CRE Bridge in Fort Lauderdale

Port Everglades, and the numbers back it up. In fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025) the port generated $48.3 billion in economic activity, supported 295,166 jobs statewide including 13,139 direct jobs, moved a record 1.167 million TEUs of cargo, and handled a record 4.7 million cruise passengers. That's a genuine, quantified anchor for warehouse, marine-services and hospitality-adjacent commercial deals near the port. One caution: the port's own release also reports economic impact up 72 percent year over year, but it says plainly that jump is mostly a methodology change (newly counting energy-related impacts), not organic growth, so we don't use that growth figure to size a deal. We don't have published Fort Lauderdale office, industrial or retail vacancy and cap rate data, so a bridge here gets underwritten on your rent roll and business plan, not a market average. See the CRE bridge program for structure, and we place the takeout in our own CRE permanent book when the asset stabilizes.

It's a real input, and it's a regulator's own number, not an anecdote. Florida's insurance regulator reports that the Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade region had 27.27 percent of property claims litigated as of the March 2026 reporting period, against 8.16 percent everywhere else in Florida, out of 1,687,888 property policies in force in the tri-county region. That litigation rate feeds directly into insurance cost and claim friction, which we price into carry. Separately, every Florida foreclosure, commercial included, runs through the circuit court under the state's judicial foreclosure process, which is slower than a non-judicial state and gets priced into the term regardless of county.

Because two Florida statutes now force the deferred maintenance onto the balance sheet, and the price data shows it. Condominium and cooperative buildings three or more habitable stories high must complete a milestone inspection at 30 years old, and a structural integrity reserve study was due by December 31, 2025 for associations formed on or before mid-2022; boards can no longer waive reserves for the items that study covers. Broward has a large stock of aging low-rise and mid-rise coastal condo buildings that hit both requirements at once, and Broward condo values are down 19.6 percent from their January 2024 peak and still falling 8.4 percent year over year, the steepest decline of the three South Florida counties, against single-family down only 2.9 percent. That's residential pricing data, not a commercial cap rate, but it's the clearest signal we have that unresolved inspection, reserve or special-assessment issues on a building can also choke off conventional and agency exit financing on a repositioned asset. Get the milestone and SIRS status of any Fort Lauderdale condo or co-op building before you underwrite the exit.

Yes, on every opening, roof and shutter line item. Broward and Miami-Dade are the only two counties in Florida's High Velocity Hurricane Zone, the strictest wind-design and product-approval regime in the state building code, and it governs new construction and replacement work alike, not just homes. We don't have a sourced cost premium for building or rehabbing to HVHZ standard versus the rest of Florida, so we won't quote you a percentage; budget it into your scope with your contractor and get your product approvals lined up early, since it changes the spec, not just the price.

No, and this is a real cost difference, not a technicality. Broward pays Florida's standard documentary stamp rate: 70 cents per $100 of consideration on the deed, and 35 cents per $100 on the note and the mortgage. Miami-Dade alone runs a different structure, a 60 cent base plus a 45 cent discretionary surtax on the deed. Don't budget a Miami-Dade transfer cost into a Broward closing, on a bridge deal or a double close.

At least 25% of value. Leverage runs up to 75% LTV, so on a $2,000,000 Fort Lauderdale asset that is up to $1,500,000 from us and $500,000 from you (2,000,000 x 75% = 1,500,000). The loan is interest-only over a term of up to 24 to 36 months, structured as either a purchase bridge or a cash-out against equity you already hold. With no published Broward vacancy or cap rate data, we size to your rent roll. Subject to underwriting.

Usually not. It moves the leverage. This is an asset-based loan with no minimum credit score, so the property, your equity, and the business plan carry the file. We do run credit, but weaker credit typically means lower leverage rather than a decline, and there is no hard pull to start. In Broward the larger underwriting variable is usually insurance and claim friction, which we price into carry, not your score. Subject to underwriting.

Up to $10M. That covers most of the warehouse, marine-services, and hospitality-adjacent deals that trade around Port Everglades, which generated $48.3 billion in economic activity in fiscal year 2025 and moved a record 1.167 million TEUs. Loan amount is set against value at up to 75% LTV, so the appraisal, not the ask, sets the ceiling. Above that size we would rather tell you straight than stretch. Subject to underwriting.