When Mexico City-based real estate developer Inmobiliaria Brom set out to build its first U.S. project, it looked for a central location with available land and little office space.

It settled on Aventura, and it's not the only one. There is 436,514 square feet under construction in the city with internationally known Aventura Mall and high-end condominium towers. All will be Class A offices in a city where most of the existing inventory, nearly 799,000 square feet of a total of 1.13 million square feet, already is Class A, according to JLL data.

"Everything attracts me about the city," said Inmobiliaria Brom partner Ariel Bromberg. "We are at the border of two counties. We are close to Fort Lauderdale airport. The city is really booming. It's very international. I don't see anything that is not attracting us."

Aventura's office market is focusing on high-end corporate towers like Inmobiliaria's Optima complex and a medical district with offices for physicians and other health care and wellness providers.

Forum Aventura tower.

Construction of the 12-story, 96,000-square-foot Forum Aventura at 19790 W. Dixie Highway just outside city limits wrapped up last year. The Optima complex at 21500 Biscayne Blvd. is to get its biggest building later this year when the 28-story, 300,000-square-foot Optima Onyx opens in Hallandale Beach, Broward County's southernmost city bordering Aventura. On the Aventura side, the nine-story, 84,401-square-foot Optima White and four-story, 29,621-square-foot Optima Red were completed in 2013.

The budding medical district is growing following expansion of Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, which upgraded and added 22 rooms in a $75.6 million emergency room buildout. It then embarked on a 513-space garage and a three-story, 60-bed patient tower bringing the total number of hospital beds to nearly 500. The hospital owned by publicly traded HCA Healthcare Inc. three years ago obtained a Level Two trauma designation, one of two in Miami-Dade County.

North of the hospital, the 12-story Aventura Medical Tower was completed last year, bringing 105,000 square feet of medical office condos. The tower at 2801 NE 213th St. is comprised of a seven-story, 472-space garage under five stories of offices.

On its heels to the east will be the medical office project Ivory 214 and 12 I 12 Aventura, 10-story buildings to be connected by a pedestrian bridge over 28th Court west of Biscayne Boulevard.

Ivory will have 40,000 square feet of office condos in over 30 suites, with all but two left for sale. About 12,000 square feet of coworking space also is intended for health care providers. A 100-key Tapestry Collection by Hilton hotel will accommodate extended stays for patients and their families. Ivory is set for occupancy in the second quarter.

Next door, the L-shaped 12 I 12 Aventura will have 25,000 square feet of office condos, and at least half have been sold to law, accounting and financial services firms. The project also will have 104 senior independent living units and 56 assisted living units. Construction is to start this month and be completed in 2021.

Both buildings will have parking and some retail with a Chelsea Market-style food hall at 12 I 12.

Aventura-based Rieber Developments LLC is building both and coined the Aventura Medical District term.

"The most important player is the Aventura Hospital that's been there for 30 years but just expanded tremendously. That's the epicenter," said Bernardo Rieber, who leads Rieber Developments. "The vision we have is to develop an area similar to the area in downtown by Jackson where you have multiple highly professional advanced medical buildings."

South Florida's traffic woes encourage a centralized health district, which is supported by the city's average household income — $63,131, which is close to the national average. By comparison, the figure for neighboring Hallandale Beach is $38,319.

"The traffic is a big issue because if you live in Aventura like I do and you have to see a doctor in Coral Gables, for example, it's a long trip," Rieber said. "Doctors now are looking to have satellite offices. The doctor is not going to move from Coral Gables or Miami Beach. They are just going to have a second office where they can still see people in both places."

Rieber Developments next wants to develop housing for medical residents near its Aventura projects.

Bromberg also sees traffic as a contributing factor for interest in Aventura.

"We see a lot of people living around this area, tired of having to drive all the way to downtown Miami where traffic is every day worse and worse," he said. "We see interest from many companies, national and international companies to have Class A office space for them to work."

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Train Station

"We see a lot of synergy. Now the train station coming in less than one mile," Rieber said. "We feel we have great momentum now."

The Brightline passenger train, which connects downtown Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, plans a station just outside Aventura.

The Miami-Dade County Commission late last year agreed to bankroll up to $76 million for a Brightline station to open by October. Brightline, soon to be renamed Virgin Trains USA with backing from Richard Branson, has until 2022 before the county agreement ends.

In South Florida, a mere proposal to expand train service opens doors to development near future stops. Municipalities on Brightline's route have embarked on intensive studies and charrettes planning future development near stations.

Fueling their excitement is the proposed expansion of Tri-Rail, the publicly funded commuter rail system, which wants expand eastward to Brightline's tracks. The vision has taken longer than expected to execute, but Tri-Rail would run a commuter service while Brightline would focus on express service with fewer stops.

A station near Aventura could attract private development, but Brightline's owner, Fortress Investment Group, also could build its own real estate as well. Under the county agreement, any project Brightline builds must include workforce housing, the Miami Herald reported.

Workforce housing is one way community leaders are fighting the affordable housing crisis. Units are more expensive than affordable housing but still offer a break on escalating market-rate rents.

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History, Future

Aventura's medical district has been a long-time coming. The city adopted a medical zoning district in 1999 after incorporating in 1995.

"The district includes the hospital, so the zone was created for use for the medical profession. There's been a couple of developments but not many, and now there's renewed interest in the zone," said Joanne Carr, Aventura community development director. "It took some time."

Fresh interest could be coming from the area's designation as an opportunity zone, a federal tax break on real estate and business capital gains in state-designated zones.

The city requires developers to amass at least 1.5 acres to build on the north side of the district and half an acre on the south side, and assemblages take time, Carr noted.

"We certainly welcome development in that district, and there is about 10 or so acres left to go in the north district," she said.

As for Inmobiliaria Brom's Onyx office complex, it's north of the medical district and wasn't built as medical space — yet it's attracting related users.

Tenants at Optima Red include South Florida ENT, which connects patients to ear, nose and throat doctors throughout South Florida, and LP3 Network, which offers health care continuing education courses and pharmacy training.

At Optima White, tenants include financial planner Kawa Capital Management, real estate firm BH3 Management and property investor Luxe Residential.

The Optima complex was built with an eye toward tenant amenities.

"I like to treat my tenants not as tenants in a corporate building but more like members of a very exclusive club, so we really try to spoil them. I truly believe that people who wake up every morning and go to work are also allowed to have a life," Bromberg said. "I try to have a lot of open spaces, public areas. We have a gym, we have a running track, we even have a lap pool on the Optima Onyx."

When Inmobiliaria first turned to Aventura, it faced little competition in the office market. The fresh competition doesn't worry Bromberg, who says competition is good for both his firm and the market.

"Sometimes developers wait for someone to start developing and then they follow. In this case, we were the first ones. We started, and now we see that everything around us is more valuable," he said. "The prices are going up. And we like development. That's part of being part of a city."

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