail space,” according to the cover letter included with the developer’s application to the city of Coral Gables.
To build the project as proposed, the prospective developer — a “contract purchaser” based in Minnesota called NP International USA LLC with Charles D. Nolan and Brent Reynolds — is seeking a number of revisions to current land-use and zoning regulations, according to government records.
Currently, the owner of record of the proposed development site is a Coconut Grove-based corporation called Gables Station LLC with Jeffrey L. Berkowitz that had previously announced plans to build a retail-and-parking facility with 330,000 square feet after acquiring the land in 2005, according to government records.
With this newest project, the Coral Gables area now has 17 new condo buildings with nearly 1,400 units announced in South Florida since this current cycle began in 2011, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com as of Monday. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)
The total number of new Coral Gables units for this cycle would have been even higher if not for earlier decisions by unrelated developers to revise the original plans of the proposed Collection Residences project with 126 units and the Antilla Coral Gables project with 32 units.
To date, developers have revised plans to build nearly 20 new condo buildings with nearly 2,900 units since 2011. Most of the units in question were to be developed in Miami-Dade, according to the data.
Overall, South Florida developers have already completed 57 new condo buildings with more than 4,300 units in the coastal tri-county South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. An additional 129 new condo buildings with more than 12,900 units are currently under construction in South Florida.
A combined 233 new condo buildings with nearly 33,000 units — about 66 percent of the total tri-county pipeline — are currently in the planning or presale phase of development in South Florida.
In the Coral Gables market, no new condo buildings have been completed to date during this cycle.
A trio of new condo buildings with a combined 265 units are currently under construction in the Coral Gables market as of Monday.
An additional 14 new condo buildings — including the newly announced Gables Station project — with more than 1,120 units are currently in the planning and presale phase of development in Coral Gables, according to the data.
The combination of announced units that are in the planning or presale phase of development represent more than 80 percent of the total number of condos in the pipeline for the Coral Gables market during this cycle.
The Coral Gables market ranks as South Florida’s ninth most active preconstruction condo market based on announced units.
On the resale front, buyers acquired 275 condo units last year for an average of nearly 23 transactions monthly, according to data from the Southeast Florida MLXchange.
Based on the 2015 resale statistics, the Coral Gables condo resale market currently has about 6.7 months of supply of units available for purchase.
A balanced market is considered to have about six months of resale supply available for purchase. More months of condo resale supply suggests a buyer’s market, and less months indicates a seller’s market.
While the supply of condo units is encouraging, the average resale transaction price per square foot in Coral Gables was unchanged at $320 in 2015, just as it was in the previous year of 2014, according to the data.
Currently, the average asking price for a condo resale unit available for purchase is $431 per square foot, according to the data.
While Broward County might not have the same glitz and glamour of its southern cousin Miami-Dade, the county had plenty of big-ticket commercial deals last year that racked up millions.
The Real Deal analyzed data from the CoStar group, an information company, to compile a list of Broward’s biggest commercial buyers during 2015.
#1 Prologis – $407.5 millionPrologis, one of the country’s biggest industrial real estate firms, racked up more pricey property purchases in Broward than any other company.The company sank a total of $407.5 million into 23 properties spread throughout the county, mostly concentrated in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale.What helped push Prologis to the top this year was its $820 million acquisition of a 21-property portfolio from Morris Realty Associates. Three of those properties were located in Broward, totaling about $69.4 million.
#2 Starwood Capital Group – $281.9 millionSecond on the list was investment firm Starwood Capital Group, headquartered in the wealthy enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut.The firm put $281.9 million down on 13 properties in Broward, most of which were office buildings located in Fort Lauderdale business parks.Not to be outdone, Starwood also closed on a massive commercial sale last year. The investment firm was one of three buyers that paid $1.1 billion for Duke Realty’s portfolio of 62 properties in the Southeastern United States.Among those properties were eight office buildings in Fort Lauderdale and one in Pompano Beach, which made up the bulk of Starwood’s investment total for Broward County last year. Together, they totaled almost $180 million worth of properties.
#3 Norges Bank – $272.3 millionClose behind Starwood was the Norwegian central bank, which had a serious hankering for South Florida real estate last year.Norges Bank assembled $272.3 million worth of Broward County commercial properties during 2015, landing it in third place for the year’s list of biggest buyers.Those purchases were spread out over 13 properties between Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Hallandale and Dania Beach.All 13 were purchased in a joint-venture with Prologis — our No. 1 contender — as part of the $5.9 billion acquisition of KTR Capital Partners’ portfolio of 322 distribution properties throughout the U.S.Norges Bank is one of many foreign sovereign wealth funds picking up big chunks of U.S. real estate.
#4 TIAA-CREF – $238.8 millionTIAA-CREF is a Fortune 100 company that provides pensions for teachers and other professionals. It’s also one of the country’s largest real estate investment companies, and holds the No. 4 spot on the list of Broward’s biggest commercial buyers.The company spent $238.8 million on Broward County properties last year. The interesting part? That was split between just two purchases.In the first deal, the financial giant picked up Orlando-based Zom’s Casa Palma apartment complex in unincorporated Broward for nearly $90 million.Next, TIAA-CREF paid the Related Group an incredible $149 million for its Manor at Flagler Village apartment project in Fort Lauderdale.
