Seven months after it changed hands in a foreclosure auction, the Design Center of the Americas has a new partner. Jamestown, the design-focused real estate investment and management firm that oversees the Boston Design Center and Brooklyn’s Industry City has entered into a multiyear agreement with the DCOTA’s owner, Fortress Investment Group, to oversee asset management, leasing and marketing for the Dania Beach, Florida, design center.
Jamestown says that its initial efforts will include ramping up showroom leasing efforts, including new entrants into the South Florida market (with a specific focus on appealing to Central and South American brands); optimization of the building’s office space for a wider range of tenants (corporations like Chewy, Chiquita and JetBlue have all called DCOTA home); expanding design industry programming and events; and enhancing signage throughout the campus.
The building has been caught up in the legal saga surrounding Charles Cohen, the billionaire design center landlord whose company, Cohen Brothers Realty, owns the Decoration & Design Building in New York, the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles and the Decorative Center in Houston. The mogul’s troubles began in 2022, when he borrowed $533 million from Fortress, largely to refinance prior loans, and put up a parcel of properties—including the DCOTA—as collateral alongside a personal guarantee for $187 million. Early last year, the agreement began to unravel: As Cohen’s company continued to miss payments, Fortress took legal action. By November, the lender conducted a forced auction that saw it acquire the DCOTA in a credit bid of $76 million.
According to a release accompanying the news, Fortress has made $3 million in improvements to the 780,000-square-foot property, with an additional $3 million to $5 million planned over the next year to renovate common spaces and restrooms and landscaping and elevators.
“For more than 40 years, DCOTA has served as South Florida’s epicenter for consumer and trade design services, and with our investment program to enhance the center for tenants and guests alike, and the appointment of Jamestown, we know DCOTA’s appeal today is stronger than ever before,” said David Moson, managing director and head of U.S. real estate asset management at Fortress. “We’re also reintroducing our office and event spaces as a premier location [for] business and social events, extending DCOTA’s appeal and importance in the South Florida area.”
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Jamestown’s involvement in the revitalization of DCOTA is the latest in a long string of B2B-focused development projects for the company, including One Times Square and Chelsea Market in New York, Ponce City Market in Atlanta, and Ghiradelli Square in San Francisco. It is also in the process of turning a former naval base in Charleston into a design-focused shopping district, including showrooms from brands like Kravet, Schumacher and flooring company Textures.
