Doral Center Gets $8M Makeover

MIAMI-Doral Center, a 1.4 million-sf business park in the Airport West submarket of the city, is undergoing an $8.3 million renovation on most of its 30 buildings. The park consists of a mix of class A and class B space and four of the buildings–two class A and two class B–have been renovated already.

Renovations on another four buildings are set to begin in about a month, Kelley Mitchell, a Jones Lang LaSalle leasing specialist for Doral Center, tells GlobeSt.com. “We’re just going to keep on going from there,” she adds.

According to Mitchell, four or five buildings will be renovated every year. In all, most of the buildings, and mostly multi-tenant buildings, will be renovated. Some buildings are occupied entirely by government agencies; those will not be renovated until the workers move out, she explains.

“We are renovating lobby areas, common corridors, redoing entire bathrooms,” Mitchell says. Improvements include new marble flooring, marble counters, new carpeting and new wall covering. “We’re also redoing all the signage in the park” for a whole new, updated look, beginning with the signs outside the buildings and followed by the ones on the inside, she says.

Koger built the park and ran it for years until the ownership changed about 18 months ago. The park is now owned by a pension trust fund administered by J.P. Morgan Fleming.

“It’s just been a very long time since anything was done here” as far as improvements, Mitchell says. Construction began on Doral Center in 1972.

At press time, the park was about 75% occupied. “And that’s really the reason for the push on getting these buildings up to par and getting quality tenants here,” Mitchell says. “We have a lot of quality tenants, but we need more.”

Tenants include Samsung, Benihana’s restaurant headquarters, US Customs, ExecuTrain, Federal Express, General Mills and Compupay.