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ULI SE Florida/Caribbean District Council
Press Release
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Urban Land Institute’s
Southeast Florida/Caribbean
District Council Presents “VISION AWARDS” at Annual
Dinner
ULI Presents “Lifetime Achievement” & “Young
Leader” Awards
as well as its first “Project of the Year” Awards
The Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Southeast
Florida/Caribbean District Council presented annual
top achievement awards at it’s Vision Awards dinner
the evening of September 20, 2007 at the Seminole
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
The event, attended by more than 250 members and
guests, was highlighted by the presentation of the
2007 Vision Awards Lifetime Achievement Award to
Charles E. Cobb, CEO of Cobb Partners, Ltd. of Coral
Gables; the 2007 Vision Awards Young Leader of the
Year to Douette Pryce of OPUS South, and two 2007
Project of the Year Awards, one representing the
best in private sector development to Grove Garden
in Coconut Grove and the other representing the best
in public sector development to the Christine E.
Lynn Nursing Building at Florida Atlantic University
in Boca Raton. The Puerto Rico Convention Center
District was presented with the 2007 “Project to
Watch” Award; Meridian at One North Ocean in Boca
Raton and the Vero Beach Hotel & Club in Vero Beach
were also named as 2007 Finalists for the Project of
the Year. (More information on the individual award
recipients is included below.)
Chair of the local ULI District Council, Debbie
Orshefsky, a shareholder in the Fort Lauderdale
office of Greenberg Traurig, commented “We are very
pleased that so many of our ULI members and friends
joined us tonight to honor a legend in the
development industry, Chuck Cobb, and up and comer
Douette Pryce, along with examples some of the best
real estate development in our region.”
Major sponsors for the evening’s event included The
Altman Companies, Greenberg Traurig, Marcus &
Millichap and Seacoast National Bank.
The 2007 Vision Awards Event was co-chaired by Jules
Morgan of Lighthouse Point and Seth Gordon of Gordon
Reyes & Company in Miami. Both are members of the
District Council Executive Committee.
The Awards Jury that selected the honorees was
chaired by Jim Motta of The Motta Group and included
judges Dr. Charles Bohl of University of Miami
School of Architecture, Ivan Chosnek of IMC
Properties, Robert Dugan of EDSA and Debbie
Orshefsky of Greenberg Traurig.
The Urban Land Institute is a non-profit research
and education organization supported by its 37,000
members worldwide, with 1,200 located in this
region. ULI’s mission is to provide leadership in
the responsible use of land and in creating and
sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Members
include developers, planners, architects, public
officials, attorneys, scholars and many others
concerned with community building.
The ULI Southeast Florida/Caribbean District Council
serves the seven county region along Florida’s east
coast from Vero Beach south through the Florida
Keys, and includes Puerto Rico.
Award Details |
2007 Vision Awards Lifetime Achievement Award –
Charles E. Cobb, Cobb Partners, Ltd., in honor of
his many achievements in the real estate field:
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Currently CEO and senior managing director of Cobb
Partners, Ltd., Chuck is perhaps best known as the
guiding force behind one of the most remarkable
development machines in Florida history – Arvida.
Lured to Florida in 1972 to lead a total
reorganization of Arvida, he took Arvida and its
assets – 100,000 acres of prime Florida land and the
Boca Raton Hotel & Club – from a regional company
that developed small-scale projects and sold
undeveloped land into one of the nation’s premier
developers of high quality, planned residential,
resort and business communities. These included
names like Boca West, Broken Sound, the Arvida Park
of Commerce, Cocoplum and the 10,000 acre town of
Weston.
While heading Arvida Mr. Cobb assembled “the Cobbweb”
-- an entrepreneurial management team of talented
executives dedicated to the company, to each other
and to the communities they built. By his count, 13
other members of this team went
In his 40 years as CEO of Arvida Corporation, Disney
Development, Kaiser Resorts and Cobb Partners, Mr.
Cobb led the development of more than 25 new towns
and major resort communities. In addition to the
Arvida portfolio, these include names like Walt
Disney World, Euro Disney and Cotton Bay Club in the
Bahamas.
Public service has also played an important role in
his career. He left Arvida/Disney in 1987 to become
the U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for President
Reagan, where he had a major role in putting
together the Free Trade Agreement with Canada. The
senior President Bush appointed him Ambassador to
Iceland in 1989, and his responsibilities included
work with NATO to end the Cold War. He has also
served for 27 years on the University of Miami’s
Board of Trustees.
