Mill Creek sells Dadeland apartment towers to Starwood for $371M, marking largest multifamily sale of the year

Starwood Property Trust paid $371.1 million for two apartment towers near Dadeland Mall, marking the most expensive multifamily investment sale of the year in South Florida. Starwood bought the Palmer Dadeland, at 8215 and 8217 Southwest 72nd Avenue, according to S&P Global Ratings. The two 25-story buildings have a combined 844 units. The seller is Mill Creek…

Bridge Industrial Has 175-Acre Site In Doral Under Contract

Bridge Industrial has the largest undeveloped tract of land in Doral under contract and plans an industrial park there. Bridge Industrial Acquisition, an affiliate of Chicago-based Bridge Industrial, formerly called Bridge Development Partners, filed a municipal pre-application with Miami-Dade County for the 175.2-acre site at the southwest corner of Northwest…

Lissette Calderon scores $78M construction loan for second Allapattah multifamily project

Lissette Calderon is building her second Allapattah multifamily project, thanks to a $78.2 million construction loan. Calderon, through her Neology Life development company, is building The Julia, a 12-story, 323-unit project at 1625 Northwest 20th Street, according to a news release from the lender. Construction is underway and is expected to be completed in mid-2023.

$120M Miami Expansion Goes Modular

Optimum Properties has tapped FINFROCK to serve as the project’s architect, structural engineer, precast concrete manufacturer and general contractor for the $120 million expansion of its Aliro Apartments in North Miami Beach, Fla. FINFROCK will be using its offsite modular building approach. The expansion of Aliro Apartments is expected to break…

Location Ventures launches sales of co-living project in Miami Beach

Developer Rishi Kapoor launched sales of his co-living development in Miami Beach, with plans to begin selling units at a Coconut Grove project next. Kapoor, CEO of Coral Gables-based Location Ventures, aims for an ambitious pipeline. He hopes to have 100 Urbin-branded properties across the country and abroad over the next decade, he said. Location…

AEW buys Tamiami Landings in Miami-Dade and a West Palm Beach area multifamily properties for $123M

AEW Capital Management bought newly built Tamiami Landings and Banyan Ridge apartment complexes from AHS Residential for a combined $123 million. Boston-based AEW, a real estate investment manager, paid $67.5 million for Tamiami Landings in southern Miami-Dade County’s Country Walk area. The 264-unit complex is near the intersection…

Can creative placemaking make a building more successful? Skylight’s Stephanie Blake thinks so

Legendary real estate investor Harry Helmsley took special pride in finding what he termed the “romance” in a property: the parts of it that could be run more efficiently, thereby cutting expenses and boosting profits. Stephanie Blake, too, searches for the romance. But her quest lies less in spotting leaky boilers and more in identifying the elements of a…

From Dubai to Surfside: Inside Damac’s plans to redevelop the tragic site

Hussain Sajwani has made a career out of going against the tide. While his compatriots scaled back after the 2008 market downturn, Sajwani, the founder of Dubai-based Damac Properties, announced his biggest project yet, the 42 million-square-foot Damac Hills. And years later, as many high-profile businesses severed ties with the Trump Organization over…

The Fed: How Much Debt Is Too Much? What History Shows

A nation burdened by an excessive amount of public debt can face serious challenges over the long run. But how much is excessive? In this blog post, I’ll discuss what history might show us about a nation’s ability to sustain relatively high levels of indebtedness. Relative Debt Levels in the U.S. and U.K. The figure below shows public debt relative to gross domestic…

Notable Retail Leases Signed in South Florida Q3 2021

South Florida Retail Real Estate Leases 2020 – 2021 We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the top retail leases signed by square footage in South Florida during Q1 2021. This quarter was busy overall, especially considering the current pandemic, and saw several big box leases signed and sealed. Despite the sentiment that the traditional retail…

After yearslong bidding battle, Miami faces legal challenge over marina referendum

Alleging the Miami City Commission showed “blatant and illegal favoritism” in awarding a multimillion-dollar marina redevelopment proposal to its competitor, a joint venture wants to torpedo a November referendum that would seal the deal. Miami voters will be asked to approve the waiving of competitive bids and allow the city…

Trump nearing $370M sale of DC hotel to Miami investment firm

Donald Trump’s struggling Washington, D.C., hotel may soon be somebody else’s problem. Miami-based investment firm CGI Merchant Group is close to striking a deal with the Trump Organization to acquire the lease on the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., for more than $370 million, according to the Wall Street Journal…

Inside the East End Capital-Australian investor feud over Miami’s 100 Biscayne tower

When East End Capital and an Australian investor bought a downtown Miami office tower five years ago, they started out like others do: bold, ambitious and sure of a windfall.  They shelled out $84 million for the 30-story 100 Biscayne and bet that tens of millions of dollars more in improvements would fill up vacancies. They reportedly eyed a…

Boca Raton firm completes bulk purchase of 39 condos near Coral Gables

A Boca Raton-based real estate investment firm closed on a $9.1 million bulk condo purchase in southwest Miami-Dade. The company, managed by Glenn Alba, CEO of Opterra Capital, bought 39 condos at the Gables Court Condominiums, a 160-unit complex at 6821, 6851 and 6861 Southwest 44th Street, between South Miami and Coral Gables, according to records.

Office workers in major cities reach pandemic-best return rates

The pandemic is far from over, but employees are slowly beginning to head back into their workplaces in a positive sign for the national office market. An average of 36 percent of the workforce in those cities were back in the office during the week of Oct. 4-8, according to data from Kastle Systems reported by the Wall Street Journal. The security company tracks…

Okan Tower, to be Miami’s tallest, due in 2022

The Okan Tower is still on track to be finished in mid 2022, according to Okan CEO Kasim Badak. The $300 million project was put on hold because of the pandemic. “The pandemic affected us,” Mr. Badak said. “But it affected everyone around the world. We stopped any operations, but we are back in business.” Bekir Okan, Turkish billionaire businessman, is…

Car-free lifestyles create commercial development niches

A car-free lifestyle and commercial real estate development opportunities are closely intertwined, a Miami Association of Realtors commercial conference panel exploring Transit Oriented Development agreed. “The real story in Florida is population growth,” said Aaron Stolear, associate vice president of 13th Floor Investments. “We are absorbing 1,000 people…”

CocoWalk full to brim with seven new leases

The newly renovated CocoWalk mixed-use lifestyle center’s retail and office spaces are now fully leased, occupying over 235,000 square feet.  Owned by a joint venture comprised of Federal Realty Investment Trust, The Comras Co. and Grass River Property, the open-air tourism destination at 3015 Grand Ave. in Coconut Grove has completed leasing its office spaces…

Only two bid to repair shuttered Dade County Courthouse

After a dozen companies came to an August pre-bid and site visit in the Dade County Courthouse basement, only two local companies bid to repair crumbling columns in the now-closed Flagler Street landmark. The county estimated the cost at $3.7 million with completion within 525 days after a notice to proceed is issued. Work, according to Internal Services…

New Miami Worldcenter occupants set to open in 2022

The Miami Worldcenter continues to fill space with retailers and merchants, with three new tenants set to open in early 2022. The $4 billion, 27-acre mixed-use development at 1010 NE Second Ave. has just signed Sephora, with the purpose of creating an inviting beauty community; Lucid Motors, with electric vehicles; and Bowlero, a full-entertainment…

Grove’s Regatta Harbour says waterfront bar & grill is near

One year after the Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA) launched its “Follow the Sun” economic development campaign, the agency has secured commitments from 17 new-to-market firms that will create a projected 1,835 high-wage jobs over the next three years.  These new positions are expected to pay an average annual salary in excess…

The Fed: U.S. Lending Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered economic shocks in the spring of 2020. How did banks respond to this sudden economic shift? In a Regional Economist article published in June, Regional Economist Charles Gascon, Associate Economist Nathan Jefferson and Research Associate Praew Grittayaphong examined lending trends in 2020 and offered an…

Ari Pearl, Jonathan Leifer sell Bay Harbor Islands condo-hotel units for $21M

Developers Ari Pearl and Jonathan Leifer sold more than half of the units at their converted Bay Harbor Islands condo-hotel for about $21.4 million, or roughly $389,000 per key. Pearl’s PPG Development and Leifer, chairman and founder of L3C Capital Partners, acquired the waterfront property out of foreclosure for $30 million in December. Last month, they converted…

Hotel conversions race against the clock

90 Sands Street On a nondescript corner in Brooklyn, sandwiched between on-ramps for the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, a long-vacant hotel formerly run by the Jehovah’s Witnesses is starting a new chapter. Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty acquired the 29-story building at 90 Sands Street for $135 million in 2017, intending to create, as his partner Ian Schrager…

Trippy: Canadian psychedelic therapy clinic to open first Florida site in Wynwood

Field Trip Health, a psychedelic therapy company, picked one of Miami’s trippiest neighborhoods for its first location in Florida. The Toronto-based company plans to open in Wynwood, The Real Deal has learned. Field Trip inked a lease for a 7,500-square-foot space at The Wynwood Annex, an office building that the Related Group and East End… at 215 NW 24th St…

South Florida’s industrial market continues pandemic momentum in Q3

Industrial rents continued to climb in the third quarter, as leasing soared in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, according to a recently released report. In Miami-Dade and Broward, net absorption nearly tripled, while Palm Beach County’s net absorption crossed into negative territory, Colliers’ third quarter report shows. Yet, average asking rents continued to rise…

Miami Worldcenter scores tenants Sephora, Lucid Motors, Bowlero; other leasing news

Sephora, Lucid Motors, Bowlero I Miami Worldcenter Beauty retailer Sephora, luxury electric car company Lucid Motors and entertainment complex Bowlero inked leases at Miami Worldcenter, the mixed-use development in downtown Miami. Sephora will occupy 6,000 square feet along the 7th Street Promenade fronting the development’s World…

Miami Developers Aren’t Integrating Climate Analysis, But Risk Scores Are Coming to Moody’s Analytics

Moody’s Analytics will now make climate risk scores available on its analytics platform, in a move aimed at helping industry pros better quantify the exposure of commercial properties to the physical impacts of climate change. The firm’s climate risk scoring methodology analyzes both current and future risk and follows the firm’s recent expansion into…

Miami Market Update: Office Vacancy Holds Steady

As of August, the Miami office market bore a 14.2 percent vacancy rate, a figure virtually unchanged on a month-over-month basis and up 180 basis points compared to the same period in 2020, according to CommercialEdge data. The metro continued to outperforme the national average, which reached 15.4 percent in August. Manhattan (10.8 percent) maintained…

Is Biscayne Gardens the next city in Miami-Dade?

