South Florida’s Top Office Leases in 2022
By Julia Echikson December 29, 2022 3:30 pm
reprints
Even as a new crop of high-flying companies toured the Miami market in 2022, helping to turn the city into the Wall Street or Silicon Valley of the South, locals and suburban markets ruled this year’s list of South Florida’s biggest office leases — again.
Three of the top five deals were renewals outside of South Florida’s major cities: software firm UKG in Weston, logistics firm DHL in Plantation, and ADT Security Services in Boca Raton. All the deals were for national or regional headquarters. Only one new-to-market tenant made the tally: law firm Kirkland & Ellis.
While the South Florida office market weathered the rise of remote work better than others (ahem, San Francisco), the region wasn’t completely exempt. ADT’s lease, despite being South Florida’s fourth largest lease, marked a 25 percent reduction in square footage for an office that the tenant has held since 2012.
But 2022 provided bright spots too, most notably for 830 Brickell. As the first office tower erected in Miami over the past decade, the 55-story development garnered much hype both in 2022 and 2021 as high-profile companies toured the market and filled up its 640,000 square feet. The property, developed by Vlad Doronin’s Oko Group and Cain International, took two slots on the top five list, including Miami’s largest lease, even as its asking rent breached $120 a square foot, a record for the city.
Citywide, 830 Brickell’s deals helped place the Magic City as a top five office market in the U.S., per JLL’s tally of occupation costs, the amount of property-related expenses that a tenant pays. That means Miami beat out other major metropolitan cities such as Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.
In a true sign of 830 Brickell’s success, other developers, including high-profile ones like Related Companies’ Stephen Ross and Michael Shvo, are playing catch-up and launching their own office developments in the Miami area — setting the stage for a new round of notable lease announcements next year.
Here, in list form, are the top five deals of 2022:
- UKG, Weston Pointe, 140K
- DHL, Cornerstone II, 110K SQ
- Kirkland & Ellis, 830 Brickell, 115K SQ
- ADT Security Services, Boca Raton North, 104K SQ
- Santander Banks, 830 Brickell, 95K SQ
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
