09 Sep Fort Lauderdale’s development boom reaches Sistrunk Boulevard
Victor G. Harvey wants to be part of Sistrunk Boulevard’s future while paying tribute to its past. In June, Harvey, founder of Victor George Spirits, broke ground on a 15,000-square-foot building at 1017 Sistrunk Blvd. that will include a distillery, a restaurant, a cigar lounge and a rooftop bar. The Victory Building, Harvey said, will be just a few blocks away from where the Victory Theater stood before it was demolished in 1989. In the 1940s, the Victory Theater was the only Broward County venue where the Black community could legally watch movies. “The history that is behind that, I want to be able to preserve some form of that,” Harvey said. “I wanted to build something in the community that will create jobs, and be a place to wine and dine.”
The Victory Building is just one of several new projects and businesses that are taking root on Sistrunk Boulevard, a corridor named after Dr. James Sistrunk, a physician who founded Broward’s first, and only, hospital for African Americans in 1938. Also known as Northwest Sixth Street, Sistrunk Boulevard west of the railroad tracks was a flourishing main street for Fort Lauderdale’s Black community until it hit hard times in the 1980s.But now, real estate investors are flocking toward Sistrunk thanks to a combination of economic incentives, cheap land and a development boom in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
“Things are beginning to move in such a way that real estate on Sistrunk Boulevard has become more attractive,” said Clarence E. Woods III, manager of the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency.
The bulk of development taking place on or near Sistrunk is occurring in the Flagler Arts & Technology Village and Progresso Village neighborhoods just east of the railroad tracks. Those projects include Related Group’s 16-story The Gallery at FAT Village, Thrive Progresso Arts District and the Sistrunk Marketplace food hall.The most massive project in this area is T3 FAT Village, which Houston-based Hines and Fort Lauderdale-based Urban Street Development are building on 5.6 acres of land along North Andrews Avenue between Northwest Fifth Street and Sistrunk Boulevard.
“There are a ton of opportunities on Sistrunk,” Urban Street Development co-founder Alan Hooper said. “We are a major anchor on one end of Sistrunk Boulevard, and there are people who are investing further west.” One example of some of the western development is The Adderley, a pair of six-story apartment buildings with more than 400 units developed by Altis Cardinal and built by Verdex Construction at 501 N.W. Seventh Ave., in the Dorsey Riverbend neighborhood.
Also active in the area is Fuse Group Investment Cos. which has been investing in Sistrunk properties since 2016. Now based in a newly renovated retail and office complex at 900 N.W. Sxith St., Fuse Group is building The Arcadian, an eight-story apartment project with 480 units, 15,000 square feet of retail and a six-story Class A office building at 909 N.W. Sistrunk Blvd.
“I definitely see more and more people moving into this area,” Fuse Group CEO Eyal Peretz said. “We will see a lot of businesses moving here, too, which will enhance the experience and the day-to-day life.”
To minimize gentrification, the Fort Lauderdale CRA has offered financial incentives to developers that include affordable and workforce housing in their projects and set aside retail space for local businesses, CRA manager Clarence Woods said. And to encourage revitalization, the CRA has helped with grants and low-interest loans for longtime landowners to improve their properties.
“As a CRA, we can provide incentives that will help increase the bottom line of any private investor,” Woods said.
Thanks to the CRA’s assistance and the development boom further east, “there’s more going on now than there has been in the last 10 years, easy,” said William J. Cone Jr., an attorney whose family has owned Cone Plaza at 1018 Sistrunk Blvd. since the 1950s, Cone said he intends to replace Cone Plaza, built in 1954, with a new 12,000-square-foot commercial building that will be right across the street from Harvey’s Victory Building.
“There are a lot more grants out there,” Cone said. “And because the area is developing so fast, you have a situation where property values are up and you have more options with bank financing and credit.”
Harvey said the Victory Building is partially financed by a $2.45 million forgivable loan from the CRA. Thanks to a “great partnership” with the CRA, Harvey said he will be able to build a distillery and entertainment complex that will employ up to 70 locals. And he won’t be alone. The Victory Building is near newly opened restaurants such as B&D Trap Restaurant at 1551 Sistrunk Blvd., and Donna’s Caribbean Restaurant at 2010 Sistrunk Blvd. And more are coming in, Harvey said.
“I think the community is behind this. They want to see more commercial businesses, not just all apartments,” he said, adding: “This is going to become the next destination of Fort Lauderdale.”
By Erik Bojnansky – Reporter, South Florida Business Journal