Biscayne Gardens residents have an opportunity to be the 35th municipality (city) in Miami-Dade County. This past September 1st the Board of County Commission voted 11 to 2 to allow the voting residents of Biscayne Gardens to choose to incorporate at Special Election on November 2, 2021. The basic distinction between a county and a city is that county government is…

Tug-of-war over anti-redlining law heads back to the drawing board

When Trump-appointed regulator Joseph Otting, previously a career banking executive, proposed a series of overhauls to a 1970s redlining law last year, critics viewed it as a giveaway to the banking industry.  If that was the aim, it backfired.  Banking interests and community advocates united in their opposition, with the latter filing a lawsuit to block the reforms…

Developers incorporating “wellness” into more and more projects

Developers have incorporated “wellness” amenities and designs into more and more projects over the past several years. Some 740 “wellness” residential projects were in development or built worldwide at the beginning of 2018 and that number has grown to around 2,300, according to a study by the Global Wellness Institute…

US industrial market hit records across several metrics in Q3

It was a record third quarter for the U.S. industrial market by just about every key metric. Vacancy fell to an all-time low of 4.1 percent on the back of a record 140 million square feet of net absorption, according to the Business Journals. Average rents reached an all-time high of $7.18 per square foot. Developers are also setting records: The 521.4 million…

Pandemic paralysis: Delta continues to impede hotel, restaurant recovery

The Delta variant continues to stall recovery in the hospitality sector, as hotels, restaurants and bars added a mere 31,000 jobs to the U.S economy in September after a net gain of zero jobs in August. The primary driver of job losses during the pandemic, the broader leisure and hospitality sector added 74,000 jobs as arts and entertainment venues reopened…

Retailers in central business districts still face sluggish sales

As U.S. retailers emerge from the pandemic’s record-lows for business, those in residential neighborhoods are showing signs of life while ones in central business districts remain as dormant as the offices around them. Businesses in residential neighborhoods were recovering faster than small businesses in central business districts, according to an analysis from…

Selling out post-Surfside collapse

Buyers seeking warm weather and the amenities of oceanfront living have often sought out more affordable units in older buildings along South Florida’s waterfront. But now the supply of those condos may be dwindling. Developers, facing little to no inventory of undeveloped waterfront land, are increasingly targeting bulk buyouts of these buildings. And unit…

The Fed on the Risks for Future Inflation

For several months now, inflation has been running high, well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual target. For example, between August 2020 and August 2021, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index grew by 4.3%. In its most recent statement, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) recognized that “inflation is elevated” but…

South Florida retail rents surpass pre-pandemic pricing in Q3

In Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, retail landlords are raising rents to levels that surpass pre-pandemic pricing, according to a recently released third quarter report. Vacancy rates fell across the tri-county region during the most recent quarter, and absorption increased as asking rents rose…

Utilizing Passive Losses as a Rental Real Estate Owner

This article addresses the utilization of passive losses resulting from an owner of rental real estate who is not a real estate professional and does not have the ability to “group” real estate with another activity. In other words, the taxpayer is a passive investor in rental real estate that is leased to a third party. An example would be a full-time doctor who is also…

Housing funds imperiled in $3.5T reconciliation bill

The $330 billion for housing in the Build Back Better reconciliation bill, which would be an unprecedented investment, might be one of the first items cut as Congress tries to shrink the price tag. According to multiple reports, lawmakers are looking at slashing these funds to appease moderate Democrats who consider the $3.5 trillion package too expensive.

Alex Vadia’s Midtown Miami property could get height increase to 48 stories

A mixed-use tower of up to 48 stories or 683 feet may be allowed on a vacant parcel in Midtown Miami. The Miami Planning Zoning & Appeals Board on Wednesday voted unanimously to increase the maximum possible height limit for a 1.64-acre parcel at 3501 Northeast First Avenue from 33 stories or 350 feet to 48 stories or 683 feet. The height increase will…

Billionaire Jeff Greene On His Pandemic Mistake And A ‘Game-Changer’ For West Palm Beach

Billionaire Jeff Greene is best known for making a fortune by betting against the housing market circa 2007, just before the financial crisis hit. These days, he’s focused on transforming West Palm Beach, Florida. Greene grew up in New England, but his parents moved to Palm Beach County in the late 1960s, and he visited often. “I didn’t really care for it very much…

Battle of Monmouth: Zell and Sternlicht’s $2B struggle over warehouse REIT

Sam Zell waited seven years to make his next billion-dollar move. Then Barry Sternlicht crashed the party. The two real estate titans spent the summer locked in a $2 billion bidding war for Monmouth Real Estate, a family-run firm in a New Jersey suburb about an hour outside New York. At stake: Monmouth’s more than 120 warehouses across the country…

World Freight Logistics Buys Doral Industrial Facility

Agora Real Estate Group President and Commercial Advisor Elias G. Patsalos, CCIM, along with colleague Michal Bibr, recently negotiated the sale of an industrial property at 8242 NW 70th Street in Doral. World Freight Logistics (WFL) paid $2,400,000 for the property, equating to $212 per square foot. Patsalos and Bibr represented the seller, VALPART…

Extra Space Storage acquires Margate warehouse for $22M

A Salt Lake City-based self-storage real estate company expanded its South Florida holdings with a $22.1 million purchase in Margate. An entity tied to Extra Space Storage acquired the 101,300-square-foot industrial building at 750 and 780 South State Road 7 and an adjoining parking lot, according to records. The deal for the recently completed warehouse break…

Pompano Beach mixed-use project scores $45M construction loan

A planned apartment-retail project in Pompano Beach’s Old Town district scored a $45 million construction loan, following a roughly yearlong delay. The $72 million Old Town Square will have 281 multifamily units, just over 5,000 square feet of retail and a garage with more than 300 spaces, according to Adam Adache of co-developer Cavache Properties.

Joint venture pays $64M for Davie RV park primed for industrial project

A Chicago-based industrial real estate firm teamed up with Stockbridge Real Estate to acquire the Twin Lakes Travel Park in Davie for $64 million. The joint venture, led by Industrial Outdoor Ventures, acquired the 38.5-acre site at 3055 Burris Road. The sellers are three entities tied to Twin Lakes Travel Park…

CenterPoint buys Pompano Beach last-mile distribution facility for $10M

CenterPoint Properties bought a Pompano Beach last-mile distribution facility for $10 million, marking the firm’s continued investment in South Florida’s hot industrial real estate market. The Oak Brook, Illinois-based company bought the property at 1405 Southwest Eighth Street, records show. The selling entity is managed by Patrick Venne and Jonathan…

Wickshire Senior Living buys Fort Lauderdale ALF for $17M

Wickshire Senior Living bought a Fort Lauderdale facility for $17.3 million, as Florida’s reputation as a magnet for retirees continues to spur investor demand in the sector. The Brentwood, Tennessee-based company bought the property at 2855 West Commercial Boulevard from an affiliate of Denver-based Healthpeak Properties, records show. The deal for the…

Genet Property Group sells Sunrise industrial building for $5M

Genet Property Group sold a Sunrise warehouse for $5.4 million, reflecting continued South Florida industrial investment sales activity amid a prospering market. Records show Tamarac-based Genet Property, led by Ben Genet, sold the building at 4747 Nob Hill Road to an entity led by Brooklyn-based David Kahn, who invests on behalf of his family…

Longpoint Realty buys three Sunrise warehouses for $17M

Longpoint Realty Partners picked up three Sunrise warehouses for $16.6 million, marking continued investor appetite for South Florida industrial space amid a healthy market. The Boston-based real estate private equity firm bought the buildings at 5101-5181 and 5201-5299 Northwest 108th Avenue in two deals, records show…

JV led by IP Capital buys Boca Raton office complex for $77M

A joint venture led by a Boca Raton-based real estate investment firm picked up a three-building office complex in its own backyard. An entity registered to Josh Procacci, chief investment officer for IP Capital Partners, paid $77.3 million for Fountain Square at 2600, 2650 and 2700 North Military Trail, according to records. The deal equates…

Wheelock pays $106M for The Ben hotel near downtown West Palm Beach

Wheelock Street Capital paid $106.4 million for The Ben West Palm Beach, a new hotel near the city’s downtown, marking one of the largest hospitality investment sales in South Florida since the pandemic began. Concord Hospitality Enterprises Company, a hotel management, ownership and development company based in…

Three Retailers Sign Leases at $4B Miami Worldcenter Development in Downtown Miami

Three retailers have signed leases to join the tenant lineup at Miami Worldcenter, a $4 billion, 27-acre mixed-use development underway in downtown Miami. The three retailers are Sephora, a beauty and make-up retailer; Lucid Motors, an electric car company; and Bowlero, an entertainment retailer that offers bowling, interactive arcades and…

Gentrification Complete: Will Wynwood’s Progress Be Its Downfall?

The party starts late in Miami, but a little past 10 p.m. on a Saturday night, Wywnood’s already bustling. Cars are bumper to bumper on NW Second Avenue, windows rolled down, blasting the communal soundtrack of reggaeton and rap. Thumping party buses clog traffic as passengers drape out of the windows with bottles of Champagne. Women in bodycon…

Real estate’s richest get richer on Forbes’ billionaire list

Despite a pandemic that caused general havoc for the rest of us, the world’s richest grew $500 billion richer over the past year, upping the ante for a spot on Forbes’ annual ranking of the 400 wealthiest Americans. Those who made the list included tech titans, hedge funders, retail giants and, of course, real estate moguls. Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway…

Miami Market Update: Heightened Investor Interest

As of July, five office properties totaling nearly 600,000 square feet traded within the Miami metro, according to CommercialEdge, with sales prices amounting to a total of $54 million. Year-to-date through July, Miami’s office market has seen $1.5 billion in transactions, the average sales price clocking in at $312 per square foot, placing the metro above the national average…

South Florida office vacancies remain high in Q3, as rents inch up

Office vacancy rates are averaging above 10 percent across South Florida, yet landlords keep raising rents, according to a recently released third quarter report. Owners of new and older trophy Class A buildings, as well as landlords in trendy business districts like Miami’s Wynwood, are finding the greatest success luring new-to-market tenants from across the U.S…

Kushner scores $127M financing for Edgewater dev site

Kushner Companies scored two loans totaling $127 million for its major apartment development planned for Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood. Kushner’s 2000 Biscayne Leasehold and 2000 Biscayne Fee Owner secured a $75 million leasehold mortgage from Valley National Bank and a $52 million mortgage from AIG Asset Management, respectively, for the…

BBX Capital Real Estate Launches Industrial Division

Florida’s industrial market will get a little more competitive with a new player. BBX Capital Real Estate has launched a new division, BBX Industrial, it announced Tuesday. The firm will focus on identifying infill speculative and industrial build-to-suit opportunities in Florida and in other key logistics markets as opportunities arise. The average national industrial…

Miami multifamily investment firm received funds from disgraced Catholic order: Pandora Papers

A Miami-based multifamily investment firm received $14 million for its properties from a disgraced Catholic order still reeling from past revelations of pedophilia, the Pandora Papers revealed. Pensam Capital received the investments from two New Zealand trusts tied to the Legion of Christ for at least eight apartment complexes Pensam purchased in…

