Joseph Kavana describes his sprawling Metropica megaproject in Sunrise as a dream community, a mini-city where you can find everything you need within walking distance.
But that mini-city won’t be built in a day, says Kavana, the driving force behind Metropica, a mixed-use project expected to give suburban Sunrise a more cosmopolitan flavor along with 3,000 new apartments and condos, four office towers, two hotels, upscale restaurants and boutique shops.
“To finish the entire project is going to take another seven years,” Kavana told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “We started working on the first tower in 2017 and it opened in 2020. It will be a 15-year project from start to end.”
The Uruguay-born Kavana says his $2 billion mixed-use development near Northwest 136th Avenue and Sunrise Boulevard will give Sunrise something it currently does not have: A bustling downtown that for years has been touted as the future “Downtown West” of Broward County.
Kavana started buying up the parcels that make up the 50-acre tract between Sawgrass Mills mall and the county-owned Amerant Bank Arena more than 20 years ago.
So far, one 28-story condo tower is standing. One Metropica, home to 263 residences, opened in 2020.
More are on the way.
If all goes as planned, all three phases of the project should be built by the year 2032.
“We are executing the vision we always had,” Kavana said. “Sunrise is a city without a downtown. So this is going to be downtown Sunrise and the new downtown of west Broward.”
A recent groundbreaking ceremony held Tuesday for a new stage of construction is still part of Phase 1, which was interrupted by the pandemic.
‘Things happen for a reason’
Kavana said he lost a key anchor when iPic Entertainment, the parent company of iPic Theaters, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August 2019.
“They were a very important anchor,” Kavana said. “But that’s history. Things happen for a reason. And we now have something far better than what we had before. We believe in this vision. And that’s why were consistent and we kept going.”
Phase 1 calls for another 1,000 apartments split between three buildings with a height of around 100 feet; one hotel, one office building and more than 150,000 square feet of retail space.
Phase 2 may very well get underway before Phase 1 wraps up, Kavana said.
“We don’t know yet,” he said. “It depends on market conditions.”
Phase 2 calls for 1,500 residential units and additional retail.
The last 10 acres will be developed under Phase 3 on the northern end of the site. A second hotel is planned along with three office buildings and additional retail space.
Portico, a six-story luxury apartment building with 417 units, was completed in 2017. But Kavana said he does not consider Portico part of Metropica, partly because it sits across the street.
Under Kavana’s vision, Metropica will become a go-to destination, with a main street and lushly landscaped plazas surrounded by upscale restaurants, shops, entertainment and 3,000 condos and apartments.
Kavana says he is not worried about filling up the Class A office space.
“We are going to build one office building at a time,” Kavana said. “Once one gets filled up, we will build the next one.”
As to whether Kavana can find buyers for those 3,000 apartments and condos, Sunrise Commissioner Joey Scuotto says he is confident every single residence will be snapped up.
“No doubt,” Scuotto said. “Just think, everybody is coming down here from up North. People are selling their $2 million apartments and buying places here for $500,000 and still have money left over.”
Scuotto says people will come from far and wide to check out the up-and-coming Metropica, with all its entertainment spots and high-end restaurants.
“Will Metropica become a destination? 100%,” Scuotto said.
Waiting out the bad times
Roger Wishner, a former mayor of Sunrise, remembers when the city’s first condo tower opened more than 15 years ago. At the time, he didn’t think there’d be another one.
Tao, Chinese for “the way,” was expected to blaze a trail for more residential high-rise towers out west, helping change the skyline of west Broward.
But the 26-story twin condo complex perched east of Sawgrass Mills mall ended up being the one and only until Kavana’s One Metropica opened more than a decade later in 2020.
For a time, Tao and its 396 luxury units sat empty, a monument to the housing bust that swept the nation and crippled the construction industry.
“I can’t envision anything as big as Tao being built in Sunrise,” Wishner told the Sun Sentinel in 2009.
But the late County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion predicted there would be others.
“We’re no longer the sleepy county we were 40 years ago,” Eggelletion said at the time. “You’ll have periods where growth slows down. But you’ll never have a time when it stops. As the cliche goes, this too shall pass.”
