Hendrickson Insurance
Hendrickson Insurance
Commercial property insurance in Miami-Dade County covers an office, retail, industrial or mixed-use building in Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Kendall, Homestead or anywhere 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 inland Miami-Dade. Miami-Dade is one of two counties in Florida's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, and that fact runs through every line of the quote. This is the Miami-Dade chapter of commercial building insurance in Florida.
Commercial property insurance in Miami-Dade is written to the strictest building code in the state. The Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone consists of Broward and Miami-Dade counties only; products used on a Miami-Dade building need a county Notice of Acceptance, and the county's recertification program puts every covered commercial building through a structural and electrical inspection at 30 years and every 10 years after. Carriers read those documents the way a buyer reads a survey. Citizens held 405 commercial policies in the county on August 31, 2026, more than any other county in Florida, most of them wind-only. The building needs the property policy with a named storm deductible priced in dollars, flood under it for the bay and the river, a current recertification, and a roof the HVHZ carrier will accept. The application is here.
The Florida Building Code's Chapter 2 definition is one sentence: the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone consists of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. It is the legacy of Hurricane Andrew, which the National Hurricane Center's 2005 reanalysis upgraded to a Category 5 landfall with 145-knot winds and a 922-millibar pressure at Fender Point, 8 nautical miles east-northeast of Homestead, on August 24, 1992. Inside the zone, roofing, windows, doors, shutters and cladding need a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance through the county's Product Control Section, and the roofing test protocols are the county's own. For an underwriter, that cuts both ways: a Miami-Dade building built or re-roofed to the HVHZ code is the best-built commercial stock in Florida, and a building that has not been touched since before the code is the worst.
Recertification is now an underwriting document. Miami-Dade's program, amended June 1, 2022, puts buildings through structural and electrical recertification at 30 years and every 10 years after, and at 25 years for condominium and cooperative buildings of three stories or more within three miles of the coast built in 1998 or later. Single-family homes, duplexes and buildings with an occupant load of 10 or less and 2,000 square feet or less are exempt; everything else is in. Reports are due within 90 days of the county's notice. Carriers ask for the recertification report with the application, and an overdue one is a decline reason at most of them. Irma is the recent test. In September 2017 Irma's center passed west of the county, and nearly all inland observations in the Miami-Dade and Broward metro area still reported sustained winds just below hurricane force: Opa-locka Airport recorded 56-knot two-minute sustained winds with a 74-knot gust, and Government Cut off Miami Beach measured 65-knot sustained winds at 23 meters. That is the design case the named storm deductible is for. On a $10,000,000 Doral warehouse, a 5 percent deductible is $500,000 before the policy responds, and the deductible applies per building, per storm.Citizens' August 31, 2026 county report puts Miami-Dade first in the state on every line:
| Citizens, Miami-Dade County, Aug 31, 2026 | Policies in force |
|---|---|
| Personal residential, multiperil | 51,523 |
| Personal residential, wind-only | 12,430 |
| Commercial residential, multiperil | 202 |
| Commercial residential, wind-only | 389 |
| Commercial nonresidential, multiperil | 109 |
| Commercial nonresidential, wind-only | 296 |
Four hundred and five commercial policies, 685 of the 2,448 commercial policies Citizens holds statewide when the wind-only lines are counted. The pattern 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 definitions of a storm 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 the January 2027 clearinghouse will route applications to private and surplus lines carriers first.
The property is worth insuring correctly. The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser's July 1, 2026 preliminary roll carries $76.6 billion of taxable commercial value and $37.5 billion of industrial, and Cushman & Wakefield's Q2 2026 Miami-Dade retail report puts vacancy at 3.0 percent on 139.8 million square feet, strip centers at 3.9 percent, and asking rent at $49.82 a square foot, with 1.3 million square feet under construction, the most since early 2023. Underwriters like a full rent roll at those rents. They also know the tax value is not the replacement cost, and the coinsurance clause is where the two numbers meet; see the coinsurance section of the Florida hub.
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.
More per $100 of value than anywhere outside Broward, and it depends on whether the building was built or re-roofed to the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone code. Rating starts from replacement cost and moves with roof age and type, the recertification status, construction, distance to Biscayne Bay, occupancy and loss history, and the named storm deductible you choose. A 2015 tilt-wall warehouse in Doral with Notices of Acceptance on file and a 1972 retail building in Little Havana with an original roof are two different markets.
The Florida Building Code's zone is Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Products used on the building envelope need a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance, and the roofing test protocols are the county's own. A carrier underwriting a Miami-Dade building wants the roof permit, the product approvals and the recertification report, because together they say whether the building will stand up to the design case the deductible is priced for.
Citizens is the largest commercial wind-only writer in the county, with 296 commercial nonresidential wind-only and 109 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 anywhere near Biscayne Bay, the Miami 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 Miami-Dade 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 recertification 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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