Moishe Mana. Courtesy photo

South Florida downtowns are on the cusp of growth that's put them on the map as major urban centers — yet two big-name developers have opted to sit on their downtown properties.

Moishe Mana, the Israeli-born entrepreneur best known as being one of the Wynwood redevelopment pioneers, has invested more than $301 million buying about 51 properties in Miami's Central Business District, but signs of his planned mixed-use project are yet to be seen. The exception is a recent announcement from his brokers that Mana's looking for Blockchain or other tech companies to lease six floors of offices at 100 E. Flagler St.

In downtown West Palm Beach, Jeff Greene, the unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial candidate this year, hasn't moved on his project, the 30-story One West Palm office tower at 550 Quadrille Blvd., despite reportedly getting city approval more than two years ago.

Jeff Greene. Photo: AP

Are the two big-name developers in turn then putting the brakes on downtown redevelopment? The answer depends on whom you ask.

A Boca Raton real estate attorney said yes.

Andrew Blasi.

“It certainly slows down the development,” said Andrew Blasi, shareholder at Shapiro, Blasi, Wasserman & Hermann in Boca Raton. “I guess the reality is anybody is free to go buy land speculatively and land bank it. But of course if you get big developers going out and buying land speculatively and land banking it, it does nothing for the community redevelopment.”

Part of it, Blasi added, is the name recognition and celebrity-like status Greene has in Palm Beach County.

“Jeff is a very well-known, very highly regarded and a very prominent local figure,” Blasi said. “When people have that kind of prominence and celebrity, their name on things, certainly it forces people to notice more so than some(one) unknown. Certainly a developer with that kind of celebrity could move the needle perhaps more so that someone who is not that well-known.”

Mana and Greene didn't return requests for comment on the status of their projects, why they haven't developed and Blasi's assertions. When a reporter reached Greene by phone and explained the premise of the article, he said he's working on multiple projects and then asked questions be emailed to him, but he didn't reply with answers by the time this article went to press.

In August, shortly before the primary election Greene lost, he told The Palm Beach Post that he won't move on with One West Palm in part because the city approved the Okeechobee Business District for a part of downtown. The district allows buildings as tall as 25 stories in an area previously limited to five stories.

“As long as the city has an uncertain zoning climate, and thinks nothing of changing the zoning of a five-story building to 25 stories, most developers will be uncomfortable investing enormous amounts of capital,” Greene told the Post at the time. “Developers have to know what the rules are.”

As for Mana, his holdings are along and near Flagler Street, which was the main downtown drag during the neighborhood's heyday in the 1920s, and as such he might aptly name his project Flagler Village, said Mika Mattingly, who has brokered the majority of Mana's acquisitions there.

Mana's holdings aren't contiguous, but they are within walking distance from each other and will be redeveloped with an eye toward creating a walkable community, Mattingly, co-leader of the South Florida urban core division at Colliers International, has said.

His purchases include: The 10,949-square-foot, two-story building at 100 S. Miami Ave.;  the 9,000-square-foot, two-story White Building at 201 E. Flagler St.; at least 25,624 square feet of offices at 100 E. Flagler St.; the 172,475-square-foot Biscayne Building at 19 W. Flagler St.; and the 27,078 -square-foot building at 55 NE First St.

“It's really just a waiting game. For him timing is everything, and he is prepared for that moment,” Mattingly said. “But I don't have a definite date.”

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Not everyone agreed with Blasi's assertion that Mana and Greene are slowing the pace of downtown growth.