Native Realty Featured in SE Real Estate Business Spread on Florida Retail

Native Realty COO Kaley Tuning was featured in the August issue of SE Real Estate Business, which dived into the state of Florida’s retail real estate sector. Tuning spoke about Native’s success curating Thrive Arts District in Fort Lauderdale.

“In 2023, brothers Jonathan and Abraham Fish opened Thrive Arts District, a 5.3-acre mixed-use development in Fort Lauderdale that features artist studios, offices, stores, restaurants and 17,000 square feet of outdoor space for events. Locally based Native Realty took over the leasing assignment at Thrive Arts District in late 2024 and has since signed 11 tenants, boosting the occupancy at the development to 75 percent.

“We have really transformed that space, we were the third broker to take that assignment,” says Kaley Tuning, chief operating officer for Native Realty. “The Fish brothers are hyper-focused on art at the development. They want to create a really cool, approachable atmosphere akin to Wynwood in Miami.”

The newest retailers to join the tenant roster at Thrive Arts District include Sweet Leaf Body Art, Greek Sugar, Frandoge, Petrol Head Motor Co. and Her Haus Studios.

“We’ve signed 11 leases, but we’ve probably had about 35 offers, we’re just very selective,” says Tuning. “Ownership wants the right tenant mix that’s going to create a good co-tenancy and work together to bring in traffic.”

Tuning says that bucking the trend of leasing to national brands has helped differentiate the development from its counterparts. Her Haus is led by two women who will operate a creative office space with content creation space and a podcast studio. Frandoge is a wine bar and eatery, and Petrol Head Motor Co. began as a passion project for a collector of vintage motorcycles that led to an elevated showroom with motorcycle-related apparel.

“There are some very cool, unique mom-and-pop type tenants that we truly believe in and that we know will do good for the community and help shape the neighborhood,” says Tuning. “The bread and butter for the curation of our neighborhoods is on the tenant side, though some in our team are hyper-focused on development.”

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