Broward County is planning a massive mixed-use development for the area surrounding the Florida Panthers’ Sunrise home base.
County officials submitted an application for the project, which would bring multifamily units, commercial space, hotel rooms and green space to the 154-acre site surrounding the Amerant Bank Arena, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
The existing arena would remain, and most of the development would replace the 7,500-space parking lot. Plans call for up to 300,000 square feet of commercial space, 1.6 million square feet of office or education space and 1,400 multifamily units, 15 percent of which would be designated as affordable housing.
The application also includes 600 hotel rooms with up to 60,000 square feet of meeting space, 8 acres of open green space, 1 acre of public space and 18.8 acres of wetlands and mitigation. There could also be up to 250,000 square feet of cultural space, but that would be taken out of the office space, according to the outlet.
Sunrise City commissioners will consider a land use amendment for the property on Aug. 11.
The county has requested to change the land use from commercial, industrial and low residential to transit-oriented development, citing its recent purchase of 10.7 acres north of Red Snapper Road for a transit hub for the Express Bus to Miami. A traffic study conducted by Broward County found the project would generate nearly 50,000 daily vehicle trips.
The Florida Panthers would likely be involved in the county’s proposed project due to a 2024 agreement between the Panthers and Broward County allowing the NHL team to propose a redevelopment plan for the arena’s surrounding land for four years. A Florida Panthers spokesperson told the South Florida Business Journal that the Panthers and the county are in early talks.
The spokesperson said the Panthers have been “proud to call Sunrise home for 25 years” and any redevelopment plans they pursue will reflect the team’s “longstanding commitment to Broward County” and the Sunrise community.
The plans join a pipeline of major developments that have been recently proposed for Sunrise.
Earlier this year, New York-based DW Partners paid $164.5 million for a development site planned for 900 homes, The Real Deal previously reported. Last year, Joseph Kavana of Metropica Development revived a stalled $1.5 billion mixed-use project with the addition of new partners Poag Development and Waypoint Residential. That project is bringing 1,000 luxury apartments and over 150,000 square feet of retail space during the next construction phase.
—Grace McClung
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