Hendrickson Insurance
Hendrickson Insurance
Commercial property insurance in Broward County covers an office, retail, industrial or mixed-use building in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Plantation, Davie, Coral Springs or anywhere else in the county for the structure, the business personal property inside it, and the rent it earns while a covered loss keeps it closed. Hendrickson Insurance writes it from Sarasota through the wholesale markets that carry South Florida wind and the admitted carriers that still take western Broward. Broward is the other half of Florida's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone and runs the state's most aggressive building inspection program, and both show up on the quote. This is the Broward chapter of commercial building insurance in Florida; the plaza version is South Florida strip mall insurance.
Commercial property insurance in Broward County is written to the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone code and to the county's Building Safety Inspection Program, which since September 23, 2024 covers buildings 25 years old or older and re-inspects them every 10 years. Carriers ask for the inspection report with the application. Hurricane Irma's center passed west of the county in September 2017 and Deerfield Beach still measured a 97-knot gust. Citizens held 617 commercial policies in Broward on August 31, 2026, second only to Miami-Dade, 519 of them wind-only. The building needs the property policy with a named storm deductible priced in dollars, flood under it for the Intracoastal, the New River and the canals, a current safety inspection, and a roof the HVHZ carrier will accept. The application is here.
Broward's Board of Rules and Appeals amended the Florida Building Code locally in September 2024. Section 110.15, effective September 23, 2024, establishes a Building Safety Inspection Program for buildings and structures 25 years of age or older, with subsequent inspections every 10 years from the year the building reaches 25, regardless of when the previous report was filed. Exempt: federal, state and school board buildings, single-family through four-family dwellings of three or fewer habitable stories, fee-simple townhouses, minor structures under 3,500 square feet, and railroads. Every commercial building over 3,500 square feet that turned 25 is in the program.
For a carrier that is a gift and a test. The report is a structural and electrical inspection by a licensed engineer or architect, which is more than most underwriters get on a building anywhere else in Florida. A clean report moves a 1990s Pompano warehouse toward the admitted market. An open repair order moves it to surplus lines or to a decline, and the carrier will ask whether the repairs were permitted and closed. Send the report with the application, not after the carrier asks.
The HVHZ and the storm record. The Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone consists of Broward and Miami-Dade counties, so Broward buildings carry the same product-approval and roofing-protocol rules as Miami-Dade. The recent test was Irma: in September 2017 the center passed well to the west and nearly all inland observations in the Miami-Dade and Broward metro area reported sustained winds just below hurricane force, with a 97-knot gust measured at Deerfield Beach. That is the design case the named storm deductible is for, and on a $6,000,000 Fort Lauderdale office building a 5 percent deductible is $300,000 before the policy pays, per building, per storm.Citizens' August 31, 2026 county report puts Broward second in the state on the commercial lines:
| Citizens, Broward County, Aug 31, 2026 | Policies in force |
|---|---|
| Personal residential, multiperil | 32,687 |
| Personal residential, wind-only | 9,797 |
| Commercial residential, multiperil | 47 |
| Commercial residential, wind-only | 253 |
| Commercial nonresidential, multiperil | 51 |
| Commercial nonresidential, wind-only | 266 |
Six hundred and seventeen commercial policies, 519 of them wind-only. That is the South Florida structure: a private carrier writes the building ex-wind and Citizens or a private wind-only carrier writes the wind beside it, with two deductibles and two storm definitions that have to be matched so a claim does not fall between them. Commercial nonresidential coverage from Citizens still requires that no authorized insurer will make any offer, and from January 1, 2027 the clearinghouse routes applications to private and surplus lines carriers first.
The tax roll and the tenants say the buildings are worth the work. The Broward County Property Appraiser's July 1, 2026 report carries $335.9 billion of taxable value for the county commission levy, and Cushman & Wakefield's Q2 2026 Broward retail report puts vacancy at 4.1 percent on 112.1 million square feet, strip centers at 5.2 percent, and asking rent at $36.45 a square foot, with 683,457 square feet under construction and all of it preleased. A full rent roll at those rents is what an underwriter wants to see on a Broward plaza or office building.