It turns out he was right, Wishner acknowledged in a recent interview with the Sun Sentinel.
“There’s massive growth in Broward County,” Wishner said. “There’s new apartment complexes going up everywhere. Obviously, there’s a demand. Joseph Kovana, a medal should be given to him. This whole thing was dead at one time and he was able to resurrect it.”
Wishner predicts Metropica will indeed become a destination, especially if there’s a high-end steakhouse in the lineup of restaurants.
“I’ve always said we don’t have a high-end steakhouse anywhere in western Broward,” Wishner said. “There’s no Morton’s. There’s no Capital Grille. Hopefully he’ll elevate the cuisine options so people can finally go to a premier Italian restaurant. And I think people are looking for that ability to walk out their door, head to dinner and maybe a jazz bar, then head home. And you won’t have to drive to downtown Fort Lauderdale.”
‘The stars are finally aligning’
Brad Hunter, a housing industry expert who runs Hunter Housing Economics in West Palm Beach, says Metropica will give Sunrise a more sophisticated edge, helping the city of 97,000 shed its reputation as a suburban bedroom community.
Metropica might have suffered delays over the years, but is now ready to get in gear again, Hunter said.
“The stars are finally aligning,” Hunter told the Sun Sentinel. “I think it has a very bright future. The financial environment has been difficult but now the developer has these partnerships lined up.
“And I think there’s a fantastic synergy that occurs when you have retail and office and entertainment and residential combined together. It will help with condo sales. And by bringing in hundreds of residents, that will create built-in demand and support for the retail. That’s a nice symbiotic relationship.”
Is it typical to take more than a decade to build a project like Metropica?
Hunter says no.
“The time horizon of this project has been greatly extended beyond what would be normal,” he said. “But they did try to open during a time in one of the greatest downturns in history since the Great Depression. It was just bad timing.”
In the never-ending debate of east versus west, there will always be people who say they will never live west of Florida’s Turnpike and some who swear they will never live east, Hunter noted.
“There are two kinds of people who live in Broward County: East siders and west siders,” Hunter said. “There are going to be people who will say, ‘Are you kidding me? You are so far from the beaches. You’re so far from Fort Lauderdale, where all the fun is.’ And then you have west siders who say, ‘No, I want to be away from that level of density.’”
In the case of Metropica, the buyer will want to stay out west and like the idea of living in a high-rise.
“Maybe they don’t have the view of the sunrise over the ocean, but they have the view of the sunset over the Everglades,” Hunter said. “And they can get their condo or apartment for half of what it would cost in downtown Fort Lauderdale.”
‘Something exciting can happen’
Doug Eagon, a developer who retired from Stiles Corp. after serving as vice chairman and president, expects Metropica will be a wild success.
“He’s right there next to Sawgrass Mills and the arena — and both are big draws,” Eagon said. “He’s had this vision for a very long time. He’s very serious and steadfast in his vision. As to what will fill up out there, it’s going to be market driven. He’s not going to build 3,000 units at once. You take it one step at a time and the market will dictate what gets built and when.”
To the skeptics who scoff at the idea of Metropica’s “Downtown West” rivaling Fort Lauderdale’s downtown, Eagon urges a hearty dose of optimism.
“Not that long ago, there weren’t that many people living in downtown Fort Lauderdale,” Eagon said. “And you know that story now. There’s thousands of people living in downtown Fort Lauderdale and that’s happened in the last 10, 15 years.”
But will Metropica’s downtown generate enough buzz to compete with downtown Fort Lauderdale, downtown Delray Beach and downtown Miami?
“I think that’s way too soon to say,” Eagon said. “But if you have a city with a vision and the developer has a compatible vision, something exciting can happen.”
Can the current economic slowdown or a future calamity delay construction — or stop it altogether?
“Sure,” Eagon said. “If there’s another 2008 real estate bust, that will postpone economic growth for some period of time. But you adjust to it. It can affect the timing, but it doesn’t alter the long-term vision. It will still get built. It’s just a matter of time.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan