Stream Realty expands to South Florida, poaches Newmark team

Stream Realty Partners opened a downtown Fort Lauderdale office, marking the Dallas-based commercial real estate firm’s expansion to South Florida and the state.

The brokerage and development firm set up its five-member office on Tuesday at 501 East Las Olas Boulevard. Stream aims to expand its development, leasing and investment sales, as well as construction and property management services statewide, according to a Stream news release. The firm poached Greg Katz and three other Newmark staff members, plus one staffer from global media company TIME, for its Florida team.

Katz, a longtime South Floridian who had been with Newmark since 2015 and previously was with Savills, will lead Stream’s new office.

Carlyle Coffin, Jason Warren and Teresa Sanzone, who all worked with Katz at Newmark, are joining him at Stream, the release says. Mike Lisch, who also spent time at Newmark with Katz, is joining Stream from TIME. After the media company’s purchase of Brandcast in August, Lisch’s work included helping commercial real estate industry players such as CBRE and Hines digitally engage with clients, according to the release.

Stream’s wager on South Florida comes as the area is at a crossroads. The influx of population and companies have led to high commercial leasing demand and record rents, even as other markets are feeling the impact of rising interest rates and a potentially looming recession. Yet, some experts warn that South Florida’s good fortune won’t hold, and the region is poised for distressed sales as debt matures amid high refinancing costs.

Stream had been eyeing South Florida for some time, and the expansion allows the firm to accelerate its growth in the state, Chris Jackson, company president, said in the release.

The Fort Lauderdale office is Stream’s 15th nationalwide. It also has offices in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Nashville, Phoenix, San Antonio and Washington, D.C., as well as in the Carolinas, Northern Virginia, Southern California and in other cities in Texas, according to its website.

Nationwide, Stream leases and manages more than 271.1 million square feet of office, industrial, retail, health care and data center space, according to the release. The firm’s development and acquisitions portfolio spans 47 million square feet, and its annual deal volume is over $5.8 billion.

Its development ventures include a partnership with McCombs Properties for a 100-acre master-planned project along I-10 in San Antonio. In November, the partners filed plans for a 200,000-square-foot spec warehouse that will be part of the larger development.

In Austin, Stream has approval for a six-story office building on the last developable block in Core East Austin.

The firm’s Fort Lauderdale base is in a coworking office run by Spaces. Macquarie Group, based in Sydney, Australia, owns the entire three-story retail and office building. It bought it for roughly $45 million from Related Fund Management and CP Group last summer.