Dismissed: Alex Sapir’s $100M lawsuit against Rotem Rosen

A federal judge dismissed a $100 million lawsuit that Alex Sapir filed against his former real estate business partner Rotem Rosen, which alleged Rosen siphoned off tens of millions of dollars and stole trade secrets. The same judge allowed two of Rosen’s claims tied to his multimillion-dollar buyout agreement with Sapir — who leads Sapir Organization…

Shorty’s BBQ sells Doral property for $6M

In an off-market deal too savory to pass up, the top executive for Shorty’s BBQ sold the local chain’s Doral property for $6.1 million. Doral Restaurant Investments LLC, managed by Jair Luis Gomes Fontes of Miami-based Belisana Investments, bought the 1.1-acre site at 2255 Northwest 87th Avenue, according to records. The seller is an entity managed by Mark…

Hotel companies increasingly turning to all-inclusive resorts

As the hotel industry grapples with the pandemic, many brands are heading toward warmer weather and all-inclusive reports. Multiple companies have dived into the all-inclusive slice of the market, including Wyndham, Marriott and Hyatt, according to the Wall Street Journal. Such resorts typically offer all lodging, food and drinks, as well as some leisure…

The hotel recovery is far from complete

The recovery of the hotel industry in the United States is far from complete, as an optimistic peak vacation season gives way to what may be a disappointing fall and holiday season. About 1 billion hotel rooms will be booked in the country this year, according to a forecast from data and analytics firm STR reported by The Wall Street Journal. The figure…

Cortland buys Kendall apartment complex for $99M

An Atlanta-based multifamily real estate investment firm is feasting on South Florida apartment complexes, spending nearly $500 million acquiring properties since the beginning of the year. Two months after completing… deal equates to roughly $233,254 per apartment for the 424-unit garden-style community at 15000 Southwest 104th Street in the…

KKR closes $4.3B commercial real estate fund

KKR is sealing the deal on a major commercial real estate fund after raising $4.3 billion. KKR Real Estate Partners Americas, otherwise known as REPA III, is the company’’s third opportunistic fund. It closed more than two years after the second fund closed with $2 billion, according to the Commercial Observer. As of last month, the company had committed $1 billion of…

Miami Beach Byron Carlyle theater restoration shows flickers of hope

Still unclear on what to do with the shuttered Byron Carlyle theater, the City of Miami Beach agreed to put a placeholder of $400,000 from the city’s budget reserve to possibly be used for a conceptual design, but not until the city commission gets community feedback, structural assessments and a solid plan. Its conceptual design, if approved, would cost the city…

Cost of Flagler Street beautification rises millions

A 30-month Flagler Street beautification downtown is on track but $5 million over budget, says Downtown Development Authority Chairman and City Commissioner Manolo Reyes. Work is now to cost $32 million.  The plan is a curb-free, more pedestrian street with European style. But first work beneath the street must be done. Asphalt had to be removed and gas…

Plan for Kendall Bus Rapid Transit goes flat

The Florida Department of Transportation on Friday successfully deferred a resolution to recommend Bus Rapid Transit for Kendall. The next phase of this leg of the county’s Smart plan to add six corridors of rapid transit is now paused as officials gather again with the department to explore what can be done. County Commissioner Raquel Regalado said she is to…

Causeways plan split: Venetian out, Rickenbacker on slower track

The Venetian Causeway is to be officially removed from the unsolicited request for proposals to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Rickenbacker Causeway and the Venetian Causeway, including the development of parkland and beachfront along the Rickenbacker Causeway – a portion of the project that was slowed.   A resolution by…

Miami Established As ‘The Capital Of Capital,’ Mayor Says

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez marveled at the hot streak the city has been having while speaking at Bisnow’s State of the Market event Wednesday. He said that in the past 16 months, “we’ve moved $1.1 trillion of assets under management companies to the city of Miami,” and the city is No. 1 in the nation for tech job growth. “In the last six weeks, we’ve done about…

South Florida Retail Real Estate Summary: Leases, Sales & Construction Projects

Market Snapshot for South Florida Retail Real Estate A summary of the statistical highlights, latest retail transactions, vacancy / lease trends, and current market activity for South Florida commercial real estate focusing on Miami-Dade County. The retail real estate report is updated every quarter by our CRE experts. The analysis is derived and compiled…

Julio Iglesias used shell companies to amass real estate portfolio: Pandora Papers

Singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias (Getty Images, iStock) Singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias crafted his real estate portfolio in South Florida using shell companies, including for five properties on the ultra-exclusive Indian Creek Island, homes in the nearby town of Surfside, as well as for a property in Homestead. Iglesias’ purchase of these properties was revealed in the…

Tenants rushing back to tour offices, but things still far from normal

Office tenants are touring buildings at the highest numbers since the start of the pandemic — an early indicator that companies may be ready to commit to new workspaces and sign leases. But this early activity is still far below where it was pre-Covid. Across the country, tenants have been increasing their touring activity each month since December, according…

Lease roundup: Shipping container firm opens Miami HQ; more…

Raymond James, Azorra and more I The Main Las Olas, Fort Lauderdale Nine tenants signed leases for a total of 20,667 square feet of office space at downtown Fort Lauderdale’s The Main Las Olas, bringing the building’s occupancy to more than 50 percent. Azorra aircraft lessor took out the biggest space at 10,606 square feet. New York-based hedge fund…

Lumber prices back on the rise

The roller coaster ride that is lumber is still going strong. In the past month, the price of lumber futures has soared nearly 40 percent to $672.50 per thousand board feet, near a pre-pandemic high. The present cost is also seeing gains, as Random Lengths reports a 27 percent increase in an index that tracks immediate sales, according to the Wall Street Journal…

PWC opens full-time remote work to US employees

In a potential blow to the recuperating office market, PriceWaterhouseCoopers is freeing the entirety of its U.S. workforce to work remotely full-time. The accounting and consulting firm’s non-client-facing employees already had the option to work remotely full-time. But the latest decision will allow 40,000 client services to work remotely…

Developer Gil Dezer on Branding, Bentley and His Favorite Car

A Porsche literally hangs on the wall of Gil Dezer’s Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., home. The custom-built pad on a barrier reef island just north of Miami Beach also features a 29-car garage and a glass wall that looks out onto a perfect spectrum of turquoise ocean. It’s on the ground floor of Trump Palace, one of 10 condo high-rises that Dezer — the son of real estate…

Rumble in Little Havana: Ball & Chain owner sues city of Miami for $28M

An allegedly illegal code enforcement crackdown coordinated by a Miami city commissioner has financially ruined two popular venues on Southwest Eighth Street, according to a recently filed lawsuit. Four affiliates of Mad Room Hospitality, a company tied to Little Havana developer and landlord Bill Fuller, are looking to…

New York multifamily investor drops $160M on Cordoba apartments in Doral

New York multifamily investor Dermot scooped up the Cordoba apartment complex near Downtown Doral for $160 million. J.P. Morgan Investment Management, through an affiliate, sold the 454-unit complex at 8111 Northwest 53rd Street in Doral, according to records. The buyer took out a $101 million loan from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

David Grutman and Pharrell’s Goodtime Hotel in South Beach scores $164M refi

Let the good times roll. David Grutman and Pharrell Williams’ Goodtime Hotel scored a $164 million refinancing. Washington Squared Owner LLC, an affiliate of Imperial Companies, secured the loan from CIM Group and J.P. Morgan Chase for the property at 601 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach, according to records and Eric…

Moguls Are Migrating to Miami — With Their Companies In Tow

The six-bedroom mansion on Miami’s exclusive Venetian Islands comes with a Japanese imported aquarium that requires a scuba diver for maintenance. It also offers an infinity pool, a boat lift, and expansive views of Biscayne Bay. It sold for a record $28.9 million in December 2020. The buyer wasn’t just any San Francisco transplant; it was billionaire…

Report predicts widespread return-to-office in early 2022

Repeatedly delayed return-to-office plans may finally come to fruition in the coming months, a new report indicates. While office landlords and brokers once hoped that a majority of workers would be back at their desks after Labor Day, the spread of the contagious Delta variant has forced most employers to delay their plans. But a new report issued by Cushman…

Nonbank CRE lenders expect bumper year

Pressure on nonbank lenders reached a fever pitch during the pandemic as large real-estate securities portfolios made the companies look vulnerable amid the industry’s virtual pause. Now, nonbank lenders are on pace for one of their biggest years for loan volume, analysts and executives told the Wall Street Journal. The sector proved resilient thanks to the Federal…

Dubai developer’s $120M contract for Surfside site approved, appraisal for unit owners totals $96M

A judge approved the Dubai-based developer’s $120 million contract to purchase the site of the Surfside condo collapse, while a new appraisal valuing the units at about $95.6 million will help determine the future distribution of funds. Additional proceeds from the sale will likely go toward death and personal injury claims, Judge Michael Hanzman…

Elysee Investments buys Bay Harbor Islands office building for $8M

Elysee Investments bought an office building on Bay Harbor Islands’ Kane Concourse for $7.6 million. Records show an affiliate of Miami Beach-based Elysee purchased the property at 1045 Kane Concourse and the parking lot directly north of the 14,094-square-foot building. Elysee took out a $5.7 million loan from City National Bank of Florida. The…

Singaporean REIT acquires US industrial portfolios for $3B

One of Singapore’s largest REITs recently acquired two industrial portfolios in the U.S., bringing its logistics ownership to over 70 million square feet. This month, Mapletree Investments acquired 117 properties totaling 22.3 million square feet in Chicago, Memphis, Houston and other markets, the company announced Thursday. The seller was not disclosed…

KEI Properties buys Miami Gardens office complex for $9M

Fresh off buying a Hialeah office-retail property, KEI Properties picked up an office complex in nearby Miami Gardens for $9.1 million. An entity tied to Niznik Behavioral Health sold Plaza Executive Centre North at 1515 Northwest 167th Street in an off-market deal, said Julian Huzenman with FIP Commercial Realty. Huzenman represented the seller and the buyer.

