Developer buys Pembroke Pines site for Keiser University

August 16, 2010 12:10 pm

A Fort Lauderdale-based developer bought a 7.6-acre site in Pembroke Pines, with plans to build a Keiser University campus.

NAI Rauch Weaver Norfleet Kurtz & Co. brokers Michael Scarpino and Jennifer Scarpino represented buyer Demeter Pembroke Pines, an affiliate of Keenan Properties Group, in the $4.66 million purchase. Seller Duke Realty Corp. got about $14 a square foot for the site, alongside Interstate 75 at the northwest corner of Southwest 145th Avenue and Pembroke Road.

CB Richard Ellis broker Richard Levinson represented Duke, which developed the nearby Shops at Pembroke Gardens, in the deal.

In a sign that construction financing, although rare, isn’t dead: Miami-based City National Bank of Florida granted Demeter Pembroke Pines a $14.5 million construction mortgage. According to the mortgage agreement, Keiser University Chancellor Arthur Keiser and Keenan Development principal Dale Chynoweth are co-managers of Demeter Pembroke Pines.

Keiser University currently has a campus in a shopping center at 12520 Pines Blvd., in Pembroke Pines. That operation would be relocated when the new campus opens in July 2011, said Kelli Lane, Keiser University associate vice chancellor.
The Fort Lauderdale-based university also has campuses in Daytona Beach, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Kendall, Lakeland, Melbourne, Orlando, Port St. Lucie, Sarasota, Tallahassee, Tampa and West Palm Beach.

[source: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2010/08/16/daily4.html]