Young Circle to receive upgrade
$500M investment will go to luxury towers, restaurants and shops
Downtown Hollywood’s vibrant Young Circle — the scene of a new hotel, restaurants, stores and outdoor concerts and movies — is on the cusp of seeing the last of its aging landmark buildings replaced by more high-rise apartments, shops and cafes.
After committing millions to buy the real estate, BTI Partners of Fort Lauderdale has this in mind for the Young Circle Shopping Center on U.S. 1 east of the ArtsPark at Young Circle, and the long-dormant Hollywood Bread Building on the circle’s south side:
■ For the shopping center: A mixed-use development combining retail, restaurants, office space and a residential project that’s yet to be announced.
■ For the Bread Building site: A 25-story tower with 433 luxury apartments. Shops and cafes would line the ground floor. The building, which is under contract to be sold to BTI, would be demolished.
“We have had our eye on Hollywood’s Young Circle for awhile,” said Noah Breakstone, CEO of BTI Partners. He said he likes the area for its proximity to the beaches and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, as well as the 10-acre ArtsPark with an outdoor amphitheater that offers movies, concerts and food-truck nights.
“I think the city of Hollywood is a diamond in the rough,” he said, alluding to the “Diamond of the Gold Coast” nickname the city gave itself for its 50th anniversary in 1975.
The redevelopment projects
could help lift the city’s ability to compete with other South Florida coastal towns and cities for tourists, new businesses and full-time residents. Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, Pompano Beach, Boca Raton and Delray Beach are all in the throes of major redevelopment projects.
Hollywood has been far from idle.
The new 111-room Circ Hotel occupies the north side of the circle along with an adjacent residential tower that contains 386 luxury apartments. The Circ Residences at Hollywood Circle opened in 2018. They are part of a master project that includes a Publix supermarket and the Olivia Restaurant & Bar. But the Bread Building, built in the 1960s, has stood empty for years, and the shopping center, located on the circle’s east side, has been losing tenants and is only 45% occupied, according to BTI.
The company has a contract to buy the Bread Building for an unspecified amount. BTI spent $15.75 million to buy the shopping center in a deal that closed Jan. 24.
Combined, the two projects represent the largest redevelopment effort west of the Intracoastal Waterway in the city’s history, BTI says.
The estimated cost to build it all: $500 million. Breakstone said he expects to pick an architect in the coming days to start redesigning the shopping center site.
Luxury apartments
Breakstone predicted the residential portions of the developments will be in easier reach for people who want to live there.
“I think it will be more affordable than those of the luxury in-fill projects you are seeing in downtown Fort Lauderdale,” he said. “It will be luxury, yet at the same time at more affordable price points.”
He didn’t provide any specific figures. But he said “our goal is not to be at the pricing we’re seeing in downtown Fort Lauderdale,” where one-bedroom apartments in places like Flagler Village start at $2,000 a month.
One key question facing the developer could be a city plan to change how motorists and pedestrians get around Young Circle, which is infamous for fender-benders and unending traffic. The idea: eliminate the circle’s seven traffic signals and replace them with five roundabouts. Currently, the traffic flows in one direction around the circle, which serves more than 50,000 motorists daily.
The plan calls for twoway traffic, with cars in the outer lanes traveling counterclockwise as they do now and cars in the innermost lanes moving in a clockwise direction. Breakstone suggested it’s too early to evaluate the plan.
“It’s not our expertise, but it’s something we’re going to study,” he said. “We’ll [tell] the city what we feel is best for the area.”