Broward County Seeks Rezoning for 154 Acres at Amerant Bank Arena

Broward County has filed a land use plan amendment covering roughly 154 acres around Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, asking to convert the site from commercial, industrial and low-density residential to transit-oriented development. The county, not a private developer, is the applicant. Sunrise city commissioners are set to take up the amendment Aug. 20.

Why it matters

This is the county acting as its own land assembler before any developer is chosen. Broward already owns the arena and its 7,500-space parking lot, and it recently bought 10.7 acres north of Red Snapper Road for a transit hub tied to the Express Bus to Miami, land it is folding into the same TOD push. For developers, the sequence matters: the county is locking in zoning capacity first, then a builder gets picked. Under a Panthers operating agreement extension approved by county commissioners in February 2025, the team holds exclusive rights through 2028 to propose the development plan for the surrounding acreage, so the winning site plan will most likely run through the Panthers’ ownership group rather than an open developer RFP. Anyone tracking this site should watch Sunrise’s Planning and Zoning backup, not just a future solicitation notice, for South Florida developers weighing entitlement timing.

The numbers

The application covers up to 300,000 square feet of commercial space, 1.6 million square feet of office or education space, and 1,400 multifamily units, 15 percent of them affordable. It also includes 600 hotel rooms with up to 60,000 square feet of meeting space, 8 acres of open green space, 1 acre of public space and 18.8 acres of wetlands and mitigation, replacing most of the existing 7,500-space surface lot. A county traffic study found the buildout would generate nearly 50,000 daily vehicle trips. The Panthers paid the county $51.5 million upfront in the 2024 deal to retire arena debt.

What’s next

Sunrise commissioners vote on the land use amendment Aug. 20, a required step before any zoning or site plan approval can move forward. Broward County Commission action on the underlying zoning change would follow. The Panthers’ four-year exclusive window to submit a development plan runs through 2028, setting the clock on when a private partner and formal site plan could surface.