Over the next five years, Broward County is expected to grow by 167,320 new residents, bringing the total population over 2.1 million in 2022.

Those newcomers will need homes, shopping centers and offices. Local commercial real estate experts are already planning.

The elephant in the suburbs is Metropica, developer Joseph Kavana's 4M SF mixed-use project on 65 acres in Sunrise. It will have 485K SF of retail, 2,200 condos in eight towers, some 650K SF of office space and 240 hotel rooms.

"We bought the land 20 years ago," Kavana told Bisnow recently. "When we purchased it, at the corner of 136th Street and Sunrise Boulevard, at the time — 1995 — you had 500 to 1,000 cars a day that crossed that intersection. There are 75,000 today."

Kavana's vice president of development, Erick Collazzo, will be a panelist at an upcoming Bisnow event, the West Broward Neighborhood Report, May 15.

Sunrise has the advantage of being home to attractions like the Sawgrass Mills Mall and the arena where the Florida Panthers hockey team plays. But even Broward's lesser-known suburbs are evolving fast.

Miramar and Margate could transform completely if the American Dream megamall, in neighboring Miami-Dade County, comes to fruition as expected. It would be the largest in the country and incorporate a theme park.

Multibillion-dollar tech corporation Magic Leap chose to put its new headquarters in Plantation. Developer Art Falcone knocked down the former Fashion Mall, which had been defunct for 10 years, to make way for Plantation Walk, a $350M mixed-use project with 700 apartments and 200K SF of retail. Falcone will also be a speaker at Bisnow's West Broward event.

Davie's South Florida Education Center — Broward College, Nova Southeastern University, McFatter Technical College and Florida Atlantic University — draws 70,000 students, keeping the surrounding real estate in high demand. A new development, University Pointe, just topped off. It will have 250 student apartments plus ground-floor retail and office spaces, which are fetching $30 per SF.

In Pembroke Pines, Terra is constructing City Center, with 325K SF of retail, 120K SF of office space, 400 apartments and a 350-room hotel on 47 acres. Coral Springs is seeking investment with numerous incentives for new businesses, including funds for infrastructure and workforce training.

Around the county, dozens of other less flashy, small industrial parks and office buildings are getting leased up or sold.

Even the industrial market is hot. At a recent Bisnow event focused on the industrial market, CBRE First Vice President Larry Genet said that Broward's suburbs contained some of the only undeveloped parcels in South Florida — and that developers were hungering for them.

When looking at aerial images, "in Southwest Broward and north Miami-Dade, you can see all the lights and buildings in the middle, and then a ton of green space," Genet said.

He was likely looking at some of the county's 40-plus golf courses. He speculated that those "will be put into production in the next few years."

For now, a former women's prison is being converted into the South Florida Distribution Center, a 750K SF Class-A industrial spec in Pembroke Pines.

Other speakers at Bisnow's May 15 West Broward event will include Stiles Realty President Paul Marko, Riviera Point Development Group CEO Rodrigo Azpurua, Franklin Street Senior Vice President Greg Matus, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Assistant Vice President Lisa Neumayer, Seritage Growth Properties Senior Vice President Paul D'Arelli, ANF Group Executive Vice President Nelson Fernandez and Hotwire Communications Vice President David Ramos.