While the office markets in Miami and Palm Beach make headlines for record rents and brand-new luxury office buildings, Broward County’s office market is increasingly winning over tenants from its neighbors.
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Five firms relocated across county lines from Miami-Dade County to Broward County in the third quarter, according to a Blanca Commercial Real Estate report.
More are expected to follow in the coming months as companies follow their employee base, which is increasingly moving north due to a lack of affordability, and seek more affordable office rents compared to Miami.
"Some of it might be driven by the increase in rates in Miami, but a lot of it is also due to the fact that companies want to make sure that their offices are located conveniently to their employee base," Blanca CRE Senior Vice President and Broward Market Leader Christina Jolley said.
Amid an influx of the ultra-wealthy and their companies, Miami-Dade County lost more than 10,000 residents between 2024 and 2025 due to a lack of affordability, marking one of the largest population declines for a county in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau.
And most residents who leave Miami-Dade County are relocating within Florida, often to Broward or Palm Beach counties. Between 2022 and 2023, Broward County siphoned more than 16,000 residents from Miami-Dade County, more than any other county, according to IRS migration data analyzed by real estate adviser and research consultant David Abernathy.
But it isn’t just the movement of the workforce that is alluring to companies.
Broward County's average triple-net rent is $29.51 per SF, a 6.5% year-over-year increase. That is a major discount to Miami-Dade County's $70.51 per SF, a 13.3% year-over-year increase, according to a third-quarter Miami-Dade County Blanca CRE report.
"Pricing in Dade County is anywhere from 10% to 30% higher than Broward County, so they're just looking for the better deal," said Gus Martinez, managing director at CMV Commercial and president of the South Florida Office Brokers Association.
"Their employees have probably already migrated up north because of pricing for homes or apartments," he said.
Among the five relocations was general contractor Brasfield & Gorrie, which signed a lease to move from its roughly 5,500 SF office on Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables to a more than 19K SF office at 2400 N. Commerce Parkway at Weston Pointe I in September.
The new office, with an expected move-in by 2027, puts the company in a "better position to serve the tri-county area," Brasfield & Gorrie Vice President Mike Peters said in a statement to Bisnow.
"Being more central to our people, our clients, and communities gives us room to keep growing and helps us continue building lasting relationships here," he said. "As one of our three Florida offices, it creates more opportunities for our people and supports the continued growth of our region."
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In addition to Brasfield & Gorrie, NewEdge Wealth, the law offices of Alexandra Linder, and private equity and asset management firm Altura Capital moved north to Broward County, a Blanca CRE spokesperson confirmed.
Blanca CRE declined to disclose the fourth company. NewEdge Wealth, Alexandra Linder and Altura Capital didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Not only are companies increasingly up and moving their businesses north, but they are also starting to opt for multiple smaller offices across the region to expand reach and become more accessible to their employees, rather than having one big office in one market, brokers and an office landlord told Bisnow.
Mark Corlew, president of South Florida-based commercial real estate investment, development and management firm Grover Corlew, said he has encountered two companies, which he declined to name, that sought to do just that over the last year.
"They came out as a large requirement, and then during the process, the requirement was effectively cut in half so that we were competing for half the space in our market, and the other half was going to a different market," he said.
"These are 25K SF requirements to become 12K SF or 10K SF requirements," added Corlew, whose company owns and operates multiple offices in Broward County, including the 222K SF Hillsboro Center office park in Deerfield Beach and the 21-story 200 East Broward office building in Fort Lauderdale.
While Broward draws business and residents, the county marked 728K SF of leasing activity, 55% of which were renewals, the most active quarter for the market since the end of 2021, according to the report.
A lot of the activity is uplifted by the amount of capital that has begun to flow into existing assets over the last year, Corlew said.
Last year, two downtown Fort Lauderdale office buildings on Las Olas Boulevard sold for more than $200M within 48 hours of each other.
Chicago-based Bradford Investment Advisors purchased a 28-year-old office for $208M with plans to spend $25M to update the asset, and Miami-based Square2 Capital and Highline Real Estate Capital acquired a 23-story office tower for $221M, with plans to renovate.
On top of that, the county is about to get its first new office building in six years once developers Hines and Urban Street Development finish construction on the six-story, 180K SF T3 FAT Village in Fort Lauderdale's Flagler Village in the fourth quarter, according to the report.
Broward's new activity, influx of capital and affordability are making it a unique competitor against its high-profile neighbors in the north and south.
"I think Broward is very, very stable," Corlew said. "I think Broward has just been overshadowed by the headlines of Miami and West Palm and discounted, but it shouldn't be discounted or ignored."
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