Children's Healthcare to Build Revolutionary Center for Pediatrics

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta will break ground this week on the Center for Advanced Pediatrics--a revolutionary new pediatric ambulatory care center. The new 260,000-square-foot facility situated at I-85 and North Druid Hills Road in Brookhaven will bring together pediatric clinics and specialists under one roof.

The 8-story outpatient clinical facility will focus primarily on treating children with chronic and complex diseases, and will put complex care specialists, state-of-the-art technology and leading edge research for outpatient pediatric care under one roof for the first time in Georgia.

DeKalb County approved the project in late 2016. The Center for Advanced Pediatrics will house 457 physicians and employees and anticipates managing more than 100,000 patient visits in the first year.

Many patients come to Children’s with complex conditions that require frequent visits to multiple specialists and clinics. These kids and their families face the stress of coordinating with different care teams while also juggling logistics such as parking and traveling from one physician’s office to another.

“The Center for Advanced Pediatrics will be a pediatric destination for the Southeast because it will have both complex care and research capabilities in one facility,” said Patrick Frias, M.D., Chief Operating Officer of Children’s.

“This innovative facility will improve the patient experience and create a destination where much of what these families need medically for their pulmonology, neurology, cardiology and diabetes are just a few of the specialties that will move into the new building, which will be centrally located to Children’s three hospital campuses, Egleston, Hughes Spalding and Scottish Rite.

Almost an entire floor of the new building will be dedicated to treatment and research for breathing and airways, bringing together the areas of pulmonology, allergy/immunology, cystic fibrosis and sleep.

Basic imaging and phlebotomy services will be available in-house for quick and easy access. A pediatric research center in the building will provide a convenient, dedicated location for patients to participate in clinical research trials.

In addition to physician space, the new facility will have state-of-the-art telemedicine capabilities, flexible exam rooms, a teaching classroom and a demonstration kitchen to enhance specific clinical programs. Additional features of the site include gardens and green space around the building and a dedicated parking deck.

The first phase of the project includes constructing a 5-story parking deck, streetscape, landscaping, and building storm water management facilities. Additionally, utilities including the rerouting of sanitary sewer lines and storm water lines will be constructed to accommodate the future development, according to city documents.

The site where the building is going up is located on the property where the former 19-story Executive Park Motor Hotel was located and imploded in 2014.

The center is expected to be completed in late 2018.
 

Aston Martin Guns for Piece of Miami's Luxury Condo Market

Aston Martin is the latest luxury brand to gun for a piece of South Florida’s condo market. The British car maker — known for giving James Bond his wheels since Goldfinger — announced that it will partner with wealthy Argentine developers on a 66-story condo tower called the Aston Martin Residences at the mouth of the Miami River in downtown Miami.

The 817-foot luxury tower will include a spa and pool deck on levels 53 through 55, units with private elevators, 561 indoor parking spaces and a lighthouse on the top floor. Prices will range from $2,000,000 to $8,500,000 for conventional units; with penthouses priced up to $50,000,000.

A team from Aston Martin will design the building’s common areas and amenities, including lobbies, fitness centers and spa.

The company wants to make its mark “in all the cities where it’s important to be, and Miami is one of those,” said Katia Bassi, a vice president at Aston Martin.

Argentina’s Coto family, which paid a record $125 million two years ago for the vacant waterfront land next to the Epic Hotel, says it has enough horsepower to get the 391-unit project going.

Three factors will work in the tower’s favor, developer German Coto said at a press conference:

•    A brand name with global appeal.
•    A coveted location where the Miami River meets Biscayne Bay.
•    The Coto Family, with pockets so deep they can afford to build the high rise without a loan.

“We plan to give buyers a unique experience,” Coto said. “That’s why we thought about Aston Martin, because we’re talking about luxury, we’re talking about authenticity.”


Renderings show a soaring, sail-shaped structure, necessitated by the long and narrow site on the Miami River’s north bank.

Pricing hasn’t been set but will be competitive with the most expensive downtown condos - that means at least $1,000 per square foot.

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The Argentine developer plans to break ground this summer, with a completion date for the massive tower set in 2021, when the financial climate is expected to have improved.

The Aston Martin’s brand, as well as a prime location, will help the project stand out in a crowded market.

