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Adjusting for Market Changes: A Business Case Study of Stephen Bittel’s Terranova

CEO WORLD MAGAZINE — MAY 7, 2021 BY ANNA PAPADOPOULOS It is the dream of every entrepreneur to see their company grow, taking on new challenges as the years in business become decades. However, one challenge that is often not thought about in the early years is the inevitable changes that will occur as your business ages.

Whether it be markets or technologies, change is the one true constant in business and very few of the most successful businesses today continue to operate as their founders originally envisioned. Twitter began as a network where people could find and subscribe to podcasts. Youtube was a video-based dating service. While PayPal has always focused on payments it has gone through many permutations since it was developed over twenty years ago, originally developed to allow people to “beam” payments from their PDAs.

As the world evolves the needs of consumers will inevitably change with it, and staying in tune with the way things are shifting while having the flexibility o adjust your plans accordingly is imperative to the survival of your business. To further explore this below we look at the evolution of Terranova Corporation, one of the top commercial real estate companies in Southern Florida.

The business was founded over 40 years ago by Stephen Bittel, and for the first two decades its strategy consisted of purchasing properties such as shopping centers in suburban markets. At the time, the young families moving outside of the city for more space at cheaper prices meant that these were lucrative investments with high returns, but at the turn of the millennium things began to change. The younger generation were opting to live in more urban areas, and rather than stick with the strategy that had worked in the past, Bittel had the company pivot and instead began investing in properties that were in downtown walkable cores.

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Interview with Stephen Bittel, Founder of Terranova Corporation

BILLION SUCCESS — APRIL 13, 2021 Stephen Bittel has worked in the commercial real estate sector for over 40 years. He is founder and chairman of Terranova Corporation, one of the top firms in South Florida that has served as the exclusive agent for more than $5 billion worth of commercial projects and represented notable clients such as Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and New York Life. Bittel was born and raised in Miami and attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine for his undergraduate degree. After graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in economics he spent a year studying abroad under the Watson Foundation and then returned to Miami where he began to attend law school at the University of Miami.

Bittel started Terranova Corporation while still attending law school, working out of his home office to grow the company from the ground up. Although he eventually did complete law school and pass the bar exam he kept his burgeoning company as his top priority. Starting with the operation of a commercial property for a local partnership, Terranova soon grew to a property base of over 8 million square feet and worked on over 100 different open air shopping centers, in addition to numerous office buildings, industrial parks, multi-family and self storage assets.

The company has grown and remained relevant by maintaining an agile strategy, shifting its focus to urban retail center in areas that were part of a walkable downtown core when the markets indicated a change in living scenarios. With properties in popular areas such as Miracle Mile in Coral Gables and Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, since the coronavirus pandemic Bittel and Terranova Corporation have been working to reinvigorate the retail areas, while remaining vigilant to new opportunities that may present themselves.

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Innovating in Commercial Real Estate: How Terranova CEO Stephen Bittel Creates Continuous Value in Planned Urban Development Projects

TMCnet — MARCH 25, 2021 — BY HANNAH MADISON For most of human history, a valuable natural resource such as a water source or defensible high ground was often the reason for a community to develop. The ancient Egyptians famously settled along the Nile River, utilizing the vast resource to build their kingdom. The Inca Empire made their home high in the Andes Mountains, using terrace farming to allow them to build aqueducts that were so well-built they are still in use today. However, as industrialization and modernization began and took hold in the second half of the 20th century, communities were no longer geographically hindered by access to resources, and as a result a shift toward single-purpose zoning in urban areas occurred. Planned urban development emerged as a response to this trend, orienting urban communities around the principles of convenience and efficiency rather than a natural resource or feature. The best of both worlds, these combinations of commercial and residential spaces create the potential for constant innovation, for those who have the creativity to see its potential.

There have been rumblings for a few years now about a “mass exodus” of millennials and Generation Z to the suburbs, a trend that appears to have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. The jury remains out though as to whether this will be a lasting trend, as those who leave cities and urban areas for the suburbs must grapple with the fact that they can’t find their beloved urban amenities in the vicinity of their new big house with a yard. In particular, many planned urban development projects are constantly reinventing the wheel, moving beyond simply residential and commercial spaces to create value for their communities. One such example of this is Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. In the 1960’s it emerged as one of the nation’s first pedestrian malls when the road was closed to traffic, and has remained among one of the more popular destinations for visitors to the South Beach area, thanks in no small part to the work of Terranova CEO Stephen Bittel.

Today Terranova is one of the top commercial real estate firms in southern Florida, but Bittel spent over 40 years within the industry growing the business from the ground up to make it the success it is today. A native of Miami, Bittel grew up believing he would become a lawyer, taking the same profession as his father and grandfather before him. However, while attending Bowdoin College for his undergraduate degree in economics he found himself increasingly drawn to entrepreneurship. After spending a year traveling abroad and making international connections, Bittel found himself well-positioned to start his own real estate business, and although he had already started law school he jumped on the opportunity. While still attending the University of Miami School of Law and eventually passing the bar exam, Bittel worked out of his home to build Terranova into a viable company that was able to survive the real estate market recession of the late 1980’s and position itself for success.

After the market had rebounded, Bittel began growing his company’s portfolio considerably, capitalizing on the young and growing families of the 1990’s who were moving to the more suburban municipalities of Miami-Dade county by purchasing shopping centers and strip malls in the area. Although they were able to get larger amounts of square footage for less money, they also desired easy access to grocery stores, pharmacies, and other popular chains. Terranova sought to fulfill their needs by partnering with large brands such as Publix, Walgreens, and Starbucks across multiple properties, creating “retail anchors” that would draw in foot traffic for the smaller businesses in the shopping centers. Under this model Bittel grew Terranova to be a powerhouse within the commercial real estate industry, owning and operating office buildings, industrial parks, multi-family, and self-storage assets with a total property base of over 8 million square feet.

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