By Tom Dardenne
Florida Real Estate Journal
BRANDON With more than 20 years of experience in the real estate sector, Steve Mordue figures he knows how to draft a winning team. So hes partnered with three members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Dave Moore, Derrick Brooks and Mike Alstott to form Pro Development of Tampa LLC, a commercial real estate firm that is actively seeking properties with retail or residential potential.
Mordue, who recently left DeBartolo Development, has been involved with more than 70 regional shopping center development projects throughout the United States.
I previously was a partner in a company that did regional shopping center redevelopment, Mordue said. The company was in Florida but I worked on developments around the country. The reason I stopped was that I was traveling too much, and I wanted to do something closer to home. At DeBartolo, I learned a lot about the development side versus redevelopment. It was a great company to backfill my knowledge on that sort of stuff.
Mordue is related to Dave Moore, a tight end for the Buccaneers. I had an opportunity to form a company with some Bucs players. They are active in real estate, and Mike and Dave have gone in together on a restaurant. Brooks is a defensive back for the team and Alstott is a running back.
As managing partner of Pro Development, Mordue is responsible for all acquisition and development activities. I thought my partners would be passive investors, but they are quite savvy when it comes to real estate, and are actively involved in the transactions, Mordue said. I expected them to know football, but not be that wise in the ways of real estate. But they have a lot of questions and they understand exactly what is going on. They all like the fact that in our company they can be active in the real estate business, but they don't have to be.
Alstott has publicly announced that he will retire from the Buccaneers, Mordue said, but there is no pressure on the other two to retire. I'm sure all three are looking ahead to life after football.
Pro Development has its sights on a wide variety of project types, including large-scale residential subdivisions, shopping centers, multifamily and hotels, Mordue said. The unprecedented increases in residential values in the area will continue to drive development, and retail follows the rooftops, Mordue said. We intend to be in the middle of it all. Well be acquiring tracts of raw land for development.
The company will be looking for properties not only in the Tampa Bay market, but all over the state, Mordue said. Our first acquisition in in Hernando County, where we acquired 60 acres. We plan to build 350,000 to 400,000 square feet of retail, 425 multifamily units, and probably a 150-unit hotel at the northeast quadrant of I-75 and SR 50. The site is directly across from the Sunrise DRI, a massive development.
Mordue said he was a little surprised about the availability of land for development. I thought that would be the difficult part, but theres more land available than you can shake a stick at. The challenge is finding a good parcel.
There's no shortage of offers, Mordue said. Every broker in the state is sending me real estate deals. I'm relying on a network of friends and people I trust to tell me which are the good deals. There's plenty of land in Florida, but everybody's looking for top dollar. Some deals are worth it, and most are not.
Prices are high, but the company is well-positioned financially, Mordue said. I've got a pretty good funding source between my partners and I. We are looking to contract $200 million in land acquisitions over the next year. Mordue doubts that prices can continue to escalate at current levels. There's a lot of velocity in appreciation, and I don't think it can continue at that rate. But if you look at the national picture, our housing costs are still low.
The significant run-up in home values wont do owners much good unless they intend to relocate to an area where homes are cheaper, Mordue said. Whatever you sell your home for, if you intend to stay in the same market, you'll have to spend that much to replace it.
As for talk about a real estate bubble, the Florida market should be in good shape, Mordue said. I read the opinions just like everyone else. There seems to be a balance between those who say the bubble will burst and those who say it wont. If it happens, Florida will weather it better than most places.
However, we are fast approaching the end of opportunities to buy something for cheap and sell it for a big profit.
The single-family residential segment of the market bears watching, Mordue said. The thing that I find interesting right now is the single-family market. When I'm looking at properties, I see that big homebuilders are in a frenzy to tie up land. I thing there's a staggering amount of single-family homes coming on the market. It will be interesting to see if we can keep up with that.