In case it helps the art: Acre has deals like Nike Rise at Aventura Mall and Tacombi all over Miami, including in the Design District. Additionally, Acre worked on behalf of Steve Ross’ related companies on the repositioning of CityPlace in downtown West Palm Beach.
Ripco Real Estate has acquired Miami-based retail brokerage Acre, marking the latest shake-up in South Florida’s business services industry.
Acre, at four brokers, folded into the much larger Ripco. The deal allows Acre to leverage Ripco’s institutional-style resources and allows Ripco to expand its reach in the South Florida retail sector, according to brokers for both companies. Ripco and Acre declined to provide the value of the acquisition.
New York-based Ripco, founded in 1991, has 150 brokers and 40 support staff and eight offices, including six in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The Company’s segments are Landlord and Tenant Representation for Retail Leasing, Investment Sales across all asset classes, Retail Property Management and Advisory Services. on debt and equity, Ripco President Mark Kaplan said.
Ripco first opened offices in Tampa and Miami in 2021, amid an influx of New Yorkers and other foreigners to Florida that has fueled a market boom.
“More and more of our clients in New York wanted to work in Florida, which pushed our offices to Miami and Tampa,” Kaplan said. Acre is “a very strong boutique business that’s a lot like how Ripco operates, just on a smaller scale.”
Founded in 2015, Acre is led by Marty Arrivo and Aracibo Quintana and includes brokers Elizabeth Higgins and Sam Paniello. The brokers moved from the former Acre office at 100 Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami to Ripco’s space at 1221 Brickell Avenue in nearby Brickell.
In 2017, Acre began working on behalf of Steve Ross Related Companies as a broker and consultant on the repositioning of the CityPlace mixed-use complex in downtown West Palm Beach. Related completed CityPlace in 2000 and sought to revamp the 72-acre development late last decade with the addition of offices and apartments and the repositioning of retail. As the work progressed, CityPlace was renamed Rosemary Square in 2019, then The Square in 2021. Last week, Related opted to bring back the resort’s original name, renaming it CityPlace again.
“When we began our work, it was a district-wide strategic effort to reposition the entire 600,000 square feet of retail space. Re-lease and re-merchandise all food and beverage, fashion and home products tenants throughout the district,” Arrivo said. “Through this effort, a distinct workflow was the rebranding exercise that took place.”
Acre’s consulting work also included the retail development of CityPlace. Describing the scope of consulting services, Arrivo said: “How can we reconfigure the different components of this, so that you can then rent it?
Tenants that have opened at CityPlace in recent years include furniture stores Design Within Reach and West Elm, Anthropologie and lululemon, as well as restaurant Sweetgreen.
Acre also represented New York-based taqueria Tacombi during its South Florida debut, with outposts in the Miami Design District and Wynwood. Tacombi opened in Brickell last week. Acre also represented Nike nationwide and worked as a corporate consultant, leading to the launch of the Nike Rise store at the Aventura Mall.
Ripco’s contracts in South Florida include representation of popular New York restaurant Philippe by Philippe Chow in rental a space in the One Ocean condo building in South Beach. Robert Rivani’s Black Lion Investment Group owns the ground floor restaurant space. This year, Ripco negotiated the $19.5 million refinancing of the Pebb Enterprises shopping center located at 5024-5070 West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach.
RIipco’s acquisition of Acre comes after the company bought a New York-based real estate company Development of brand concepts brokerage division in 2022. BCD focuses on restaurant leasing.
Ripco is seeing growth in its commercial property management division, which is solely in the New York metropolitan area, Kaplan said. High interest rates and other adverse macroeconomic factors have reduced investment sales, leading owners to seek property managers to manage day-to-day operations. Additionally, special services are increasingly interested in property management and leasing services as they attempt to resolve sponsors’ debt issues.
Ripco’s acquisition of Acre marks the latest shake-up in South Florida’s commercial real estate industry. In June, a five-member team led by Robert Given jumped up from Cushman & Wakefield to CBRE.
ViVO Real Estate Group, based in Hialeah and led by René Vivo, entered expansion mode this year and acquired Jacog Advisors, a Doral-based commercial brokerage firm. A former State Street Realty industrial team also led by Frank Trelles jumped up at ViVO.
Quintana, of Acre, said South Florida’s booming market has propelled the tri-county area as a leader in the retail real estate landscape nationwide. Acre’s merger with Ripco allows it to scale and access institutional support for transactions.
“As customer demands have increased and attention to Florida has increased, we said, ‘We have to be better and very quickly to continue to serve our customers like Nike, etc.’ the same way they are in other metropolitan areas across the country. the country.”
