Sandals Resorts Affiliate Relocates And Expands, Signs 53K SF Office Lease

Avison Young secured a 53,119-square-foot space on behalf of Unique Vacations, an affiliate of all-inclusive resort company Sandals, at the 5505 Waterford class A office building in Miami.

The new, long-term lease brings the 212,619-square-foot building to 100% leased and marks Unique Vacations’ relocation and expansion from its previous space in the Glenvar Heights area near South Miami to 5505 Blue Lagoon Drive in Miami’s Airport submarket.

Avison Young Principal and Miami Managing Director Donna Abood, Vice President Joe Abood, and Senior Associate Peyton Dowd represented the tenant during the lease transaction. The team came highly recommended by Hospitality Purveyors Inc. an affiliate of Sandals, due to the successful representation they provided in securing 76,867 square feet of industrial space at the Prologis Beacon Lakes Park. CBRE’s Gordon Messinger represented the landlord, FSP Blue Lagoon Drive, LLC.

“We began our relationship with Unique Vacations by consulting on how much space the company would need for its growth in a relocation,” explained Donna Abood. “Following our recommendations, we were engaged and quickly identified the ideal space, which was previously occupied by Burger King, at 5505 Waterford. It was the only building available to seamlessly meet Unique Vacations’ location and space needs.”

Positioned 10 minutes from Downtown Miami and Coral Gables, two other major Miami business hubs, the Airport submarket is home to several prominent corporate and Latin American headquarters including Burger King, Subway, FedEx, L’Oreal, and Airbus. Lennar Homes’ headquarters occupies floors 4-9 at 5505 Waterford, where Unique Vacations will be the only other tenant.

“The number of companies choosing the Airport Miami submarket, specifically the Blue Lagoon area, for office space continues to increase due to the location’s easy access to the Miami International Airport and major highways and thoroughfares,” said Joe Abood. “Less and less large blocks of space over 50,000 square feet in Blue Lagoon are ready to be occupied within 12 months, so there is much anticipation around the redevelopment projects slated to bring roughly 1.9 million square feet of mixed-use space to the area.”

According to Avison Young insights, overall office leasing activity in Miami saw a resuregence during 2021 and is up 30.3% from total leasing volume during 2020. Total leasing volume during 2021 was just behind pre-pandemic levels at year-end 2019 at 4.9 million square feet. Net absorption ended the year on a positive note at 434,713 square feet absorbed during 2021.