DCOTA Building in Foreclosure Suit As Showrooms Relocate; Nationwide Pattern
June 14, 2019
MIAMI—An exodus of tenants from designer showroom buildings, due to high rents and a drop-off in traffic, has resulted in the foreclosure of the 777,000-square-foot DCOTA (Design Center of the Americas) building in Dania Beach, Florida.
Wells Fargo has launched foreclosure proceedings against the mortgage holders for $173 million against Cohen Bros. Realty, the owners of DCOTA, which has seen the exodus of tenants like Jerry Pair, Stark, Jeffrey Michaels, Judith Norman, Pindler & Pindler, and more recently, Kravet Fabrics.
This group of tenants has regrouped in Hollywood, a stone’s throw away from DCOTA, one exit away on I-95.
In fact, this group headed by Jerry Pair, formed the SFDP (South Florida Design Park), where Kravet will soon open its 14,000-square-foot showroom in a custom built facility opening June 24.
This is the largest Kravet showroom of the three it holds in Florida (Jupiter and Naples are the other two) and was built in a 1950’s-vintage-80,000-square-foot-pencil-factory building.
Other tenants will follow in this building with Kravet as the anchor.
In Chicago, the Merchandise Mart has just recently seen the loss of two major tenants, Knoll Furniture and Herman-Miller.
There is a general regrouping of design and fabric tenants in major cities across the U. S. , as rents have risen with a general decline in showroom traffic, according to owners of the designer brands involved.
“Designers are devoting more time to shopping for fabrics on the internet, but they are ordering high-end goods inside the showrooms,” one supplier told F&FI. “When it comes to buying expensive fabrics, consumers are buying a yard at a time online to make a pillow, but the big ticket, whole-room purchase is still taking place in the showroom with the interior designer and client together.”
Wells Fargo has launched foreclosure proceedings against the mortgage holders for $173 million against Cohen Bros. Realty, the owners of DCOTA, which has seen the exodus of tenants like Jerry Pair, Stark, Jeffrey Michaels, Judith Norman, Pindler & Pindler, and more recently, Kravet Fabrics.
This group of tenants has regrouped in Hollywood, a stone’s throw away from DCOTA, one exit away on I-95.
In fact, this group headed by Jerry Pair, formed the SFDP (South Florida Design Park), where Kravet will soon open its 14,000-square-foot showroom in a custom built facility opening June 24.
This is the largest Kravet showroom of the three it holds in Florida (Jupiter and Naples are the other two) and was built in a 1950’s-vintage-80,000-square-foot-pencil-factory building.
Other tenants will follow in this building with Kravet as the anchor.
In Chicago, the Merchandise Mart has just recently seen the loss of two major tenants, Knoll Furniture and Herman-Miller.
There is a general regrouping of design and fabric tenants in major cities across the U. S. , as rents have risen with a general decline in showroom traffic, according to owners of the designer brands involved.
“Designers are devoting more time to shopping for fabrics on the internet, but they are ordering high-end goods inside the showrooms,” one supplier told F&FI. “When it comes to buying expensive fabrics, consumers are buying a yard at a time online to make a pillow, but the big ticket, whole-room purchase is still taking place in the showroom with the interior designer and client together.”