Video: Creating The Post-Covid Office

While many companies have cut jobs in the last year, the pandemic has created at least one position at Gensler: anthropologist-on-call. “We’re trying to understand patterns [and] movement through space,” explained Co-Managing Partner Joe Brancato on the latest episode of Coffee Talk. “Why is one six person conference room on one side of a floor being…

Fruchtlander family buys Hollywood, Florida rental for $32M

4000 North 56th Avenue in Hollywood FL (LoopNet, iStock) The Fruchtlander family is continuing its march into South Florida. FBE Limited, the family’s office, purchased The Club at Emerald Waters, a 300-unit, six-building complex spread across 4.9 acres in Hollywood, Florida. FBE paid $31.9 million for the property, according to the Commercial…

Hines pays $57M for office building dev site in Fort Lauderdale’s FATVillage

Hines bought the development site for its office project in Fort Lauderdale’s FATVillage for $57.4 million. Hines bought roughly 15 lots on the west side of North Andrews Avenue between Fifth and Sixth streets from an affiliate of Fort Lauderdale-based Urban Street Development, led by Alan Hooper and Tim Petrillo, according to records. The properties are 501, 511-514…

Zenix Properties buys North Lauderdale retail center for $14M

Miami-based Arena Capital sold a Broward County retail center for $395,000 above its listing price. Buyer Zenix Properties, a Miami-based entity led by Roberto and Orlando Alberro, paid $13.5 million for Promenade Shoppes at 7910 West McNab Road in North Lauderdale, according to a press release. Adam Tiktin and Greg Matus with…

KKR sells Boynton Beach warehouses to Oxford Properties for $16M

In separate purchases, a Toronto-based multinational real estate investment firm acquired two Boynton Beach warehouses for a combined $15.5 million. Affiliates of Oxford Properties Group, led by company President Michael Turner, purchased the properties at 6600 and 7700 High Ridge Road for $7.3 million and $8.2 million, respectively. The sellers…

Gold Standard of Care pays $14M for assisted living facility in West Palm

Gold Standard of Care bought an assisted living and nursing home facility in West Palm Beach for $14 million, marking the continuing strength of senior healthcare real estate in Florida. The firm, based in Fort Lauderdale, bought the property at 2090 North Congress Avenue from the real estate investment trust…

Billionaire Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners buys Palm Beach office building for $23M

Trian’s Nelson Peltz, Ed Garden and Peter May with the office building (Trian, New England Development) Billionaire Palm Beach resident Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners bought an office building on the barrier island for $23 million. Trian purchased the two-story building at 223 Sunset Avenue from an affiliate of Boston-based New England Development, according…

Former Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald office building in Doral trades for $27M

The former Doral office building of the Miami Herald and its sister Spanish language newspaper, el Nuevo Herald, traded for $27.3 million. Institutional real estate investor Parmenter, also based in Doral, bought the property at 3511 Northwest 91st Avenue from Memphis-based SMPO, according to public records. Parmenter took out a $26.5 million loan…

CenterPoint scoops up Doral warehouse for $17M

CenterPoint Properties picked up a tenant-occupied warehouse in Doral for $16.65 million. The Oak Brook, Illinois-based industrial real estate company, led by CEO Bob Chapman, bought the 65,000-square-foot distribution facility at 8788 Northwest 27th Street. The seller is Keys Holdings and Investments, managed by Carlos Fragoso Senra in Key Biscayne.

Brazilian billionaire developer Jose Isaac Perez completes 57 Ocean in Miami Beach with sellout of over $330M

Brazilian billionaire Jose Isaac Peres’ Multiplan Real Asset Management completed its luxury oceanfront condo project in mid-Miami Beach, The Real Deal has learned. The developer sold out and secured the temporary certificate of occupancy for 57 Ocean, an 18-story, 69-unit building at 5775 Collins Avenue, said Marcelo Kingston, managing partner at Multiplan.

Publicly traded firms now own $1.64T of US real estate

Commercial real estate is increasingly ending up in the hands of publicly traded firms, which now boast more than $1.6 trillion in real estate holdings. S&P Global Market Intelligence calculated the $1.6 trillion figure, the highest dollar volume of real estate ownership for that sector in at least a decade, and a 38 percent increase from ten years ago, according to…

Moishe Mana buys Allapattah site for $6.2M as he doubles down on Miami

Developer Moishe Mana is focusing on Miami, continuing to invest in commercial property. Mana paid $6.2 million for a development site at 634 Northwest 22nd Street in Allapattah, where he could build an e-commerce logistics center, The Real Deal has learned. Mana, downtown Miami’s biggest private landowner and a major investor in nearby Wynwood…

Oak Street Capital buys another South Florida Walgreens, pays $5 million

Less than 10 days after acquiring a Walgreens in Broward County, a Chicago-based real estate firm picked up another store in southwest Miami-Dade. An entity controlled by Mark Zahr and James Hennessy, managing partners of private equity firm Oak Street Real Estate Capital, paid $5.3 million for… 15,651-square-foot Walgreens at 28801 South Dixie Highway…

22-story office/commercial tower in Health District wins OK

A plan to construct a state-of-the-art office tower in the city’s Health District has been recommended for approval by a city review board. Owner-developer TCD 212 Civica FL Property plans the commercial and office building at 1050 and 1000 NW 14th Street, a high-profile site south of Northwest 14th Street, just north of the Dolphin Expressway (836) and…

Plaza Coral Gables lands major commercial deals

On target to be completed in August 2022, The Plaza Coral Gables is securing major commercial real estate leasing deals and, at the same time, positioning the city as a desirable business district.  The Plaza Coral Gables will have a positive impact on the quality of life and safety of the community through the creation of new spaces for dining, recreation…

Coral Gables Country Club operator leaving but wants to stay

The City of Coral Gables has decided to cut ties with Coral Gables Country Club’s current operator after serving only 10 years of its 30-year lease term.  In March, tenant Coral Grand was notified that the city would not renew its tenth-year lease agreement to operate the country club at 997 N Greenway Drive due to failure to pay both base and percentage rent, according…

Why Miami Beach’s Office Market is Booming

Miami Beach’s business-friendly policies and year-round warm climate have contributed to its resilience through these uncertain times, as the city has experienced a wave of businesses and their capital relocating from colder, tax-burdened states throughout the country. “These companies are prioritizing quality of life—walkability, commute times, proximity to…

Planners to punch ticket for Kendall Bus Rapid Transit

A formal endorsement of Bus Rapid Transit instead of rail to bring fast transportation to the high-density Kendall Corridor is up for approval today (9/30) by Miami-Dade County’s Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) board.  The Florida Department of Transportation District Six, which oversees Miami-Dade, presented the Kendall Corridor proposal at a…

Center for Jewish Life on Coral Way wins city OK

A project to redevelop a synagogue, early childcare school and a K-5 religious school on Southwest Third Avenue in Miami has earned a positive recommendation from a city review board. Beth David Congregation plans to construct the Center for Jewish Life at 2625 SW Third Ave. The Urban Development Review Board recommended approval with some conditions.

High court: Federal judge sides with Miami landlords in marijuana dispensary fight

Landlords Romie Chaudhari at 90 NE 11th Street, and Marc Roberts at 60 NE 11 Street: Miami’s de facto ban on medical marijuana dispensaries took a big hit. Last week, U.S. District Judge Michael K. Moore ruled federal court has no jurisdiction over where medical marijuana dispensaries are located in the city. As a result, Moore approved a request by a pair of prominent…

Miami Market Update: Pipeline Withstands National Trend

At the end of July, Miami had 2.8 million square feet of office space in the works, representing 4 percent of total stock, according to CommercialEdge data, substantially surpassing the national average of 2.4 percent. The gap between Miami’s under construction pipeline and the national average has been widening steadily since the onset of the year, opposing dominant…

Waterfront Edgewater bulk condo sale advances

A bulk sale of an aging condo building in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood is moving ahead: A California firm that has been trying to acquire nearly all of the 254 units has secured about half. And a second bidder that had previously promised unit owners at Bay Park that it would be working with Fort Partners, the developer of the…

Moishe Mana $63M for sells California warehouse for $63M; to focus on  Miami

CenterPoint Properties acquired a 173,000- square-foot warehouse in Pico Rivera from Moishe Mana, one of Miami’s largest private property owners. The leaseback deal adds to CenterPoint’s nearly 7 million-square-foot industrial portfolio across the Los Angeles region. The Chicago-based firm paid $63 million for the complex at 8500 Mercury Lane, said Daum…

Oxford lands $1.4B CMBS financing for $2.2B KKR industrial portfolio purchase

Oxford Properties Group has lightened its load on a massive industrial portfolio purchase, securing $1.43 billion in commercial mortgage-backed securities financing. The loan is designated for the Canadian-based company’s $2.2 billion purchase of an industrial portfolio from KKR. It comes in the form of a five-year floating-rate loan that is being…

Hollywood Diagnostics Center buys Sweetwater industrial condos for $8M

Hollywood Diagnostics Center bought three industrial condo units in Sweetwater for $8 million. Records show an entity led by Angel Soto, owner and operations manager at the Hollywood Diagnostics Center, purchased units one, two and three at 2185 Northwest 115th Avenue from Double Ace Cargo logistics company. The units total 32,351 square feet. Constructed…

Slalom opens first South Florida office in Wynwood, 10 tenants sign at 800 Brickell

Global consulting firm Slalom will open its first South Florida office in an 8,000-square-foot space at 545Wyn in Wynwood. Slalom, a $2.4 billion company with 10,000 employees internationally, offers strategy, technology and business transformation services to various clients, including Fortune 500 companies, startups and nonprofits, according to a news release.

Video: Moody’s Analytics Senior Economist Thomas LaSalvia Ph.D Gives Retail Market Update

Thomas LaSalvia Ph.D., Senior Economist with Moody’s Analytics, joins Michael Bull on America’s Commercial Real Estate Show to discuss the retail market, including rent performance and vacancies, COVID delta variant concerns, and sales volumes. He discusses how vacancy is up, but not really dramatically, and likewise how rents have held up during the pandemic.

Phase out of flood insurance subsidies could upend coastal real estate markets

It’s no secret that Americans are willing to pay a premium for property on the beach. They could soon be paying hefty insurance premiums to live there as well. https://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/on-the-waterfront/ Starting Oct. 1, the federal government plans to start gradually reducing subsidies for its flood insurance programs, pushing up rates for…

KEI Properties buys Hialeah office-retail property for $8M

KEI Properties scooped up the Hialeah Medical Plaza for $7.7 million. The North Miami-based real estate investor and manager bought the office and retail property at 3750 West 16th Avenue from RG Property Group, according to a news release from the buyer’s broker. Adam Tiktin and Greg Matus of Franklin Street represented the KEI Properties affiliate that…

David Edelstein, Related and partners plan resi project on former RedSky property in Wynwood

David Edelstein’s TriStar Capital, Related Group, Alex Karakhanian’s Lndmrk Development and Tricera Capital paid $26.5 million for a development site where they plan to build a residential project. Chinese firm Seven Valleys, led by real estate moguls Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi, sold the nearly 1.3-acre property anchored at 2700 Northwest Second Avenue…

Dubai developer Damac Properties revealed as $120M bidder for Surfside collapse site

Damac Properties, a Dubai-based developer, is the stalking horse bidder for the collapse site of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, The Real Deal has learned. East Oceanside Development LLC, a Delaware corporation tied to publicly traded Damac, signed a contract to pay $120 million for the oceanfront property. The company’s identity was disclosed in a motion…

Surfside Champlain tower’s law firm lobbied against enhanced condo regulations for years: report

The prominent law firm Becker has lobbied against safety measures and regulations surrounding condos and associations in Florida for decades, according to an investigative report from the Sun Sentinel. And the same law firm represented Champlain Towers South, the oceanfront building in Surfside that collapsed in June, killing 98 people. Fort Lauderdale…