When asked what he is most proud of in his career
Mr. Cobb does not hesitate, saying “the people we
brought together – that team built sustainable
communities. His advice to others in real estate?
“Be somewhat contrarian. Buck trends and
conventional wisdom to identify opportunities. And
hire people who are smarter and harder working than
you are.”
Mr. Cobb accepted the award in person, and was
joined by his wife, Sue Cobb, son Christian Cobb,
grandson Fred Cobb, and other members of his family.
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2007 Vision Award Young
Leader of the Year – Douette Pryce |
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Douette Pryce was chosen for
his outstanding achievements and potential to
continue growing in real estate. This award is
presented annually to someone 35 years of age or
younger.
A native of Jamaica, Douette came to the United
States as a young teen, embarking on the hope of
living the American Dream. His family settled here
in Broward, and he is a graduate of Boyd Anderson
High School. Joining the U.S. Army at 17, Douette
spent five years on active duty at posts around the
world and three more years in the National Guard,
leaving the military with the rank of Sergeant. His
formal education includes an undergraduate degree
and an MBA in Real Estate and Urban Analysis from
the University of Florida.
Throughout his college career he worked fulltime in
multifamily property management – quite a challenge
in a college town like Gainesville - but through
that job he found what he terms his true calling:
real estate management and redevelopment.
Stiles Development in Fort Lauderdale saw promise in
the young graduate, and hired him as an assistant
development manager upon graduation. Douette’s
career quickly advanced, and he is currently Real
Estate Manager for Opus South, a national
design/build firm with 28 offices across the
country.
Douette understands the importance of volunteerism
and is an active leader for the Juvenile Diabetes
Research Foundation and for the Boys & Girls Club of
Indian River County, where he has been especially
involved teaching the “Passport to Manhood” program
to teens. A member of NAIOP, ICSC and the Congress
for New Urbanism, Douette saves most of his
volunteer time for ULI. He is Past Chair of the
Young Leaders Group, currently chairs the District
Council Membership Committee and serves on the
Executive Committee.
Mr. Pryce accepted his award in person, and was
joined by his wife Lily and his parents, Henry and
Charlotte Pryce.
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2007 Project of the Year -
Grove Garden in Coconut Grove |
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Aries Development Group’s
Grove Garden is a mixed use project with mid rise
residential condominiums. It stands as a case study
of how to build an urban infill project in a highly
sensitive, generally no-growth community where both
ends of the economic spectrum are worried about the
project’s ramifications.
Located on a one acre site at the edge of Coconut
Grove’s downtown, the result is a highly successful,
sold out project comprised of a five story
mulitfamily component containing 38 units, 5 two
story town homes and over 10,000 square feet of
commercial – all blending with its surroundings. A
historic tea house dating back to the community’s
earliest days was preserved and renovated into
Cefalo’s, a wine bar and deli trattoria.
The Miami firm of Zyscovich, Inc. led the efforts to
create a development sensitive to both the
neighbors’ concerns and the historical nature of the
community. Form, scale and the native character of
the place itself played a great part in the final
product’s architecture, incorporating original “Old
Grove” tropical style of sheet metal roofs, exposed
beams and indented porches, recalling the early
Bahamian settler homes.
To deal with zoning that did not allow a design that
fit the fabric of the surrounding neighborhood,
“design driven zoning” was proposed to the City. The
innovative final agreement with the neighborhood and
the City allowed a change in the zoning, but
required that the project be built as designed.
Covenants in the zoning required that changes to
design would void the zoning
Another novel aspect of this development is the use
of a water-displacement technique allowing the
parking garage to be carved out of the site’s
substratum. Without the need for a parking podium,
Grove Garden retains pedestrian-friendly street
level orientation.
Bernard Zyscovich of Zyscovich, Inc. and Michael
Falsetto of Aries Management & Development accepted
the award on behalf of Grove Garden.
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2007 Project of the Year –
Christine E. Lynn Nursing Building at Florida
Atlantic University in Boca Raton
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This complex is a one of a kind public private
partnership that wraps the educational needs of
1,400 nursing students, more than 60 faculty and a
visionary dean together in a most unique public
higher education structure. Sustainability was a key
goal in creating this new learning environment, and
the new College of Nursing headquarters received the
first Gold LEED certification for any South Florida
building.
