Offices Planned For Mall Revamp
The South Florida Business News | By: Paola Iuspa-Abbot
The Codina Group plans to build an office complex on 8.2 acres at the struggling Town & Country Center as part of its effort to revamp the mall.
Reconfiguration of the 19-year old retail complex’s 601,942 square feet of leasable space includes the addition of 134,000 square feet of medical office condominiums on open land and parking on the northeast corner of the center fronting Southwest 117th Avenue. The 25-acre Town & Country property spreads from Southwest 88th Street, or North Kendall Drive, to 82nd Street, and from 117th Avenue to the Florida Turnpike Extension.
“There is a demand for this type of product,” said Kenneth Weston, president of Kenneth Weston & Associates, Inc., a real estate broker in Miami. “The medical market in Kendall has a 97 percent occupancy rate.”
Weston, considered the czar of the medical office condo market, said he knew of Codina’s plan but declined to give details because he is in talks with the developer to market the offices. Weston said medical office buildings near Baptist Hospital make sense. Many medical professionals buy space ranging from 1,250 square feet to 12,000 square feet and pay from $225 per square foot to $275 per square foot for unfinished space or from $250 per square foot to $300 per square foot for finished space, Weston said.