Developer proposes 13-story Southbank apartment tower

[thelakelander]

It should be taken as a positive.  It's one less surface parking lot to deal with.

[ProjectMaximus]

Simms is back! Amazing. Thanks for the photo.

[jcjohnpaint]

Just broke ground on the townhomes on college and willow branch in riverside

[bl8jaxnative]

What are the plans for changes to streets and intersections there?  Any?   They're pretty messy right now.  I've found out of town visitors quickly notice the whole Prudential / Acosta / San Marco thing takes F O R E V E R.  And during rush hour it backs up.   I'm curious how all that extra traffic from another 200 units.   

[acme54321]

They aren't doing anything that I'm aware of

[Charles Hunter]

They will probably use the existing driveway connection immediately adjacent to the railroad crossing - making it nearly impossible for apartment dwellers to turn left.
Not that I think they are going to do it, the best traffic solution would be to tie in at the existing Palm Avenue intersection - which could be signalized.
Or ... they could do a round-about at Palm, instead of a signal. 

[acme54321]

They only own the narrow driveway so nothing is going to happen at Palm Ave.  A round about there isn't physically possible.

[simms3]

Tower crane going up now:

[MusicMan]

I get the desire for 50 story buildings, but what if that turned into a second Berkman II? How would that look with a 50 story skeleton sitting on the river, unfinished for a decade or 2......?

[marcuscnelson]

I get the desire for 50 story buildings, but what if that turned into a second Berkman II? How would that look with a 50 story skeleton sitting on the river, unfinished for a decade or 2......?

I don't think anyone who supports taller buildings downtown does so with the expectation that they wouldn't be finished. No one wants a Berkman II 2.

[thelakelander]

I'd rather have a 50 story unfinished tower than what the General Development Corporation did to the state of Florida during the 1950s and 60s.

[jaxlongtimer]

I'd rather have a 50 story unfinished tower than what the General Development Corporation did to the state of Florida during the 1950s and 60s.

Not just in the 50's and 60's but into the 90's and beyond under their new name of Atlantic Gulf Communities following their fraud and scandal riddled bankruptcy.  So, you can also thank them for developing the 4,000+ acre Julington Creek Plantation in St. Johns County which they also bankrupted.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1995-10-22-9510200779-story.html
[Emphasis added]

October 22, 1995

By JAY WEAVER Business Writer
SUN-SENTINEL

Once a big-shot residential developer, General Development Corp. fell on its face in the early 1990s in one of the country's biggest consumer-fraud cases.

Thousands of people from the Northeast had bought lots and homes in new Florida communities built by General Development - only to discover they were overcharged for them.

In 1992, the Miami-based land developer and home builder pleaded guilty to fraud charges under bankruptcy protection and set up a $160 million restitution fund. The company's four senior executives were convicted and sentenced to prison.

But three years later, after a bankruptcy reorganization, General Development has a different name and mission. Its successor, Atlantic Gulf Communities Corp., is betting its future on 4,270 acres of valuable land it owns in the hot-selling home market of southwest Broward County.

But unlike its predecessor, Atlantic Gulf plans to develop the land and sell it off to home builders.

While the company is forging a new direction for itself, analysts say Atlantic Gulf still must reduce a mountain of debt as it moves ahead with residential projects in Miramar, Pembroke Pines and other growing communities around Orlando and Jacksonville.

"In its three short years, Atlantic Gulf has had more than a few problems of its own," writes Anthony Marchese, author of The Inside Market, a newsletter based in Summit, N.J.

"It has lost $51 million since its founding, and debt exceeds equity by a ratio of three to one."

But Marchese stresses positive developments: a corporate restructuring, stock buying by Atlantic Gulf executives and the selling of landholdings in secondary Florida markets.

"The stock's a buy for speculative, risk-tolerant investors only, with a target of $15 over the next 12 months," Marchese writes. The stock, traded under the symbol AGLF on the Nasdaq exchange, closed at $7 on Friday.

Atlantic Gulf President Larry Rutherford - who joined General Development as an executive vice president a few months after it filed for bankruptcy in April 1990 - agreed with the analyst's outlook.

"It's a speculative stock with a lot of debt overhang," Rutherford, 49, said in Atlantic Gulf's Coconut Grove office overlooking Biscayne Bay. "But I'm optimistic we're going to grow with Florida and Broward County."

He stressed that Atlantic Gulf is a skeleton of its former self - nimble and ready to stage a corporate turnaround.