Where Citizens fits. Citizens writes commercial nonresidential coverage, multiperil and wind-only where available, only for a building that cannot get any offer from an authorized insurer; its May 2025 submission guide says the 20 percent premium rule that applies to residential risks does not apply to commercial nonresidential, and the agent has to shop the private market first. Commercial residential buildings (apartments and condominium associations) can get only wind-only from Citizens for new business under section 627.351(6)(b)2.c. Buildings valued over $10 million are submitted for individual rating. Starting January 1, 2027, under section 627.3518, commercial applications route through a clearinghouse first, and a surplus lines offer within 15 percent of Citizens' total cost blocks a new Citizens policy. Citizens is the floor of the market, not a plan. Surplus lines is normal here. Coastal commercial buildings with older roofs, a loss, or a restaurant tenant are often placed with a surplus lines carrier through a wholesaler. The policy comes with Florida's 4.94 percent surplus lines premium tax and the service office fee on top, no guaranty fund behind the carrier, and, very often, a protective safeguards or roof endorsement that has to be read before binding. We submit to Amwins Access, Halcyon and the other wholesalers we use for the rest of the commercial book, and we show the taxes and fees as separate lines on every proposal. Flood is a separate policy everywhere. The property form excludes rising water and storm surge. The NFIP writes a non-residential building up to $500,000 and contents up to $500,000; above that the building needs excess flood from a private or Lloyd's market, stacked over the NFIP policy, never instead of it. All of Florida is a flood zone, hazardous or not.Send it through the commercial property application or email the declarations to dennis@hendricksonins.com, 60 to 90 days before renewal. Dennis Hendrickson managed shopping centers before he sold insurance and reads every submission himself.
It is priced with Miami-Dade, the highest per $100 of value in Florida, and it depends on whether the building was built or re-roofed to the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone code and whether the 25-year safety inspection is clean. Rating starts from replacement cost and moves with roof age and type, construction, distance to the Intracoastal, occupancy and loss history, and the named storm deductible you choose. A 2012 concrete warehouse in Pompano with approvals on file and a 1975 retail strip on Federal Highway with an original roof are two different markets.
Section 110.15 of Broward's local amendment to the Florida Building Code, effective September 23, 2024, requires a structural and electrical inspection for buildings 25 years or older and every 10 years after, with exemptions for one- to four-family dwellings of three or fewer stories, fee-simple townhouses, buildings under 3,500 square feet, and government and school buildings. A commercial building over 3,500 square feet that has turned 25 is in the program, and the carrier will ask for the report.
Citizens is the largest commercial wind-only writer in Broward after Miami-Dade, with 266 commercial nonresidential wind-only and 51 multiperil policies on August 31, 2026, but commercial nonresidential eligibility still requires that no authorized insurer will make any offer, and the 20 percent premium rule does not apply. The common structure is a private ex-wind policy with a Citizens or private wind-only policy beside it. From January 1, 2027 the clearinghouse routes new applications to private and surplus lines markets first.
If it is near the Intracoastal, the New River, the canals or the low ground west of the turnpike, yes, and the property form excludes rising water everywhere. The NFIP writes a non-residential building to $500,000 and contents to $500,000; a Broward building worth more needs excess flood above that, stacked over NFIP, not instead of it.
Yes. Hendrickson Insurance is licensed statewide and places South Florida commercial property through wholesalers that hold the HVHZ wind capacity. The owner sends the declarations, the inspection report and the roof documents, Dennis reads them, and the quote comes back the same business day in most cases.
Apply online or call 941-957-2796. Have your rent roll, current dec pages, roof age and loss runs ready.
Dennis Hendrickson changed a New Jersey state tennis rule at 17 and played four years of Division I tennis at UNC Charlotte. Today he writes both the commercial and the personal insurance for Gulf Coast owners himself, and he works a renewal or a claim the way he played: nothing conceded, no point given away.
When you apply, he answers. Every application goes straight to Dennis. He reads it himself and responds the same business day in most cases, always within 48 hours.
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