Real Estate Experts Predict South Florida’s Success with Arrival of Brightline

By: Ismael Rodriguez

South Florida’s real estate experts predict the arrival of All Aboard Florida’s Brightline, the express inter-city train service that promises to link Miami to Orlando in record time, scheduled to begin this summer, has the potential to boost the economy.

“This will change the way travel and development and redevelopment occur in South Florida,” Rick Gonzalez, president of REG Architects in West Palm Beach, told the press. “You can now work in downtown Miami and live in Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach.”

Developers in the stretch of land covered by Brightline, which has been under construction for three years, can benefit from consumer traffic around the stations, boosting tourism in and around these areas.

“Brightline will ultimately make these downtown areas much more attractive as a destination for residential, commercial and retail real estate investment and development,” Arden Karson, senior managing director of CBRE South Florida, told the press.

The addition of Brightline will also make trips between the cities less stressful than driving, taking cars off the road and outpacing them in its estimated time between the cities.

“We can’t keep adding lanes to I-95 and the turnpike,” Harvey Oyer, a partner specializing in real estate at the Shutts & Bowen law firm in West Palm Beach, told the press. “We’re out of space to build more roads, and we need a more environmentally friendly way to transport people.”

Even Jeff Green, the real estate tycoon who owns $300 million in properties in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, anticipates Brightline can pave the way for a lasting era of mass transit, bringing along all-time highs in tourism and profit to the region.

“Millennials have opted for a simpler life oriented toward mass transit,” Greene told the press. “Maybe they will be more inclined to ride trains.”