Fort Lauderdale’s first new office building in five years puts down roots in $511 million village

After more than five years without a new office tower, Fort Lauderdale is finally breaking its dry spell.

The city has watched from the sidelines as its neighbors — Miami to the south and West Palm Beach to the north — pushed ahead with glassy skyscrapers for Wall Street transplants during the post-COVID boom years. Now, Fort Lauderdale has an entry of its own: a six-story, 180,000-square-foot timber building called T3 that civic leaders hope will jump-start a new office district and prove the city has the muscle to attract big-name tech and corporate tenants.

“It’s going to look like a Google or Apple campus,” said Alan Hooper, CEO and co-founder of Fort Lauderdale-based Urban Street Development, which is building the office with national real estate firm Hines. “It’s going to have artwork everywhere. What we’re trying to do is bring out the creative side of you, and to inspire.”

Unlike the traditional office skyscrapers on Las Olas Boulevard, the T3 building — expected to be completed next year — won’t stand alone. It will sit within a $511 million redevelopment project with the evocative name of FAT Village (which stands for “food, art and tech”). The project is transforming an erstwhile warehouse and arts district into a new neighborhood that includes apartments, restaurants, retail and public art displays, all within walking distance of the Brightline train.

Two rental towers with a combined 600 units are set to bring life to the neighborhood after hours: one, a 24-story luxury high-rise; the other, a 13-story building with more affordable rents aimed at workers earning around $75,000.

The apartments will start leasing in 2027. But the T3 office building — which topped out construction of its highest floor this month — is courting corporate tenants now at asking rents as high as $65 per square foot, said Christina Jolley, senior vice president at Blanca Commercial Real Estate, the brokerage handling marketing efforts.

That asking rent is nearly 60% higher than the market average for Fort Lauderdale in the last quarter.

No leases have been signed yet, but brokers are in late-stage talks with several tenants, including tech and legal firms, considering spaces ranging from 4,000 to over 50,000 square feet, Jolley said. Developers are also building out 17,000 square feet as move-in ready “spec suites.”

“A lot of the tenants in the market today don’t have real estate departments,” said Alan Kennedy, managing director at Hines. “They also don’t have capital to spend on office spaces. So they would rather go to a landlord and say, ‘What you got?’ ”

Like other new South Florida projects designed in the work-from-home era, T3 FAT Village leans on amenities to draw people back to the office: a rooftop terrace with Wi-Fi and meeting space, a fitness center with showers and lockers, and outdoor balconies on every floor.

Modeled on other mass timber offices Hines has built globally, the building will feature a wood structure with exposed spruce, fir and pine beams visible inside and out. Several full-service restaurants and casual eateries (still unnamed) are also planned.

Unlike Miami, where billionaire Ken Griffin is bankrolling a waterfront headquarters for his hedge fund Citadel, or West Palm Beach, where Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross is remaking downtown with speculative towers and a Vanderbilt University campus, Fort Lauderdale doesn’t have an ultra-wealthy benefactor polishing its corporate image. Its office market has grown more organically.

That’s one reason no new office towers have risen here since the Main Las Olas in 2020.

But 2025 is a breakout year for Fort Lauderdale’s office market. In February, two office complexes sold for over $200 million within the same week, ending nearly a decade without such high-value trades. The Las Olas Centre towers sold for $208 million to Chicago investment firm Bradford Allen, which plans $25 million in upgrades to its first South Florida acquisition. Days later, Bank of America Plaza traded for more than $220 million.

Fort Lauderdale’s office rents have climbed every year since COVID, rising 22% from 2020. Asking rents now average $27.14 per square foot through mid-September, up from $22.31 five years ago, according to Avison Young.

Now, T3 will act as a test case for whether the market can handle more new office space.

“I’m watching it real close,” said Charlie Ladd, a local developer who sits on the board of the city’s Downtown Development Authority. “I’m hoping T3 turns the lightbulb on for large employers. The employment base is here.”