Surfside site’s stalking horse bidder signed contract, auction slated for February as legal claims could reach $1B

The stalking horse bidder offering $120 million to purchase the site of the Surfside condo collapse signed a sales contract, setting in motion a timeline that will lead to an auction of the oceanfront property, as legal claims could reach $1 billion. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Michael Hanzman said during a hearing on Thursday that he will review a motion to approve…

Fortune International Realty’s former Douglas Road office sells for $8M

The former Miami office of Edgardo Defortuna’s Fortune International Realty sold for $7.8 million. An entity managed by Walter Defortuna, a member of the Miami-based firm’s board of directors, sold the building at 2401 Douglas Road, records show. The buyer is Javelin Investors, which will lease the building to a new tenant for now, but is eyeing redevelopment…

Startup wants to demystify real estate tax breaks

REDIST, a proptech startup seeking to demystify real estate tax breaks, completed a round of seed funding and soft-launched a platform to show developers and brokers how to make better use of tax incentives. Some $100 billion of incentives go unused each year because they’re too complicated or too obscure, the company says. A full launch is planned…

Resorts World Miami to Submits Plans for Monorail and Bus Station

The jury might still be out on whether Resorts World Miami will feature Miami’s first hotel casino, but it seems it will be getting a Monorail stop and bus station at its waterfront Downtown Miami and Arts & Entertainment District (A&E) location. According to platting documents filed this September with Miami-Dade County, Genting Group’s Resorts World…

Little Havana developer buys stake in shuttered Mai Kai restaurant

A Miami-based developer of nightlife and restaurant projects in Little Havana is breaking out his tiki torches in Broward County. A joint venture among companies with ties to Bill Fuller and the family that owns Mai Kai restaurant paid $7.5 million for the shuttered tourist and locals hangout in Oakland Park, according to records. A Fuller entity, Tiki Real Estate…

Investor picks up Margate shopping center for $11M

A Hollywood-based real estate investor added a Margate shopping center to his commercial portfolio. A company managed by Todd Nepola, president of Current Capital Management, bought the Crossroads Plaza at 5000 Coconut Creek Parkway for $10.7 million, according to records. The buyer, Crossroads Center LLC, took out a $9 million loan from Southstate Bank.

Palm Beach office building purchased for $38M

A Palm Beach-based Douglas Elliman agent and a New Yorker heading a real estate investment firm bought a Bankers Row office building for $37.8 million. Spencer Schlager, the agent, and Charles Rosenberg, of New York City-based Rosemark Management, bought the property at 440 Royal Palm Way, according to records. Rosemark is the investment manager…

Billionaire Jeff Greene sells West Palm Beach industrial complex for $61M

Billionaire developer Jeff Greene sold his just-completed industrial complex in West Palm Beach for $60.6 million, marking another big-ticket warehouse deal amid a hot market. Dallas-based Dalfen Industrial bought the buildings at 1501 Meathe Drive, or roughly the southwest corner of Florida’s Turnpike and Jog Road, records show. Dalfen took out a $54.7…

Horizon Properties pays $33M for Publix-anchored shopping center in Hialeah

For the second time this month, a Publix-anchored shopping center is at the heart of a big-ticket retail sale in South Florida. An affiliate of Horizon Properties of Miami bought El Mercado Plaza in Hialeah for $33 million, records show. Publix is the anchor tenant in the 101,484-square-foot shopping center at 2400 West 60th Street, taking up 42,112 sq…

Seagis Property Group buys logistics firm’s Doral facility for $19M

Seagis Property Group bought a logistics company’s Doral facility for $19.4 million. AmCar Lamprecht sold the property at 10100 Northwest 25th Street, two years after it purchased it for $14 million, records show. The two-story, 105,984-square-foot facility was constructed in 1974 on 5 acres, property records show. Seagis also owns the much bigger, next-door…

Seagis Property Group Acquires 107,642 SF Warehouse in Doral

Seagis Property Group announced it has acquired a 107,642 square foot distribution facility located at 10100 NW 25th Street in Doral in Miami-Dade County. The property was purchased through a sale leaseback transaction.  The acquisition increases the Company’s South Florida portfolio to 108 buildings and 5.6 million square feet. “We are excited to add another…

CenterPoint Acquires Cross-Dock Warehouse In The Shadow Of Miami Airport

CenterPoint Properties has purchased a 65,000-square-foot distribution facility in the bustling Airport West submarket at 8788 NW 27th Street in Doral. “South Florida’s fundamentals continue to look promising for industrial real estate thanks to intense competition for space among e-commerce, major retailers and logistics companies,” said PJ Charlton…

Brightline parent lists MiamiCentral apartment towers for $500M

ParkLine MiamiCentral Florida East Coast Industries is looking to take advantage of the hot multifamily market by listing the luxury apartment towers at Brightline’s MiamiCentral station for $500 million. ParkLine Miami, an 816-unit, two-tower development at 100 Northwest Sixth Street, hit the market with a Cushman & Wakefield team led by Robert Given…

Miami Beach Planning $107M Project With Olympic Pool Atop Parking Garage

Miami Beach is planning a massive, first-of-its-kind project to build a 500-car parking garage with a community center and two swimming pools — one Olympic-sized — on its roof. The current all-in cost for the project is $107M. Some residents are opposing the project, saying it’s too costly, too risky and unnecessary. As explained in a Sept. 17 memo from City…

Critics Wonder If Miami Mega-Mall Will Ever Be Built As American Dream In N.J. Suffers

When the $3B American Dream mall opened its entertainment offerings at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in October 2019, malls almost everywhere had already been suffering. Then came the coronavirus pandemic, during which the mall had to totally shut for six months. Its retail didn’t open until fall of 2020, and its luxury wing opened last week…

Miami Among Top 5 Markets for Self Storage Deliveries

As Miami’s per-person storage inventory hovered above the 6.8 net square feet national average in recent years, developers were cautious with adding new projects to the metro’s pipeline. However, thanks to continued in-migration and relocating businesses from the West and East Coasts, self storage has seen record demand since the onset of the pandemic.

Chart: Miami-Dade Commercial Real Estate Sales August 2021

This chart displays the number of closed commercial property sales in Miami-Dade county including both improved commercial properties and vacant commercial land, that were recorded in the Miami Commercial MLS for the two years ending August, 2021. August 2021 volume, as was the case with July, seems to be at a normal, non-pandemic, level. “Don’t wait to…”

Chart: Miami Commercial Real Estate Sales to List Price Ratio August 2021

This chart displays the sales price to listing price ratio as reported in the Miami Commercial MLS for improved commercial real estate (MLS classification: commercial/industrial) that lies within Miami-Dade, including cities within, that were priced from $1 million to $10 million and that closed from January 2011 to August 2021. This ratio edged up a touch…

Adam Popper joins Thor Equities as VP of acquisitions

Adam Popper is back in an executive role with a major commercial real estate company. The former Columbia Property Trust executive has a new role with Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities as its vice president of acquisitions. Popper started in the role on Monday, according to the Commercial Observer. Popper’s charge is to expand the developer’s presence in both industrial…

Fed’s Beige Book: Constraints in Labor, Supply Chains Persist as Activity Expanded

A couple of pandemic-related hurdles continued to characterize economic activity in the Southeast from July through mid-August: an unusually shallow pool of available workers and logjammed supply chains, according to the latest Beige Book report of regional business activity by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Nonetheless, overall economic activity…

Cryptocurrency team looks at broad county opportunities

The Miami-Dade Cryptocurrency Task Force is up, running and already exploring the feasibility for the county to start accepting cryptocurrencies and other digital monetary forms as acceptable methods of payment countywide for taxes, fees and services.  The group is also studying whether the county could make payments with that exchange and is looking for…

51-story Legacy Hotel in Miami Worldcenter wins city OK

Miami Worldcenter, the evolving city within a city, is ready for its next skyscraper: Legacy Hotel, 51 stories and nearly one million square feet of floor space to rise at 938 NE First Ave. The applicant-developer is Royal Palm Companies, represented by attorney Marissa A. Nuefeld. She and other members of the developer’s team, including architect Kobi Karp…

New ferry service plans another vessel, trips to Coconut Grove

Since resuming service Aug. 16, Poseidon Ferry’s passenger count continues to climb, and operators plan to add another vessel and a new route.  “Service is going well,” said CEO Johnathan Silvia. “The last two weeks of August we had 1,163 passengers. For the first half of September we had 1,000, and we are optimistic that we will see better statistics at the end…

Four major stations planned for East-West rapid transit

An updated presentation of the East-West Corridor of the Miami-Dade Smart Plan this week revealed county Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) intentions to begin with the project, develop four major stations, and improve surrounding areas with smaller projects of affordable housing, retail, office, hotel, and parking garages.  The…

Mario Murgado: Building a multi-state group of 18 automobile dealerships

Mario Murgado came to the US from Cuba as a 4-year-old. Now 59, he feels blessed to be living in this country, be part of the community and be involved with his passion: the automotive industry. He is one of the most successful auto-dealership owners in South Florida, with six dealerships in Miami, four in Stuart, three in Jacksonville, three in New Jersey and…

Multi-family housing loan demand strong

Banks in South Florida continue to see an uptick in commercial loan applications for small businesses, middle market and multi-family housing projects around the tri-county area, as the Covid-19 pandemic barely slowed demand. Among the most requested commercial loan applications are SPA – sales and purchases agreement – loans, “anything from…”

Two years after its IPO fail, WeWork will go public

WeWork CEO is Sandeep Mathrani (Wework) Google the phrase “WeWork going public” and among the questions that pop up are: “When did WeWork go public?” The answer is, it never really did. But late next month, retail investors will finally have the chance to own a piece of the coworking giant. WeWork announced Monday that its merger with a special purpose…

A-Rod hits home run on 13 suits by ex-brother-in-law over real estate empire

Former baseball slugger Alex Rodriguez hit a home run on 13 lawsuits filed by his former brother-in-law, Constantine Scurtis, over their unraveled real estate venture. A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge’s ruling to dismiss the suits means A-Rod is cleared of tens of millions of dollars in potential damages. Yet other litigation is still headed to court that could put…

Foreclosure lawsuit targets DoubleTree hotel near Miami International Airport

The owner of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Miami Airport Convention Center at 711 Northwest 72nd Avenue allegedly hasn’t made mortgage payments since April 2020. So now the lender is looking to collect nearly $33 million in outstanding debt. The lender, a commercial mortgage-backed securities trust represented by an affiliate of Miami-based Rialto Capital…

Osaka restaurant space in Brickell sells for $6M

A commercial space leased to the Peruvian restaurant Osaka traded hands for $5.9 million. North Miami-based Lizmar International sold the 5,040-square-foot space to Speed Plaza, a Florida company led by Carlos Tovar and Luis Meir. The two commercial condos at 1300 Brickell Bay Drive in Miami are on the ground floor of the condo tower Brickell House. The…

Canada’s CI Financial picks Brickell for new US HQ

CI Financial I 830 Brickell in Miami Canadian asset and wealth management behemoth CI Financial will open its new U.S. headquarters at 830 Brickell in Miami’s Brickell Financial District. Toronto-based CI Financial leased roughly 20,000 square feet at the 55-story tower under construction. Kurt MacAlpine is CEO of CI Financial. Vladislav Doronin’s…

Facing assault charges, developer Bill Hutchinson sells Miami home, lists Cali properties

Developer Bill Hutchinson has sold a Miami mansion and has listed two other properties as he faces sexual assault charges. Hutchinson sold the Miami property for $10 million, according to the New York Post. The 2009-built home first hit the market last fall asking $8.2 million. He purchased the home in 2016 for $5.6 million. The mansion totals 12,000 square feet…

Ares Management makes $150M play for David Beckham’s Miami soccer venture

David Beckham’s Major League Soccer venture in Miami now counts a real estate heavy hitter among its backers. Los Angeles-based Ares Management, through funds managed by its Credit Group, made a $150 million preferred equity investment in Inter Miami CF, according to an Ares news release. Ares, led by co-founder and CEO Michael Arougheti, is a global…

KKR, Cornerstone in $1B JV to develop health care facilities

KKR and Cornerstone Companies are joining forces to develop health care facilities in the United States. Cornerstone already has experience in the market, as the company is a health care real estate investment, development and management firm. It is also seeding the joint venture with 25 properties that are being recapitalized, according to Real Estate Weekly.