Atlantic Gulf has only 145 employees, the result of a massive restructuring from 1990 when General Development had 3,000 employees, $1 billion in assets and $5.8 billion in filed claims by creditors from General Development's bankruptcy. That figure was reduced to $1 billion in allowed claims, which was paid in part with Atlantic Gulf stock.

Today, Atlantic Gulf has $352 million in assets and liabilities of $287 million.

To move ahead, Rutherford said, Atlantic Gulf must sell more of its 55,000 acres in secondary Florida markets, pay off or refinance $200 million in debt due by 1998 and begin developing its residential projects in southwest Broward.

"It's a balancing act that will tip us toward profitability next year," said Rutherford, who previously was chief executive officer at Gulfstream Land and Development Corp., which developed Jacaranda in Plantation.

Atlantic Gulf lost $4.95 million, or 51 cents per share, during the second quarter ending June 30, compared with losses of $10.03 million, or $1.04 per share, in the same period last year.

Rutherford hopes to reverse that losing streak, in part with the gold mine he sees in southwest Broward.

Last month, Atlantic Gulf bought 1,750 acres west of Interstate 75 for $39.5 million. It was the prominent site of former Blockbuster Entertainment Chairman H. Wayne Huizenga's dream for a sports and theme park complex. His Blockbuster Park plan was killed by entertainment conglomerate Viacom Inc. after it bought the giant video-rental chain last year.

To buy and develop the site along the Miramar Parkway, Atlantic Gulf formed a partnership with wealthy brothers from Virginia, Art and Steven Sandler. Their plan for the new development, Country Lakes, calls for about 4,200 single-family homes, townhouses and rental apartments, along with retail and office development. The homes would be priced between $125,000 and $175,000 - in sync with sales in southwest Broward.

The Country Lakes site also is within a few miles of Atlantic Gulf's other residential projects: Windsor Palms and Sunset Lakes in Miramar and Summerchase in Pembroke Pines. Those three projects would amount to 3,000 additional single-family homes - but only ground has been broken on Windsor Palms.

When Atlantic Gulf's four developments are built, the real estate would be worth an estimated $1 billion, Rutherford said.

For the Country Lakes project, the Sandler brothers' majority investment was critical to Atlantic Gulf, which lacked the capital and borrowing capacity to do it alone.

The Sandlers, who made a fortune this summer when Sara Lee Corp. acquired the brothers' majority interest in Consolidated Foodservice Cos., have real estate investments in southeastern Virginia and Washington, D.C., suburbs. Steven Sandler said they've been eyeing an opportunity to enter the Florida market and seized it with Atlantic Gulf.

"They know what they're doing, and that's the only thing that matters to me," Steven Sandler said.

The Country Lakes partnership's timing might be right, as long as demand remains strong and the homes are affordable.

No doubt the southwest Broward real estate market has slowed down and become more competitive since its explosive growth after Hurricane Andrew and the resulting migration of Dade County homeowners northward. But real estate experts say it's expected to remain one of the most robust in the country through the next decade because of South Florida's steady growth.

"The reality is, Broward will continue to experience good growth and Dade will throw more and more buyers into that market," said Lewis Goodkin, a Miami real estate analyst. "Everyone talks about Hurricane Andrew [in 1992). What happened is the hurricane accelerated that growth, but the momentum is still strong."

Goodkin said Atlantic Gulf's landholdings in Miramar will appeal to home builders because of the diminishing number of parcels available in Southwest Broward.

David Adler, president of the Builders Association of South Florida, said his Miami-based home-building company would like to buy one.

"We're very interested in Atlantic Gulf's new sites," said Adler, who is building a few residential projects in Southwest Broward, including Atlantic Gulf's Windsor Palms in Miramar.

Asked about the developer's prospects for recovery, he said: "We not only think they're going to rise out of the ashes [of the bankruptcy reorganization), they're going to be a major shaper of southwest Broward."

Since the early 1990s, the most successful developer in that market has been SilverLakes. It has sold 2,500 homes in Pembroke Pines, and is developing another 2,500 in Miramar.

Don Neuerman, director of sales and marketing at SilverLakes, seems unfazed by Atlantic Gulf's bold challenge in those two fast-growing cities.

"They may be the new player in town," he said, "but we're going to be shoulder to shoulder with them."

[marcuscnelson]

Well... I've learned something today.

[acme54321]

GDC provided great places for many of Florida's young people to  do all sorts of fun activities outdoors without and worry about supervision or the law

[thelakelander]

Lol, now that they certainly did!