Kushner plans mixed-use project in downtown Fort Lauderdale

Kushner Companies has won approval to bring a four-tower mixed-use development to downtown Fort Lauderdale with 1,300 apartments, offices and retail, and possibly a hotel.

Construction of the Broward Boulevard project is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2022 and be completed in phases in 2026, said Laurent Morali, president of New York-based Kushner Companies. The real deal.

The Fort Lauderdale City Commission on Tuesday night gave final approval to a proposed rezoning by Kushner for the 4.2-acre development site at 200, 300 and 520 Broward Boulevard. The zoning changed from “Regional Activity Center-West Mixed-Use” to “Regional Activity Center-Downtown”, Fort Lauderdale’s downtown high-density zoning district.

Morali said Kushner had a contract with Swire Properties of Hong Kong to acquire the site for $49 million. He said the project will represent “a western expansion” of the commercial district a few blocks east toward Las Olas Boulevard.

Still in the conceptual stage, the development near Brightline Station in Fort Lauderdale will also include undetermined amounts of ground-level office and retail space, Morali said.

“Maybe there is a hotel. We are thinking about it,” he said. “We are in the second round of this project.”

Morali said the company is interviewing architectural firms for the project and has not yet chosen any.

The unnamed mixed-use development, known informally at Kushner Companies as the “Broward Crossing” project, will require debt and equity investments totaling $700 million, Morali said. The company has not begun seeking a construction loan to finance the development, he said.

Kushner is active elsewhere in South Florida. “We have 10 locations in Florida, and we’ve been there for half a decade,” Morali said.

The company and partner Block Capital opened Wynd 27 and Wynd 28 in March, a mixed-use development in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood with 152 apartments, 33,500 square feet of retail space and 46,000 square feet of office space.

Kushner is also planning a groundbreaking event on June 17 to mark the start of construction on 2000 Biscayne, a 400-unit residential tower at 2000 Biscayne Boulevard and other nearby plots in Miami.