Opportunity Zone fund proposes Bitcoin mining project near Homestead speedway

A Miami-based Opportunity Zone fund wants to develop a Bitcoin mining operation and technology business park, amid growing global concerns about the environmental impact and energy consumption created by cryptocurrency mining, The Real Deal has learned. Aware of the controversial aspects of Bitcoin mining, Esperanza Opportunity Zone…

Making it rain in Miami’s Design District

Bernard Arnault briefly dethroned Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the richest man in the world last month. The ascent of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s chairman and CEO was propelled by mind-blowing company revenue of $34 billion for the first half of the year, allowing Arnault to climb atop the ranking of the wealthiest billionaires for the third time…

Big month for retail sales bodes well for landlords

Americans still love their stuff. Overall retail purchases rose 0.7 percent in August, easily beating out the median estimate of a 0.7 percent drop from economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Excluding automobiles, which are hard to get because of a microchip shortage, sales looked even better with a five-month high 1.8 percent rise, according to Bloomberg. Retail purchases…

Nuveen pays $98M for Blue Lagoon apartment complex in Miami

Nuveen Real Estate bought an apartment complex at Blue Lagoon near Miami International Airport for $98 million. Pinnacle and Ascend Properties sold the LaVida Apartments, a pair of eight-story buildings at 6600 Northwest Seventh Street, near the Waterford Business District. The two firms developed the 272-unit, lakefront project in 2019 across 7.4…

Mom-and-pop landlords, Black tenants hit harder by pandemic: report

It’s been tough to get good data on rent payments during Covid. Dispatches from the National Multifamily Housing Council show collection rates never dipped below 93 percent — a seemingly healthy figure. Yet the oft-cited survey covering 11 million apartments draws only from larger, professional management companies and counts…

Harvey Hernandez plans three-tower project on riverfront Brickell site

Developer Harvey Hernandez paid $50.5 million for a riverfront site near Brickell City Centre, where he’s planning a three-tower residential and marina project. An affiliate of his Newgard Development Group closed on the 1.6-acre property at 99 Southwest Seventh Street in Miami. It secured a $55 million loan from 3650 REIT, a Miami-based lender that is affiliated…

Real Estate Roundtable: Break deadlock on $1T infrastructure bill

When the Senate passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill with bipartisan support last month, the Real Estate Roundtable applauded, with the trade group’s new chairman, John Fish, calling it a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild and reimagine the buildings of tomorrow.” But the infrastructure package — a vast array of funding streams including $110…

Surfside commissioners shoot down proposed land swap with collapse site to create memorial

Surfside commissioners ruled out any possibility of a land swap with the site of the condo collapse to create a memorial, after listening to victims and their families in favor of the proposal, as well as residents against it. Some victims had suggested swapping the Champlain Towers South site at 8777 Collins Avenue with the town’s community center property, at 9301 Collins…

Amazon to open 100 more US facilities in September

Christmas is already on the horizon for Amazon. The tech giant, among the biggest players in the industrial real estate market, aims to open 100 U.S. facilities this month and is gearing up to hire 125,000 warehouse workers ahead of the busy holiday season, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company’s starting wage of $15 an hour has drawn criticism in the past.

5 real estate issues to watch in Dems’ $3.5T budget

Federal lawmakers are hashing out a $3.5 trillion spending plan that could include billions of dollars for new affordable housing and incentives for cities to combat exclusionary zoning. The House Ways and Means Committee on Monday outlined a series of tax reforms to help pay for the plan, including increases to the corporate tax rate…

Moishe Mana’s downtown Miami buildings declared unsafe, ordered evacuated

Two of Moishe Mana’s downtown Miami buildings were declared unsafe and ordered evacuated, The Real Deal has learned. The commercial buildings join a growing list of properties that have been deemed unsafe in the wake of the deadly Surfside condo collapse. City officials throughout South…

August retail rent payments close to 2019 levels

Despite the delta variant causing a new wave of restrictions on businesses, most retailers are paying their rent at nearly pre-pandemic levels. National chains have paid 95 percent of owed rent in August of this year. That’s just slightly below the nearly 97 percent paid during the same time in 2019, according to a monthly report by Datex Property Solutions. “There’s…”

HighBrook Investors buys three Miami-Dade warehouses for $33M

A New York real estate private equity firm… 3 Miami-Dade warehouses… An affiliate of HighBrook Investors, led by founder Brian R. Carr and senior managing partner David Patrick O’Connor, paid $33 million for the trio of industrial buildings at 3455 Northwest 54th Street, 5530 Northwest 32nd Court and 5400 Northwest 32nd Court, records show. HighBrook obtained…

Miami Beach board rejects Aimco’s proposal for Grand Flamingo tower

AIMCO founder Terry Considine and a rendering of the Grand Flamingo tower Aimco’s plans for a luxury high-rise condo tower in South Beach were shot down by a Miami Beach board on Friday. The design review board rejected the real estate investment trust’s application to construct The Grand Flamingo, which would mark the fourth tower within the…

Tate Capital sells CVS Pharmacy y más location near Kendall for $16M

An affiliate of Tate Capital sold a CVS Pharmacy y más-leased location just north of Kendall for $16 million. The buyer was a group managed by H.H. Real Estate Holding Corp., records show. The 17,300-square-foot property is located at 10660 Southwest 40th Street. The buyer also is linked to Dallas-based International Capital, a commercial real estate brokerage and…

Milestone reached in Coconut Grove waterfront development as Wells Fargo Location Opens

A major tenant, the second commercial venture to open for business in this high-profile venue, has officially begun op­erations at the Regatta Harbour Parking Garage, bringing new life to the Coconut Grove waterfront. The TREO Group – a Miami-based, privately-held real estate investment firm – announced that Wells Fargo, the diversified, community-based financial…

Theater lease heads for Miami Beach commission OK

The Collins Park cultural center and theater is to seal a lease with Miami New Drama in October, after the city com­mission and Planning Board unanimously passed a term sheet agreement for a lease in June. After non-for-profit present­ing and producing arts organiza­tion Miami New Drama submit­ted an unsolicited proposal for a cultural space at the Collins Park…

Eulois Cleckley: New transit director seeks to add infrastructure and riders

The Department of Transportation and Public Works got a new leader in August, Eulois Cleckley. He has long been working in the transportation industry in both public and private organizations. Before arriving in Miami-Dade, he was executive director of the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure of Denver city and county, where he led creation of that…

Microsoft landing on Brickell elevates business hub of Latin America

Welcome news that Microsoft will open a 50,000-square-foot Brickell office is being hailed as a big step in a Miami tech boom, but it primarily elevates Miami as the business link to Latin America and the Caribbean. Of course, any business entrant to the city’s core is welcome, more so when it takes 50,000 square feet in a rising tower when office vacancies are high, even…

US office investment market remains well below 2019 levels

The U.S. office investment market has yet to recover from the pandemic, as sales volume remains well below 2019 levels. The dollar volume of investment sales transactions across the top 30 markets totaled $28 billion in July. That was 45 percent below the July 2019 amount of $39.5 billion, according to Reonomy figures first reported by Commercial Observer.

Miami projected to add 11,235 units this year as Dallas, NY metro areas lead US in projected apartment deliveries

For the fourth year in a row, the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area leads the pack in projected number of apartment units coming online nationwide. The New York metro area finished second. That’s according to a new report from RentCafe, which estimates that 334,000 apartment units will be delivered in the U.S. in 2021. The report tallied the 20 metro markets with…

Cemex digs into northwest Miami-Dade with $33M purchase of over 150 acres

A global cement conglomerate is expanding its footprint in northwest Miami-Dade. The Florida arm of Cemex paid $33 million for 152 acres of undeveloped land at Northwest 138th Street and Northwest 127th Avenue near Okeechobee Road, just west of the Florida Turnpike. Miaprop LLC, an entity managed by Timothy Barket and Kelly Barket Jr., sold the property…

Surfside officials agree to carve Champlain site out of planned downzoning

The Surfside town commission will allow the condo collapse site to be rebuilt up to the same size as Champlain Towers South, scrapping a controversial proposal to downzone the property. This means the new project could have the same square footage as the condominium that tragically toppled in June, but details such as the number of units…

Rents rise in all big US cities, a pandemic first

It’s been a long time coming, but rents were finally on the rise in every major city last month — the first time that’s been the case since the pandemic hit. In all 30 of the top American metro areas, apartment rents were up year-over-year in August, according to a Yardi report. Bloomberg reports that the average rent in multifamily buildings rose by $25 last…

Lennar picks up 27 acres in Homestead for $7M

A month after unloading a huge redevelopment site in Homestead, Lennar Homes picked up two large vacant parcels in the same city for $7.1 million. The Miami-based homebuilder bought 27 acres bounded by Old Dixie Highway, Southwest 264th Street and Southwest 272nd Street, records show. The seller is Four Aces Properties V LLC, an entity managed by south…

Delta force: Surging Covid variant spoils return-to-office plans

As recently as July, visions of reoccupied desks and packed commuter lines danced in the heads of employers and office landlords, who clung to hopes that a widespread return to the workplace after Labor Day might still be in the cards. But an explosion of Covid cases driven by the highly contagious Delta variant has forced a growing number of firms to reconsider…

Shuttered Hotel Astor in Miami Beach gets a new owner

Hotel Astor, an iconic Art Deco property in Miami Beach that has been at the center of an alleged EB-5 fraud and two bankruptcy filings, has a new owner. Victory Investments Group, which records show is led by Anil Monga, paid $12.8 million for the shuttered 42-room hotel at 956 Washington Avenue in South Beach. Monga is CEO of Victory…