The Miami River, once an industrial waterway popular with drug runners, is now teeming with development. New condo and restaurant projects are going up on both banks. Developers eager for waterfront land have been snatching up properties.

The Coto family, one of Argentina’s wealthiest, owes its fortune to a national chain of supermarkets in Argentina. Coto Supermercado says it has annual sales of over $5 billion and employs 25,000 workers. It is also developing mixed-use residential and commercial projects around new supermarkets.

-    Developers are building Porsche Design Tower and Residences by Armani/Casa in Sunny Isles Beach.
-    Another team is developing Fendi Chateau Residences in Surfside.
-    Doronin has enlisted the Italian fashion house of Missoni for his Edgewater tower.
-    Two projects branded by Ritz-Carlton are also underway.

When built, the Aston Martin project will also connect a gap in Miami’s Riverwalk. The vacant site hasn’t been linked up to the city’s growing public walking trail. As part of an agreement with the Miami River Commission, which unanimously approved the project in April, the developers will build the riverwalk at 24 feet wide.

“It’s a grand building, the kind you’ll see on postcards,” said Horacio Stuart Aguirre, the river commission’s chairman. “And it does not detract from the enjoyment of the waterfront by regular people.”

Orbit Industries Opens New Distribution Center & Factory on East Coast

Orbit Industries has opened a 450,000-square-foot regional distribution center (RDC) and factory in Morristown, Tennessee, The facility is the first location Orbit has established outside of its main Los Angeles headquarters.

Between Orbit’s Morristown facility and Los Angeles warehouse, Orbit can deliver products anywhere within the continental United States in three days or less.

The Morristown RDC will stock all Orbit products, shipping all 6,000-plus catalog items to the East Coast out of the Tennessee facility.

“We are always looking for ways to better service our customers,” said Marcus Bannerman, Orbit’s national sales manager.

“Delivery time on the East Coast has always been a complication for us. Our new Tennessee facility will help provide a solution to our East Coast customers and get material to them faster than ever before.”

In addition to warehousing, Orbit will soon begin manufacturing at the plant to meet “Made in America” standards. Currently Orbit’s BCHS and RAP Plates are already manufactured in the United States. The introduction of this manufacturing plant will allow other products to soon begin following suit.

The manufacturing plant is expected to be fully operational before the end of 2017. Other future plans include a state-of-the-art training center, which will allow customers, visitors and representatives to test out Orbit’s more innovative prefab products.

Orbit’s product line is UL- or ETL-listed and includes steel junction boxes and accessories; NEMA enclosures; weatherproof products; electrical fittings and elbows; emergency/exit lighting; photoelectric controls; and LED lighting.

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#1 Story for 2016: $4 Billion Dream: Miami to Get Largest Mall in America

The American Dream is alive and well in the minds of mega-developer Triple Five Group. The family-owned conglomerate, is preparing to build the nation’s largest shopping mall and entertainment complex on more than 200 acres of former cow pasture by Interstate 75 and Florida’s Turnpike, near Hialeah in northwestern Miami-Dade County. 

The massive $4 billion project is being backed by the developer of the Mall of America in Minnesota, presently the largest entertainment and retail complex in the United States.

Some of the components include a 16-story indoor ski slope, a 20-slide water park, a submarine ride in a man-made salt water lake with an artificial reef, a climate-controlled theme park, a 14-screen 3-D movie theater, a performing arts center, a 2,000-room hotel and much, much more.

The mall would also have 3.5 million square feet of retail space. In contrast, Aventura Mall, the third-largest mall in the U.S. and Florida’s biggest, has 2.7 million square feet of retail.

When completed, American Dream Miami encompass 6.2 million square feet, making it the largest shopping mall and entertainment complex in the United States.

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The project is expected to create some 25,000 construction jobs, 9,500 permanent jobs, and will provide a historic boost to the county’s economy.

The mega-mall would add $1.36 billion in taxable value and generate $1.6 billion in annual sales of goods, services and leases. That would generate $48.5 million in revenue for local taxing authorities, such as the county and the school board, and $93.6 million in sales tax for the state.

Triple Five Group hopes to break ground in early 2017 and complete the project in late 2019.

The Canadian-based development company is controlled by the billionaire Ghermezian family, which has ventures in real estate development, solar energy, oil drilling, vehicle manufacturing and mining.

