South Florida developer Jeff Berkowitz, who shaped Miami-Dade County\u2019s retail landscape, has died at 78.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Berkowitz was from Boston and moved to South Florida, drawn by the climate and to attend the University of Miami School of Law. He started his Coconut Grove-based Berkowitz Development Group in 1985. He was still active in the firm as of last fall, when he shared plans with The Real Deal for his firm to pivot into multifamily development, initially targeting 500 units<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although his distinctions and accolades run deep, Berkowitz\u2019s legacy is defined by his character and good will, his family said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wanted to help. One of his legacies, and one of the things he did best was give back. There were countless people in the community who reached out to him for advice,\u201d said Michael Berkowitz, one of Berkowitz\u2019s sons and president of the family firm. \u201cMy dad was always available.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Berkowitz\u2019s sons, Andrew and Michael, already held executive leadership roles at Berkowitz Development and will now take the helm of the company. Besides his sons, he is survived by his wife, Yolanda Berkowitz; his daughters-in-law; grandchildren; brother; sister-in-law; nieces and nephew; and his former wife. <\/p>\n Berkowitz\u2019s first project was in Kendall in the 1980s, launching his real estate career trajectory.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was more fun,\u201d he told TRD in October. \u201cI got to hire lawyers and not be one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Berkowitz Development\u2019s completed projects include the 330,000-square-foot Dadeland Station<\/a>, home to big-box stores near Dadeland Mall. The firm recently signed leases with Burlington and Marshalls and is in talks with other potential tenants, Michael Berkowitz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under Berkowitz\u2019s leadership, the family company also developed the 267,000-square-foot Aventura Commons in Aventura, the 200,600-square-foot Kendallgate Shopping Center, the 31,100-square-foot Kendall Commons and the 267,000-square-foot Kendall Village Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n Berkowitz Development also built Fifth & Alton, a three-story retail center named for its central location in South Beach and anchored by Publix, later selling the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n Work on the 282,000-square-foot Homestead Commerce Park<\/a> is wrapping up, marking the firm\u2019s debut into industrial construction. It\u2019s signed five tenants, with a certificate of occupancy expected this week, Michael Berkowitz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Berkowitz Development\u2019s portfolio spans more than 2 million square feet, with the late Berkowitz saying in October the plan is to start developing apartments on the parking lots of some of the Kendall shopping centers.<\/p>\n The ability to use land the firm already owns \u201cis a huge edge,\u201d especially in a time of rising construction costs, he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In the pre-pandemic years, Berkowitz drew widespread attention with his proposal for a 1,000-foot-tall entertainment and observation tower SkyRise Miami. After more than a decade of planning, opposition and lawsuits, the project was nixed<\/a> due to the pandemic. Berkowitz expressed disappointment over the project, which he called \u201cMiami\u2019s Eiffel Tower,\u201d not coming to fruition.\u00a0<\/p>\n It would be a \u201cgamechanger for Miami,\u201d he said in October. Berkowitz Development \u201cwas engaged in preliminary discussions with one of Miami\u2019s top cruise lines to not only provide the money but take the naming rights. When the pandemic hit, the cruise ship industry was temporarily decimated, so that was the end of SkyRise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Berkowitz was equally prolific as a philanthropist.\u00a0<\/p>\n He founded and chaired the Children\u2019s Foundation of Greater Miami and was founding Executive Director of Dade County\u2019s Civilian Review Board and Ombudsman Office. He also held leadership roles in the South Dade JCC, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, Greater Miami Jewish Federation, People For the American Way, Anti-Defamation League, Voices For Children Foundation, Friends of Miami Animals Foundation and the Miami Children\u2019s Museum, where he was a founder and served as chairman, according to a Legacy.com obituary.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe was very much under the radar,\u201d Michael said. \u201cHe never wanted recognition or credit for any of it. He quietly supported the right causes, gave generously of his time and resources, and helped people simply because he believed it was the right thing to do.\u201d <\/p>\n Michael recalled a Hunter S. Thompson quote on his father\u2019s desk: \u201cLife\u2019s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting \u2018Holy shit, what a ride!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The quote \u201calways made me smile because it described exactly how he lived. He did projects that most people wouldn\u2019t have the guts to do,\u201d Michael said, adding that his father was first nationwide to build vertical retail centers with the three-level Dadeland Station. \u201cHe was brave enough to go through the process and risked a lot because he believed in it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Florida developer Jeff Berkowitz, who shaped Miami-Dade County\u2019s retail landscape, has died at 78.\u00a0 Berkowitz was from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,110068],"class_list":["post-252160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jeff-berkowitz-obituary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}