ARI Financial Group CEO buys Hialeah multifamily-retail portfolio for $42M

A portfolio of four multifamily and retail properties at 1355 West 44th Place, 1301 West 26th Place, 650 East Ninth Street and 1900 West 60th Street in Hialeah traded for $41.9 million. Four buyers managed by Eric Bouskila, principal and CEO of Aventura-based ARI Financial Group, in partnership with Golani Investments, scooped up the real estate, according to Amir…

Miami allegedly granted improper height increase for Design District hotel project: lawsuit

A New York-based boutique real estate investment firm is pushing to unravel developer Craig Robins’ proposal for a 36-story hotel in the Miami Design District. An affiliate of MacArthur Capital… in Miami-Dade Circuit Court seeking to overturn recent zoning amendments for two development sites at 3750 Biscayne Boulevard and 299 Northeast 39th Street in Miami…

RK Centers pays $16M for Winn-Dixie-anchored Miramar shopping plaza

Raanan Katz’s RK Centers continues to expand its South Florida retail holdings, this time scooping up a Winn-Dixie-anchored shopping plaza in Miramar for $15.7 million. RK Centers bought Park View Square at 17051-17173 Miramar Parkway from an affiliate of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Phillips Edison & Company, records show. Phillips Edison, which promotes itself…

Estate Companies pays $15M for downtown Hollywood Opportunity Zone site

The Estate Companies paid $15.3 million for the development site in a downtown Hollywood area that is both historic and an Opportunity Zone. The eight-story Soleste Hollywood Boulevard will have 324 rental units, nearly 30,000 square feet of commercial space and 475 parking spaces. The developer bought the 2.3-acre site at 2001 Hollywood Boulevard…

Flagler Village Opportunity Zone dev site hits market for $31M

The assemblage in Flagler Village A developable city block in an Opportunity Zone in Fort Lauderdale’s trendy Flagler Village hit the market with an asking price of $30.8 million. The 3.5-acre site allows for an up to 120-foot tall project, which is roughly 11 stories, of either apartments or condominiums with ground-floor commercial uses, according to one…

Related scores $91M construction loan for luxury condo tower in Pompano Beach

Related Group secured a $91.3 million construction loan for Solemar, an oceanfront condo project it broke ground on in May. Records show an affiliate of the Coconut Grove-based developer secured the financing for the Pompano Beach development from Toronto-based CIBC Bank. Related launched sales of the 105-unit, 20-story project at 1116 North Ocean…

Oak Street Capital picks up Coconut Creek Walgreens for $7M

A Chicago-based real estate investment firm known for buying and selling Walgreens stores picked up another one in Coconut Creek. An affiliate of Oak Street Capital, led by Marc Zahr and Jim Hennessy, bought the retail property at 4600 Coconut Creek Parkway for $6.8 million, records show. The seller is Walgreen Company, which paid $3.7 million in 2000 for the site.

Clayco affiliate picks up Miramar Park of Commerce for $18M

A St. Louis, Missouri commercial real estate firm is dipping into the Broward County industrial market. An affiliate of CRG, the commercial real estate division of national builder Clayco Inc., paid $18 million for the Miramar Park of Commerce, records show. The buyer took out a $14.5 million loan from BMO Harris Bank to finance the off-market purchase…

Apex Capital pays $37M for Boynton Beach office building

Apex Capital Investments scooped up a fully leased Boynton Beach office building for $37.3 million. The Philadelphia-based investor bought the property at 3301 Quantum Boulevard in the Quantum Office Park, according to a news release. The two-story, 100,000-square-foot building is fully leased to New York University Grossman School of Medicine…

Publix-anchored shopping center in Boynton Beach trades for $17M

The Publix-anchored Quantum Village shopping center in Boynton Beach sold for $16.5 million. An entity tied to Barberry Rose Management bought the property at 1005 West Gateway Boulevard from an entity managed by Fiorenzo Bresolin, president, founder and CEO of Secured Equities, records show. The buyer scored a $14.5 million acquisition loan from Ameris Bank.

Healthcare Trust of America buys Boca Raton medical offices for $50M

Healthcare Trust of America bought the 1905 Medical Center in Boca Raton for $50 million, marking continued investor interest in healthcare-related real estate. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based real estate investment trust purchased the 106,135-square-foot building at 1905 Clint Moore Road, records show. The selling group is managed by Rick Werber…

Todd Glaser flips office dev site to Palm Beach Jewish Center

Developer Todd Michael Glaser flipped a commercial lot in Palm Beach to the Palm Beach Jewish Center. Glaser’s 204 RPW Partners LLC sold the quarter-acre lot at 204 Royal Palm Way for $5.2 million, eight months after paying about $3.9 million for the property. That’s a 35 percent increase in price since January. Glaser planned to build a Class A office building…

Starwood acquires stake in West Palm Beach development site

As part of an $18.3 million sale, Starwood Capital Group is joining two New York development firms in developing a large multifamily project in West Palm Beach, sources familiar with the transaction told The Real Deal. An affiliate of Miami Beach-based Starwood bought the 1.3-acre vacant lot at 350 South Australian Avenue from…

13th Floor Investments pays $26M for downtown West Palm Beach assemblage

Arnaud Karsenti’s 13th Floor Investments made a big play on downtown West Palm Beach, with the purchase of a full city block for $26.1 million. 13th Floor, through an affiliate, bought the properties consisting of small commercial buildings on roughly 3 acres between Fern and Gardenia streets and from South Dixie Highway west to South Quadrille…

Microsoft to lease 50K sf office at under-construction Brickell tower

Microsoft is making its expansion in Miami official. The tech giant inked a roughly 50,000-square-foot lease at a new office tower under construction in the Brickell Financial District, as out-of-state tech firms continue to head to South Florida. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft will use the space at 830 Brickell as its new regional headquarters, according to a statement…

Microsoft to Open 50 KSF Office in Miami

Microsoft has announced it will open a new, 50,000-square-foot office in downtown Miami. The tech giant has inked a lease at 830 Brickell, a forthcoming Class A office building in the city’s financial district. A partnership of OKO Group and Cain International is developing the 640,000-square-foot 830 Brickell, which was approved by the city in 2019.

Microsoft Leases 50K SF As Miami Aims To Balance Tech Influx, Hesitant Return To Office

Microsoft will lease 50K SF at 830 Brickell, a trophy office tower under construction in Miami. The 55-story, 640K SF tower from developers OKO Group and Cain International is Miami’s first stand-alone, Class-A office building built in over a decade, according to the developers. Cain International Vice President Justin Oates, a panelist at Bisnow’s…

Chetrit Group sells Miami Beach hotel for $42M

The Chetrit Group sold a Miami Beach apartment hotel to its operator for $42 million, The Real Deal has learned. Royal Stays Miami, led by Yedid Buchweld, acquired the 104-key property at 1000, 1020 and 1030 Collins Avenue, according to a source. Royal Stays has been operating the property under a leasehold agreement since 2018. The deal breaks down to nearly…

Chart: Miami-Dade Commercial Real Estate Sales August 2021

This chart displays the number of closed commercial property sales in Miami-Dade county including both improved commercial properties and vacant commercial land, that were recorded in the Miami Commercial MLS for the two years ending August, 2021. August 2021 volume, as was the case with July, seems to be at a normal, non-pandemic, level. “Don’t wait to…”

Chart: Miami Commercial Real Estate Sales to List Price Ratio August 2021

This chart displays the sales price to listing price ratio as reported in the Miami Commercial MLS for improved commercial real estate (MLS classification: commercial/industrial) that lies within Miami-Dade, including cities within, that were priced from $1 million to $10 million and that closed from January 2011 to August 2021. This ratio edged up a touch…

Student housing survives pandemic and investment returns

The pandemic can’t keep student housing down. In fact, it may even be graduating to a new era as college students return to in-person classes across the country. Property investors are spending billions of dollars on student housing while developing off-campus options for new and returning students. Developers are also adding perks to entice students…

Developers rush in: Vivian Dimond-led group offers $150M for older bayfront Miami condo building

The bidding to buy out an older bayfront condo complex in Miami’s Edgewater is up to $150 million, according to offers obtained by The Real Deal. Condo owners at the roughly 254-unit Bay Park, 3301 Northeast Fifth Avenue, have received three written offers since May. The latest is $150 million from Aman Group, led by Miami-based broker, investor and…

Bill Gates’ Cascade taking over Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts

Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment is taking a swing in the hotel industry, paying more than $2 billion to take control of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. Cascade is planning to buy 23.8 percent of a stake belonging to Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, spending $2.2 billion, according to Reuters. The purchase will give Cascade a 71.3 percent stake and…

Lease roundup: New York pizzeria opening at Wynwood 25, logistics provider heading to Davie & more

Joe’s Pizza I Wynwood 25 New York classic Joe’s Pizza is opening its first Miami location at the mixed-use project Wynwood 25. The family owned and operated pizzeria inked a 1,758-square-foot, long-term lease at the multifamily-retail building, according to a news release. It is planning to open in spring 2022. Joe Pozzuoli, of Naples, Italy, founded the pizzeria…

Doral Keeps Growing

“People discovered Doral.” It is with this phrase that Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez defined the population’s growth in our city. Today, we can count a total of 75,874 residents according to the results of the last census of 2020. The census showed that Doral is a culturally diverse city, a city represented by people of…

Biscayne Bay advisory board ready to get feet wet

A 21-member Biscayne Watershed Management Task Force is assembling its members for what is to be a permanent organization in charge of addressing the recovery of water quality in Biscayne Bay and future management of the watershed. The county so far has received nine nominations and the Chief Bay Officer, Irela Bague, is expecting that…

Developments Face More Scrutiny After Catastrophic Miami Condo Collapse

The full consequence of the tragic Surfside, Florida, condominium collapse won’t be fully realized for years to come. For now, the deadly disaster at the Champlain Towers South stripped some luxury condominium buyers of the comfortable assumption that they’re buying a safely constructed property. After the 12-story oceanside residence crumbled to the ground…

Key Biscayne looks for better way to handle Rickenbacker Causeway

A county-sponsored public meeting will be held to discuss and possibly suggest amendments to the Rickenbacker Causeway request for proposals that Miami-Dade County approved for action in July after Key Biscayne residents and council members last week expressed disapproval and called it “a veiled, obscure process that did not consider the realities of the…

TREO Group Completes $36M Student Housing Development Near University of Miami

Miami, Fla.-based The TREO Group has completed Vox Miami, a 326-bed student housing community located at 7202 S.W. 72nd St. in south Miami. The development cost for the 193,250-square-foot project was $36 million. Vox Miami offers a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units with a TV in every living room, floor-to-ceiling windows, stainless…

