Antonio Arserio, Mayor, City of Margate

May 2026 — Invest: spoke with Antonio Arserio, mayor of the city of Margate, about the city’s downtown public-private partnership, growth along the 441 corridor, and how Margate is managing redevelopment amid regional pressures. “Like most cities in South Florida, especially Southeast Florida, we’re experiencing tremendous growth,” Arserio said.

What changes have you seen in Margate over the past year that are shaping how the city thinks about growth and investment going forward?

Like most cities in South Florida, especially Southeast Florida, we’re experiencing tremendous growth. Right now, the city is in the planning stages, and we’ve selected a developer, Brookfield, to implement our public-private partnership for a downtown city center. It comprises about 40 assembled acres at the intersection of 441 and Coconut Creek Parkway.

That’s going to be close to 1,000 residential units, but also restaurants, shops, and other amenities, plus public art. We’re also looking at civic components, whether that’s a new city hall, an amphitheater, or a community center. That’s happening at the heart of our city, and we also have several other mixed-use projects moving forward along that corridor. It’s a really exciting time in the city of Margate.

Selecting the downtown developer was the catalyst. It encouraged other property owners along the corridor to either beautify their plazas or redevelop into better projects.

From your vantage point, how are economic conditions influencing business activity and development decisions at the local level?

There’s still a lot of growth here, but construction costs and other costs have gone up, so developers are careful and selective about which projects they take on.

It’s important that Margate stays on the forefront of being business-friendly and working with developers so they can actually build these projects.

From a workforce perspective, what trends are impacting the city today, whether in attracting employers, supporting local businesses, or even staffing public services?

Over the last 10 to 15 years, Margate was more of a retirement community. Now, depending on which census you read, the average age is around 45 years old, and it’s getting younger.

We’re seeing more young business professionals moving into the city. We have a large hospital district, so we’re seeing a lot of medical professionals move into the city as well, and some technology professionals, too.

How do you balance redevelopment and new investment while also protecting neighborhood character, quality of life, and the uniqueness of the city?

One, we created design standards, and our CRA won an award for those design standards through the FRA. It’s setting the tone and building in public art and green space, because that’s important to residents.

I’ll give you an example. In one area of the city, they’re developing on the Carolina Golf Course, and it’s about 170 acres. Through negotiations with the developer, they initially were going to do apartments and other things that weren’t as attractive to residents in that area. They worked with the community to do townhomes and commercial, no apartments.

About 45% of the entire property would be green space forever, including 3.5 miles of walking trails, lakes, and several pocket parks.

You’re always going to have people say they don’t want development or traffic, but South Florida is growing. You’re not going to avoid the traffic, and you’re not going to avoid the development.

You also have to pay attention to what’s happening at the state level. They are trying to reduce home rule, where local cities get to make choices. They have laws like Live Local and SB 180 that can take away the city’s right to choose which project goes where.

My take has been to work with developers, especially on properties that qualify for Live Local, and tell them we’re developer-friendly to an extent, we have expectations our residents want, but we’re willing to work with you and come up with a project that is profitable and also protects that hometown feel and integrity. Because the alternative is, if we don’t do those agreements, they’re going to come in and build whatever they want.

What role do public input and community engagement play in shaping the city’s economic and planning priorities?

It’s very important to have public input and public opinion, but you also have to be cognizant of where you get that from. If you go on social media, you’d think cities are falling apart. In every city, there are 10 or 20 people who are very vocal, and they don’t represent the entire community.

One of the things we implemented a couple years ago was public satisfaction surveys. If you listen to the five people that come to every commission meeting and complain, or the 20 people on Facebook that complain, you would think we’re going in the wrong direction. But when you do scientific surveys with several thousand residents, and you’re scoring off the charts in customer satisfaction and customer service, that gives you a real picture. For example, we found over 90% of people who had an interaction with police were either satisfied or neutral. It’s important to have that data when we’re making decisions.

We also implemented strategic planning. Before I was in office, Margate didn’t have a strategic plan, and to me that didn’t make sense. We use the surveys to align our plan with resident input, see where to make improvements, and follow trends over time.

What opportunities do you see for Margate to strengthen its position within the broader South Florida economy?

As we continue to develop our 441 corridor, we want to bring in not just residential or entertainment, but business activity, too. A few years ago, Margate was able to bring in El Al Airlines, and they moved their headquarters office from New York to the city of Margate. That shows the city’s business-friendly approach.

Affordability is also important, especially for young professionals. Real estate has gone up tremendously over the last five years since COVID started. In Margate, we had some of the highest percentages of property value increases. We don’t have the most expensive properties in Broward County, but the percentage increase was high.

At the same time, if you look at the median home price, we’re still one of the most affordable in the county. There’s value there, and new families can still afford to buy here compared to other parts of the area.

Looking ahead, what are your top priorities for the city over the next three to five years?

Developing our downtown and the full 441 corridor. The big unknown right now is property taxes in Florida. Are they going to be eliminated or reduced? My sense is the state is not going to completely eliminate property taxes, but I do think there will be a reduction.

Cities are going to have to come up with creative ways to bring in money and, at the same time, cut their budgets. So aside from going through the planning for growth, we’re going to need to tighten our belts and look at the budget and see where we can cut in anticipation of some sort of property tax relief.

Is there anything you want to add about Margate’s story right now?

Margate is a very family-friendly city. It still has that hometown feel.

Over the last eight years that I’ve been in office, we’ve probably invested about $20 million into our parks. We were one of the first cities to get rid of sand in playgrounds and replace it with artificial turf. We were one of the first cities to add splash pads to most of our parks, and we added covered playground areas.

One of our claims to fame is a covered sports field. We built it for $4.5 million about five years ago, and if a city wanted to do that now, it’s probably double or triple the price.

It ended up being a venue to hold different types of events, whether they’re city events or private organizations renting it out, and the possibilities are endless because it’s covered and away from the elements. We’re proud of it, and it’s exciting when people from other cities come to our events and see the efforts.