While looking for a permanent relocation site for the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Office (BCPA) and the Value Adjustment Board (VAB), Real Property staff visited an office building located at 1801 NW 49th Street (Citrix) and an office building located at 2050 Spectrum Boulevard (Spectrum), both located in Fort Lauderdale. At the time of the initial site visit, staff was informed that the Spectrum building was not available for immediate conveyance. Staff proceeded to negotiate with the Citrix owners and on August 14, 2018 (Item No. 18), an agenda item was presented to the Board of County Commissioners requesting that the County Administrator, or her designee, be given the authority to execute a contract for sale and purchase of the Citrix building. At the commission meeting, the owner of Spectrum informed the Board that his circumstances had changed, and Spectrum was now available for sale for the potential use by the BCPA/VAB, Supervisor of Elections (SOE) and the County’s data center. The Board deferred the original item and directed staff to evaluate both properties. On November 13, 2018 (Item No. 80), the Board again deferred the item and directed staff to respond to a memo provided by the Spectrum owners. Supplemental information is forthcoming on this request.
The Spectrum building is identified by Folio Numbers 4942-16-15-0100 and 4942-16-15-0091. It measures approximately 8.56 acres and includes a two-story North Building measuring 64,329 square feet, a four-story South Building measuring 39,306 square feet, a data center measuring 6,255 square feet and has 578 parking spaces. The property is located within zoning AIP (Airport Industrial Park District) which permits administrative office use. The properties are situated in central Broward County and can be accessed via Commercial Boulevard from I-95 to the east and the Florida Turnpike to the west.
Staff was asked to determine whether the site can be used by the BCPA/VAB, SOE and the County’s data center. Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) does not recommend relocating the data center to the Spectrum building. The County shifted from running its own data center to using a third party in 2007 because it is more expensive to staff and operate our own data center. The Spectrum data center is a Tier I facility and would need to be upgraded to a Tier III for County use. The County currently uses 1,180 square feet with the goal of reducing to 900 square feet. The Spectrum data center is too large and would need to be redesigned to reduce the floor space to allow for better efficiencies. See Exhibit 1 for a detailed analysis by ETS.
Construction Management Division staff (CMD) evaluated various scenarios which include combinations of the cost of renovating Citrix, the cost of renovating Spectrum, and the cost of building new facilities for the BCPA/VAB and SOE. To meet the programming requirements for the SOE and BCPA/VAB, the County would need to build a warehouse and parking garage at the Spectrum property. While warehousing is not specifically listed as a permissible use under the AIP zoning, the Office of County Attorney has opined that it may not be an incompatible use and recommend obtaining a zoning determination letter from the City of Fort Lauderdale. The purchase of additional development rights might be needed under the current DRI to construct a warehouse and parking garage. See Exhibit 2 for a detailed analysis on the various scenarios by CMD.
On November 15, 2018, staff met with the representatives of the owner to discuss the Spectrum memo dated November 9, 2018. The owner requested clarifications on how staff arrived at the numbers for the various scenarios. In addition, Spectrum proposed an alternate scenario for the development of the site. In response to the meeting, Staff provided the cost breakdown, respective areas, quantity take offs utilized for the County’s estimates to renovate the Spectrum and Citrix sites and the overall project development schedule for County projects. Staff had also provided a draft purchase and sale agreement prior to the meeting.
On November 21, 2018, after the agenda deadline, staff received a proposal for a revised purchase price and comments to the purchase and sale agreement for the Spectrum property. Staff will submit additional information to the Board pending review of same.
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