#5 Global Logistics Properties – $187.7 millionLast but certainly not least is Chicago-based Global Logistics Properties, a multinational real estate firm that specializes in — you guessed it — logistics properties.Last year, GLP put down an impressive $187.7 million for 11 Broward County properties, all but one of which was located in Fort Lauderdale.The commercial giant continued this list’s trend of massive portfolio deals with its purchase an Industrial Income Trust assemblage in a deal valued at $4.55 billion.In Broward, that portfolio’s biggest piece was Sunrise Distribution Center in Fort Lauderdale. It alone fetched $43.8 million.
While Palm Beach’s biggest firms have significantly less agents than those in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, their hooks remain the same: competitive commission splits, technology and in-house tools and training.
The Real Deal ranked real estate firms in Palm Beach County by the number of actively licensed agents and spoke to executives about recruiting strategies, commissions and top sales for the year.
Here are the top five:
#1 Keyes Company | 526 agents
Keyes has 11 offices and four satellites in Palm Beach County, president Mike Pappas said. The family-owned and operated firm targets a mix of newly licensed and experienced agents. Keyes is on track to reach $4.3 billion in sales this year, and hires more than 1,100 agents a year statewide.
While most of its agents are in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, Keyes leads the ranking in Palm Beach. The brokerage also has an in-house corporate relocation program, based in West Palm Beach.
Keyes has recently refinished or relocated up to eight offices in Palm Beach County. “We think facilities still matter,” Pappas said.
Steve Reibel, vice president of recruiting, previously said that commission splits between the agent and company vary from 60 percent to nearly 90 percent, “pending the level of production.”
Pappas has said the firm is “very aggression on splits.”
#2 Coldwell Banker | 466 agents
Coldwell Banker has 10 offices in Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Jupiter Beach, Wellington, Palm Beach Gardens, West Palm Beach and Boynton Beach.
Duff Rubin, regional senior vice president, would not disclose the company’s commission split policy but said, “We as a company try to be more of a value-proposition brokerage,” including Coldwell Banker’s tools, management and support. “Commission splits are typically based on production. You’re only as good as your production,” he said.
The top sale in Palm Beach County was a single-family home at 600 Northeast Fifith Avenue in Boca Raton. Jonathan Postma had the listing for the property, which sold for $8.3 million.
Rich Fleischer, regional vice president of Coldwell Banker east central region of Florida, said sales are split evenly between condos and single-family homes. “We do not focus solely on one type of property or one specific price point. Our overall goal is to ensure that the customer has the best real estate experience possible, regardless of property type,” Fleischer said.
The company hires about 225 agents, a mix of experienced and newly licensed, in the county on an annual basis.
#3 Illustrated Properties | 435 agents
Illustrated Properties has 23 offices in Florida. The firm offers online marketing tools, a lead generation program, training classes and mentoring programs, according to its website.
The company also provides in-house marketing.
Debbie Zuloaga, director of recruiting, could not be reached for comment.
#4 ERA Home Run Real Estate | 373 agents
Home Run Real Estate hires about 50 agents a year, owner Debbie Smith said. The company has three offices in Palm Beach, including Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach and Lake Worth.
Smith said she doesn’t pay for recruiting, and that ERA’s technology brings the majority of her agents. Home Run offers services like a seller security program, a Palm Beach County auction department and a Zap platform for its agents. Smith also provides a real estate boot camp, which takes agents from contract to closing.
Home Run, which was founded in 2003 and affiliated with ERA in July, does not charge its agents monthly fees. Smith would not disclose its commission split policy. It’s closed about $200 million in transactions this year, Smith said.
#5 United Realty Group | 356 agents
United Realty Group offers 100 percent commissions with a flat per-transaction fee. The firm has four branches in Palm Beach County, according to Melanie Brownell, director of recruitment. It hires on average 20 agents a month.
The majority of sales in the county come from single-family homes, she said.
United Realty, which is in the tri-county area and Orlando, doesn’t charge its agents desk or franchise fees or provide training. It offers a 100 percent commission with a $299 transaction fee.
Year-to-date, United Realty has $810.3 million in sales. The firm has 13 offices with two additional locations opening early next year. Top sales this year include a commercial sale in West Palm Beach in August for $4.8 million.
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The Family Central building is located at the corner of Kimberly Boulevard and Southwest 81st Avenue in North Lauderdale, Florida. The four-story office building totals 55,078 SF and is situated on 3.49 acres of land. Zoned B-2 in North Lauderdale, the building can be used for general office, medical or dental.
Keyes has 11 offices and four satellites in Palm Beach County, president Mike Pappas said.The family-owned and operated firm targets a mix of newly licensed and experienced agents. Keyes is on track to reach $4.3 billion in sales this year, and hires more than 1,100 agents a year statewide.
Rich Fleischer, regional vice president of Coldwell Banker east central region of Florida, said sales are split evenly between condos and single-family homes. “We do not focus solely on one type of property or one specific price point. Our overall goal is to ensure that the customer has the best real estate experience possible, regardless of property type,”Fleischer said.
Smith said she doesn’t pay for recruiting, and that ERA’s technology brings the majority of her agents. Home Run offers services like a seller security program, a Palm Beach County auction department and a Zap platform for its agents.Smith also provides a real estate boot camp, which takes agents from contract to closing.