This will not be the family’s first super-mall. In 1981, Triple Five built the 5.3 million-square-foot West Edmonton Mall in Alberta. Now the largest mall in North America, West Edmonton Mall has a giant water park, carnival rides, a casino and other forms of amusement.

In 1992 the Ghermezians had co–developed the 4.2 million-square-foot Mall of America in Minnesota, with an aquarium and the Nickelodeon Universe theme park among its features.

The Mall of America is the largest shopping mall in the United States; Triple Five recently broke ground on a $325 million project to expand it further.

Triple Five is also constructing American Dream Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a 4.8-million-square-foot retail and entertainment facility near MetLife Stadium.

Using $2.5 billion in private bond money and $1 billion from the state of New Jersey, Triple Five will be building hundreds of stores, dozens of restaurants, a 12-story-tall ski slope, a 200-foot drop ride, a giant aquarium and a water park.

#2 Story for 2016: Massive Development Planned by Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody

A massive mixed-use development, known as High Street, will soon begin to rise across the street from the Dunwoody MARTA station, near the under construction State Farm campus. The project, which has been in the works for more than a year at the intersection of Hammond Drive and Perimeter Center Parkway, is just one of many that promise to bring density to the area previously dominated by Perimeter Mall, the epitome of 'suburbanization'.

Renderings from Boston-based GID Urban Development, offer a glimpse at a mini-city, complete with office high-rises and six-story apartments atop retail, all surrounding a large linear park.

The posh buildings offer an eclectic array of styles.

The 42-acre High Street development is conceived as a premier mixed-use project that will transform Atlanta's Perimeter Center area and become its urban heart.

High Street will provide a sophisticated mix of high-, mid- and low-rise buildings that integrate residential, retail, restaurant, office, hotel and parking uses with signature open spaces.

The project's master plan takes shape around a dynamic public space that forms the social core of the community.

A series of internal districts emphasize the kind of variety in architectural style and programmatic use that distinguishes authentically memorable urban settings.

Tree-lined streets and wide sidewalks accentuate the project's respect for pedestrians, deftly weaving High Street into the surrounding city.

Based on LEED Neighborhood Development principles, the project demonstrates a consistent commitment to green building and smart growth.

Upon completion, High Street will feature:

• 8 million square feet of mixed-use space
• 400,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space
• 3,000 residential units
• 1 million square feet of Class-A office space
• 750 hotel rooms
• 8,500 parking spaces
• New streets, landscaped promenades, signature parks and plazas

Energizing its living and work dynamic, High Street includes a distinctive retail and restaurant scene that will draw residents, workers, consumers and visitors.

Its adjacency to the local MARTA rail system will make High Street a destination attraction and an icon of sustainable, transit-oriented development.

#3 Story for 2016: Two 30-Story Condo Towers to Rise in West Palm Beach

Billionaire developer Jeff Greene has received approval from the City of West Palm to construct a $250 million mixed-use project at 550 North Quadrille Boulevard. The buildings will be shiny modern and massive – and the tallest in the city.

The 829,000-square-foot development, called One West Palm, will include two 30-story towers, retail shops, restaurants, office space, a hotel and luxury condominiums.

The project, which takes up an entire block on the north side of downtown, will be comprised of two modern towers that look like stacked blocks, designed by Arquitectonica of Miami.

The ground level will feature retail shops, restaurants and corner parks. One tower includes 410,000 square feet of Class A office space. The other will feature a five-star hotel with 209 guest suites and 84 luxury condos above that.

The 3.3-acre project also features a day-care center and a 34,000-square-foot fitness center that includes indoor tennis courts — to complement the plan’s outdoor tennis courts.

The residential building also will include a high-end restaurant and bar on the top floor.

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The project, which will be one of the most complex and architecturally advanced developments in the city’s history, will be financed with a construction loan and equity put up by Mr. Greene.

The developer hopes to break ground on the project within three months and finish building it two years later.

“There’s nothing like it in West Palm Beach, maybe even all of Palm Beach County,” Greene says. The development provides one-stop living for upscale professionals.

“There’s everything you can imagine that you’d need, right across the bridge from Palm Beach,” the developer said. The bridge entrance lies on Quadrille, one-and-a-half blocks east of the project.

There is tremendous demand for office space in West Palm Beach, given that the last Class A building to open was CityPlace Tower at 520 Okeechobee Boulevard in 2008 — and that was the first one built since 1989.

