Two Fort Lauderdale Warehouse Districts Are Becoming Mixed-Use Neighborhoods. That Changes the Math for Broward Industrial

Two of Fort Lauderdale’s best-known warehouse districts are being transformed at once: Hines and Urban Street Development are leading a $500 million redevelopment of 5.6 acres in FAT Village, and the Thrive Art District has converted more than 80,000 square feet of former warehouse space in Progresso Village into studios, shops and restaurants. Both are good news for the neighborhoods involved. Both also remove old industrial space from one of the tightest submarkets in Broward County.

What is changing

FAT Village, in Flagler Village, spent years as a creative district of artist studios and galleries in old warehouses. The redevelopment, targeted for completion in 2027, will bring apartments, restaurants, retail, offices and public space, including T3 FAT Village, a mass timber office building. A short distance away, the five-acre Thrive Art District can accommodate more than 60 local businesses around a 17,000-square-foot plaza, with about $3.9 million in community redevelopment agency funding for streetscape improvements. Traded covered both projects in September.

Why it matters for industrial

Close-in warehouse districts like these once housed the contractors, printers, fabricators, distributors and repair shops that serve downtown Fort Lauderdale and the beach. As they convert to higher uses, those businesses do not disappear. They move west and north, competing for a shrinking stock of small industrial buildings. Broward closed the second quarter with 5.4% overall industrial vacancy, according to Cushman & Wakefield, and small functional space near the urban core is considerably tighter than that.

The conversions also set land values. When a warehouse parcel near downtown can support apartments, offices or a dining district, an industrial user can rarely compete on price. That is a gain for the landowner and a loss for the businesses that need to be close to their customers.

What this means for you

If you own a small warehouse near downtown Fort Lauderdale, Flagler Village or the Sistrunk and Progresso corridors, your land may be worth more for redevelopment than as industrial space, and it is worth knowing both numbers. If you are an industrial tenant in one of these areas, plan your next move early and expect to look further west. If you own industrial space in Oakland Park, Pompano Beach or central Broward, displaced businesses are your next tenants.

AXCESS Commercial helps Broward owners value land and buildings, and leases space, lists properties for sale and manages industrial buildings across the county.

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