To support the College’s philosophy of nurturing the
wholeness of persons and environment through caring,
the principles of Feng Shui – the Chinese philosophy
of arranging the physical environment to enhance the
psychic one -- were incorporated throughout the site
to ensure the connectedness of the building to the
environment.
The 73,000 square foot, $20 million project – half
from private donations – markedly differs from the
average public building. Its spaces include state of
the art high tech teaching and research facilities,
as well as a soothing T’ai Chi garden featuring a
labyrinth and a Sacred Place for meditation. The
building’s lobby greets visitors in a multistory
glass atrium crowned above with an exquisite maple
wood ceiling and underfoot with a mosaic of the
Dance of Caring Persons, portraying equality,
interconnectedness and value for the gifts each
person brings to nursing.
From the lush landscaping to the muted color scheme
to the curved walls, every detail supports a calm,
soothing, caring environment created for teaching
the healing arts. This public private partnership is
an outstanding example of what can be done to create
a sustainable education building for the 21st
Century.
Dr. Anne Boykin, the founding dean of the Christine
E. Lynn College of Nursing accepted the award on
behalf of the College.
2007 Project to Watch and Finalist for Project of
the Year – Puerto Rico Convention Center District,
San Juan, Puerto Rico
The 113 acre Puerto Rico Convention Center District,
a four million square foot mixed use development in
San Juan, is the largest commercial real estate
project in Puerto Rico. An outstanding
public/private partnership anchored by the $450
million completion of the new Convention Center and
construction of infrastructure to support other
development, it is a showcase in excellence for
sustainable design standards.
Specifically focused sustainable design using solar
control, facilitation of air movement and water
conservation, all construction within the District
will meet at least LEED Silver Certification
standards. Additionally, relationships to the public
realm and the creation of an active pedestrian
environment are key considerations throughout the
District.
The new urban neighborhood created by the District
represents a hallmark of 21st century development in
metropolitan areas. The Convention Center itself is
an architectural icon and an early economic success,
creating over 300 new jobs and surpassing original
projections for events and sales in its first year.
A $209 Million, four star 500 room headquarters
hotel – Silver LEED, of course -- is currently being
constructed by the Interlink Development Company, to
be managed by Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Mora
Development broke ground last year on a Silver LEED
96 unit mixed use condominium project, the first
residential project in the Caribbean meeting Silver
LEED qualifications. And contracts have been awarded
for the World Trade Center, a Class A 216,000 square
foot “gateway” office building within the District,
among others on the drawing boards.
Karen McShea, Senior Vice President, Colliers
International from Cincinnati, along with Victor
Chaparro of the Puerto Rico Convention Center
Authority accepted the award, and also received a
strong recommendation that as other components
within the District are completed, the project be
resubmitted for a ULI national Award of Excellence.
2007 Finalist for Project of the Year - Vero
Beach Hotel & Club, Vero Beach
A Holiday Inn heavily damaged by Hurricanes Frances
and Jeanne has been transformed into the new Vero
Beach Hotel & Club, a world class condo/hotel and
resort, opening last April. With open vistas to the
Atlantic Ocean and private garden spots, the new
resort is an excellent example of a successful urban
infill, combining classical architectural and
tropical elements of a West Indies theme. The
redeveloped property utilizes the basic structure of
the former hotel, reconfigured into 84 units with
resort amenities.
Of special note is the care taken to make the
project sustainable, through collaboration with the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection and
the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission to help shape the final landscape and
lighting designs.
Albert Jacob, Project Designer and Senior Project
Manager from Houston Cuozzo Group that redesigned
the project, accepted award on behalf of the Vero
Beach Hotel & Club.
2007 Finalist for Project of the Year - Meridian
at One North Ocean, Boca Raton
In a region known for its luxury condominium
developments, the Meridian at One North Ocean by
OPUS South is an outstanding example of luxury
waterfront living in a mid-rise setting. The five
story, 180,000 square foot building located at
Palmetto Park and A-1-A in Boca Raton boosts
panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean on one side
and Lake Boca Raton on the other, combining 31
luxury residential units and 5,000 square feet of
commercial space.
The final plans evolved as a result of an extensive
community outreach program and collaboration with
the City of Boca Raton to reconfigure the prime
redevelopment site. Neighbors were surveyed about
use preferences and had input on site plans,
requesting a reduction in the number of units, to
insure the building was compatible with adjacent
single family homes.
Gregory Lewis, Director of Multifamily Development
at OPUS South, accepted the award on behalf of
Meridian at One North Ocean.
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