The market for rental apartments and condominiums is very strong in West Palm Beach, and as for the hotel, there are none in the area that have the luxury amenities which are planned.

It’s the biggest of well over $1 billion in projects coming out of the ground or about to in West Palm, as one vacant downtown lot after another fills with apartment towers, hotels, shops, restaurants and an All Aboard Florida station to draw 30-plus trains a day.

The old city hall’s being redeveloped, as is the marina property in front of it. The Bristol luxury condo is about to rise from the former site of the Chapel by the Lake, on South Flagler Drive.

Developer Jeff Greene, a Palm Beach billionaire, has quickly become downtown’s biggest landowner, snapping up properties in and around the business district.

Just west of downtown, he recently completed a 548-apartment project called Cameron Estates.

And he just closed on another 11 acres on the Clear Lake waterfront next to it, between Okeechobee Boulevard and I-95. North of downtown, he has assembled land near Currie Park for residential development and possibly a Publix.

The developer recently acquired a 3.21-acre property at 419 Lakeview Avenue, a few blocks east of CityPlace, for $24 million, where he has plans to construct a five-star hotel, luxury condominiums, and a Class A office tower.

He plans to build high-end amenities, such a fitness center, indoor tennis courts, and a food and beverage program by a celebrity chef.

#4 Story for 2016: Hard Rock to Build 800-Room Guitar-Shaped Hotel & Casino

The oversized guitar has long been a beacon for the Hard Rock Casino chain, but the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood is looking to take to take that iconic symbol to new heights.

Plans for a colossal guitar-shaped hotel tower stretching 34 stories and containing 800 rooms were unveiled this week during a news conference with Gov. Rick Scott.

The tower is the feature attraction in the Seminole Tribe's $1.8 billion expansion plans. The structure looks every bit a guitar in scale but doesn't have a neck.

"We could have easily just built some rectangular building ... but the tribe is once again trying to create something that is iconic, that creates international tourism coming to Florida," said Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen. "We truly believe that that design alone will create additional tourism."

The expansion plans, contingent on the Legislature's approval of a deal brokered between the tribe and the governor, include the hotel tower and restaurants. The expansion is expected to bring nearly 20,000 jobs to Florida, the Seminoles said.

The hotel will increase the complex's rooms to 1,273 and add five new restaurants, a buffet and nightclub at its complex on U.S. 441 north of Sterling Road.

The tribe is committed to rivaling Las Vegas and other casino destinations around the world. "We truly think this will rival not only anything in Florida, but Atlantis and anything in the world," Allen said, pointing to an artist rendering on an easel.

The expansion includes spending almost $100 million on swimming pool space, Allen said. The plan adds a second pool and new pool bar. "Florida is about pools and the beaches and the ocean."

He said that while the aim is to create a destination that will continue to attract crowds many years from now, the expansion doesn't stretch far beyond the casino's current footprint.

While Allen focused on the Hollywood expansion, he also discussed plans for the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa, which will have new poker rooms, stores and restaurants.

The Tampa hotel and casino will also add a new tower with 500 hotel rooms and a live entertainment venue with up to 2,000 seats.

For the more affluent gamblers, there will be a helipad.

Scott asked numerous questions during the presentation. His verdict at the end: "Impressive."

Several business owners who work with the Seminole Tribe stood at a microphone and discussed how their businesses had been affected by the casinos.

A flower shop owner who started working with the Seminoles in 2010, said her business has grown from five employees to more than 100 full-and part-time employees. She said she buys and installs over 35,000 flowers annually at the casino.

From the onset, the emphasis was jobs. "It would be devastating" if the proposed deal doesn't pass.
Scott rehashed the numbers: 3,800 jobs lost if the gambling deal isn't signed and 4,800 direct and indirect jobs created, outside of construction jobs, if it passes.

The gambling deal would bring $3 billion to the state over the next seven years. In return, the Seminoles would get the exclusive right to have roulette, craps and other table games in its seven casinos.

The deal also caps the number of slots and tables casinos can have, but critics point out that the caps are so large they are essentially meaningless, including a 6,000-slot limit at any one casino.

The agreement also states that the Legislature can approve new casinos in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, a limited amount of blackjack tables in parimutuels and even allowing the race tracks to stop racing and simply operate as casinos.