Deerfield Beach Office Complex Redevelopment Would Add 360 Apartments
By Mike Seemuth July 21, 2021 12:59 pm
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The owner of an office complex near Interstate 95 in Deerfield Beach, Fla., is planning a mixed-use redevelopment of the property with 360 apartments.
Boca Raton-based real estate firm Grover Corlew, led by principals Mark Corlew and Anuj Grover acquired the Hillsboro Center office complex in March 2019 for $32.5 million.
The Deerfield Beach City Commission voted Tuesday night to grant preliminary approval of a land-use change for the five-building office complex located at 600 and 700 West Hillsboro Boulevard.
Final approval is pending county and state reviews of the land-use change. It would allow Grover Corlew to build an eight-story, 360-unit apartment building; a 7.5-level parking garage; and as much as 70,000 square feet of new office space at the 16.5-acre complex.
Grover Corlew is now conducting a $1 million renovation of the lobby in a six-story office building at Hillsboro Center, while planning to raze a two-story office building there. “We are going to be removing it and replacing it with the residential building,” Dennis Mele, an attorney for the real estate firm, told Deerfield Beach commissioners at their meeting Tuesday night.
The demolition would reduce total office space at Hillsboro Center by 20 percent, from 216,101 square feet in five buildings to about 172,000 square feet in four buildings.
Grover Corlew is pursuing approval to build as much as 70,000 square feet of new office space, but the first phase of the firm’s planned mixed-use redevelopment of Hillsboro Center would be the multifamily residential component, according to a conceptual site plan. The new office space would be in two new office buildings, Mele said.
Hillsboro Center was 88.3 percent leased when Grover Corlew acquired the office complex for about $150 per square foot in 2019, according to a press release issued at the time. A spokeswoman for Grover Corlew said Tuesday that she did not have the current occupancy rate for Hillsboro Center.
DNA Labs International — a fast-growing, forensic DNA lab operator — recently leased 25,000 square feet at Hillsboro Center for its headquarters, Commercial Observer previously reported. Other office tenants include Complex Clinical Management, Darby Dental Supply, Dart Container Sales, Pylon Manufacturing, and SmartProcure.
The residential makeover of Hillsboro Center is one of several major real estate investments in the suburban area surrounding its location next to I-95 and close to the Dixie Highway flyover bridge, which connects Deerfield Beach and nearby Boca Raton.
Just west of Hillsboro Center, for example, Ram Realty Advisors developed the 226-unit Indigo Gardens apartment complex (now known as Cortland Deerfield Station) and sold the property to Atlanta-based Cortland for $70 million in June. Another nearby property along I-95 is the headquarters of Toyota distributor JM Family Enterprises, which launched a three-year, $150 million renovation of its corporate campus in 2018.
Update: This story has been updated with the correct names of the Grover Corlew principals.
