Las Olas Square taking shape with new tenants

The revamped SunTrust Center on Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas Boulevard, now known as Las Olas Square, is picking up momentum with the signing of a nationally known restaurant chain and a work space company as tenants.

Steelbridge Capital in Miami, which bought the two-building office complex from SunTrust at 501 and 515 E. Las Olas in 2016, said a $10 million remodeling project is less than a year away from completion — making the buildings an integral part of the city’s upscale shopping and business corridor.

Coming soon is Del Frisco’s Grille, a national brand chophouse that serves steaks, seafood, sandwiches and cocktails. It will be an inaugural appearance in South Florida for the restaurant chain, whose only other Florida entry is in Tampa.

Also signed is Spaces, a worldwide shared work space firm that will occupy 32,000 square feet. And SunTrust is returning to lease 5,000 square feet for a retail branch, said Jay Caplin, a managing principal at Steelbridge. The SunTrust Las Olas branch is temporarily operating out of a trailer behind a nearby flower shop.

The complex, which includes a 17-story office tower, annex building and parking garage, was erected in 1992. SunTrust acquired the property seven years later. But as technology has overtaken the banking industry, financial institutions have scaled back on real estate ownership, opting to lease smaller spaces for their retail branches. Early on, SunTrust figured into Steelbridge’s plans as the property’s lead tenant.

“One of the things that the press to date has not picked up on is how transformative we think our new plaza will be for the downtown. We want it to become a new town square for the Las Olas community,” Gavin Campbell, another Steelbridge managing principal, said in an email. “That was, in part, why we renamed the building from SunTrust Center to Las Olas Square.

“We think the new plaza landscape and hardscape — coupled with the new retail we are putting in — will really be a draw for the local community during the day, and even at night.”

Stiles Construction reduced the 501 E. Las Olas building that fronts the office tower to its concrete shell. The company is rebuilding it “into a unique, boutique-style, mixed-use building that includes 13,000 square feet of retail space and 32,000 square feet of office space,” Steelbridge said in a statement. Once finished, the building will have a more contemporary look “with an all-impact glass exterior.”

Caplin said the company expects the restaurant and work space company to breathe new life into a stretch of the boulevard that had limited activity, particularly after dark.

“For many years, there was not a lot going on in the front of the building,” he said. “We think that between Spaces and a large national brand like Del Frisco’s Grille, we’re going to draw a lot of attention and traffic to the area.”

Asked when the Las Olas remodeling project will be completed, Caplin said: “I think it would be very early next year. Certainly within the next six months the plaza will be finished and the tower [will be] done.”

“We want it to become a new town square for the Las Olas community.” Gavin Campbell, Steelbridge

DEL FRISCO’S GRILLE/COURTESY Del Frisco’s Grille, a national brand chophouse that serves steaks, seafood, sandwiches and cocktails, will soon be coming to South Florida. Its only other Florida entry is in Tampa.