Teahouse to be planted in center of Biscayne Boulevard downtown

A brand new Green Initiative promises to transform stark urban pavement into an oasis in Downtown Miami. With dual goals of increasing walkability and welcoming green space in dense areas, developer PMG and the Miami Parking Authority (MPA) have announced they are joining forces to create a community driven project called the Green Initiative along Biscayne…

JV plans high-end offices at old Bancroft Hotel in South Beach

A joint venture plans to convert the closed Bancroft Hotel and a building next door in South Beach into high-end offices, marking another bet on the tourist area morphing into a workplace hub. Pebb Capital, based in Boca Raton and New York City, and Miami-based Maxwelle Real Estate Group… Pebb and Maxwelle bought the property at 1501 Collins Avenue…

Babba Joshua Yesharim plans residential project along Miami River

A residential project with up to 36 units is in the works for the north side of the Miami River. Babba Joshua Yesharim, a longtime investor in real estate along the river, envisions either condominiums or a membership-based club with short-term rentals for a site he just purchased, according to the broker who handled the deal. The project would include a 260-foot long…

GPI Real Estate wins $6M settlement over failed Sunny Isles Beach project

When plans for a hotel and residential project in Sunny Isles Beach hotel fizzled after five years in the works, the site’s developer and seller hurled accusations at each other in court. Now, GPI Real Estate Group, which was in line to buy the 1.6 acre lot, has won $6 million from seller Robert Cornfeld. The settlement payment comprises the refund of a $5 million…

Latest draft of Surfside rezoning shows only 80 units could be built on collapse site

Amid heightened scrutiny over downzoning of the collapsed Champlain Towers South site, the town of Surfside is still looking at further limiting the number of units that can be built on the oceanfront property. If approved, the latest version of the proposed rezoning could impact the marketing and sales process of the site. Under this proposal, roughly 80 units could be…

Fill ’er up: Hialeah Gardens and Fort Lauderdale Wawas sell for a combined $22M

Retail real estate investors keep filling up on Wawa gas station convenience stores in South Florida. Two different buyers closed on a Wawa in Fort Lauderdale and another in Hialeah Gardens, paying a combined $22 million. In the Fort Lauderdale deal, Tampa-based Brightwork Real Estate sold the recently completed Wawa at 6191 North Powerline Road for…

Where department stores go when they die

Department stores are dying in droves. The buildings that house them? Not so much. According to Bloomberg, 40 percent of department stores in the United States have closed in the past five years. While some are ultimately razed, others are being converted into different types of spaces to reduce costs and environmental impacts, the publication reported. Old…

Shoma Group HQ faces foreclosure over allegedly unauthorized construction: lawsuit

Shoma Group built a new glass-encased rooftop lounge at the company’s Coral Gables headquarters without permits and without authorization from the company’s co-founder Maria Lamas, according to a recently filed foreclosure lawsuit. Lamas is exercising a clause in the $6 million mortgage that she holds, which allows her to declare default against a Shoma…

The Surfside Condominium Collapse and Its Ripple Effect in Miami

By now, you’ve probably heard of the Surfside Condominium Collapse, but if not, here’s a brief overview. On the morning of June 24th, 2021, while most of the inhabitants slept, half of the building came crashing to the ground. Ninety-eight people lost their lives that morning. Why did this happen? Was it some natural disaster that comes once in a blue moon?

Retail Center, Town and Country Plaza Refinanced for $27M

MMG Equity Partners has secured $26.6 million and refinances retail center, Town and Country Plaza, located at 13712 SW 152nd Street in Miami, FL.  Guardian Life Insurance Company of America provided the loan for the shopping center.  JLL Capital Markets team, which included Chris Drew, Brian Gaswirth, and Reid… Read more » The post News first…

Joe’s Pizza Will Bring the Classic NYC Slice to Wynwood

It’s official: Yet another famous New York City restaurant is making the trip south to Miami. Joe’s Pizza, the family owned-and-operated Greenwich Village institution that set the standard for the quintessential New York slice will open its first Florida location at Wynwood 25. The restaurant is scheduled to open in spring 2022. Last week, Joe’s Pizza owner/president…

Easton Group, LBA Logistics buy Doral warehouse for $20M

The Easton Group, in joint venture with industrial investor LBA Logistics, bought a Doral warehouse for $19.5 million. Badia Spices, a homegrown spice and herbs maker and distributor, sold the 105,365-square-foot building at 9880 Northwest 25th Street, according to an Easton news release. The deal breaks down to $185 per square foot. Dalton Easton…

Cabot Properties buys Miramar distribution center for $72M

Cabot Properties paid $71.6 million for the Bridge Point Miramar distribution center. The Boston-based logistics real estate investor bought the industrial building at 15501 Southwest 29th Street from Chicago-based Bridge Industrial, according to the seller’s broker’s news release. Mike Davis and Rick Brug…

Trammell Crow Residential wins approval for 250-unit multifamily project in Miramar

More apartments are planned for Broward County, as Trammell Crow Residential won approval to build Alexan Miramar, a 250-unit multifamily development just east of I-75 in Miramar. Dallas-based Trammell Crow won city approval to build the project during a commission meeting Wednesday night. It will include two six-story apartment buildings with 125 units…

Weston medical office building trades for $17M

A two-story medical office building in Weston sold for $17.2 million. Two affiliates of Montecito Medical Real Estate sold the 32,559-square-foot building at 2229 North Commerce Parkway to another affiliate of Montecito named MMAC Pix Weston FL SPE LLC, records show. The deal was financed with a $22.3 million loan from BMO Harris Bank. Montecito, based in…

Abacus Capital Partners pays $125M for Plantation apartments

A New York-based real estate investment firm specializing in multifamily properties picked up an apartment community in Plantation for $125.4 million. An affiliate of Abacus Capital Group bought the 376-unit St. Tropez Apartments at 8000-8290 Cleary Boulevard, records show. The seller is an entity tied to Dallas, Texas-based real estate investment firm Lincoln…

NHL Team, Elon Musk Tunnel Demonstrate Fort Lauderdale’s Growth Potential

Fort Lauderdale is on the rise, and it is luring the big names to prove it. The Florida Panthers hockey team is exploring a permanent move to Fort Lauderdale from its current county-owned facility in Sunrise, Florida, Mayor Dean Trantalis told Bisnow. “The team is talking with various stakeholders, various landowners in the area to identify sufficiently…

Blackstone buys Boynton Beach apartment complex for $171M

An entity tied to New York-based investment behemoth Blackstone bought the One Boynton apartment complex for $171 million. The buyer, which lists several Blackstone executives, purchased the 494-unit apartment complex at 1331 and 1351 South Federal Highway in Boynton Beach from an affiliate of Atlanta…

Related Cos. completes $65M purchase of West Palm affordable senior housing

Stephen Ross’ The Related Companies completed its acquisition of two affordable senior housing apartment buildings in West Palm Beach. Affiliates of Related’s affordable housing division paid a combined $65 million for Saint Andrews Residence, a 182-unit building at 208 Fern Street, and Saint James Residence, a 148-unit building at 400 South Olive Avenue…

Milestone Group pays $107M for Emerald Palms apartments near Zoo Miami

The Milestone Group paid $107 million for the 505-unit Emerald Palms apartment complex near Zoo Miami in southwest Miami-Dade County. The multifamily investment firm bought the community at 12325 Southwest 151st Street from an affiliate of Denver-based Grand Peaks Properties, records show. Milestone Group took out a $70.2 million mortgage, which…

U.S. construction spending is on the rise — for now

The U.S. construction industry can thank residential projects for an increase in spending. Yet, the uptick may prove short-lived. U.S. construction spending rose 9 percent in July from the prior year to $1.57 trillion on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Commerce Department’s most recent report. The bulk came in residential construction spending…

RAM buys Lago Mar apartments in Hialeah for $18M

Lago Mar apartments in Hialeah Rental Asset Management bought the Lago Mar multifamily complex in Hialeah for $17.5 million. The Fort Lauderdale-based firm, which also manages apartment properties, bought the 112-unit complex at 1035-1055 West 71st Street. The seller is Lago Mar Apartments, led by Steven Levy and Amir Hayun, records show. Ram borrowed $10.7…

Miami Among Top 5 Markets for Multifamily Development

The pandemic made this Florida market even more attractive to companies looking to relocate from both New York City and California, and this has spurred robust demand for multifamily projects. Through July, 7,173 units came online in the metro, with more than 6,625 units delivered during the same period last year. The construction pipeline is second only to…

Land swap to create memorial on Surfside collapse site becomes a viable option

A proposed land swap with the town of Surfside to create a memorial on the Champlain Towers South site, where 98 people died, is emerging as a possibility. The option, discussed during a court conference on Wednesday, would involve swapping the oceanfront lot where the majority of the 12-story Champlain Towers South toppled, with a nearby, similarly sized…

Collapsed Surfside Condo Site Officially Hits The Market

Avison Young on Monday officially began marketing the site where the Champlain Towers South once stood in Surfside, Florida. The condominium collapsed June 24, killing 98, and a judge has ordered the site to be sold to compensate survivors and families. A live bidding process will ultimately be held in a Miami courtroom, the firm announced Monday.

Biden to change rules to boost affordable housing

With housing in short supply and affordable housing hard to find, the Biden administration aims to make technical changes to ease construction and financing for homes and rental properties. The potential moves could be announced by the White House as soon as Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal. One change: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would…

Miami Beach investor buys apartment complex in Overtown Opportunity Zone for $12M

A Miami Beach-based multifamily investor paid $11.7 million for a three-building apartment complex in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, The Real Deal has learned. Paul J. Neary’s purchase of the 92-unit Citywalk Apartments at 415 and 423 Northwest Ninth Street breaks down to about $127,717 per unit. The property, built in 1950, is located in an Opportunity…

Beckham’s Inter Miami, Jeter’s Marlins Haven’t Delivered On Development Promises

South Florida sports teams led by soccer star David Beckham and baseball legend Derek Jeter have both failed to deliver on promises made to the public when they pushed to build stadiums, critics say. Beckham United, a partnership including Beckham and Jorge Mas, head of infrastructure firm MasTec, owns the Major League Soccer team Inter Miami. The group…

Greenstone pays $41M for North Beach apartments along Tatum Waterway

Greenstone Property Group paid $41 million for a multifamily complex in North Beach, completing its $119 million purchase of an apartment portfolio in South Florida, The Real Deal has learned. The New York-based investment firm acquired Ocean House NoBe, a 186-unit property at 7745 to 7790 Tatum Waterway, from Ytech. Ytech put Ocean House up for sale a…

Office building by Lincoln Road in Miami Beach trades for nearly $50M

A renovated office building by Lincoln Road in Miami Beach traded for $49.5 million. 1688 Property Owner LLC, an entity managed by Ophira Cukierman, bought the Class A office property at 1688 Meridian Avenue, which is across the street from the Macy’s off Lincoln Road. Cukierman is the founder and principal of Greenacres Management, a Scarsdale…

Melo Group pays $17M for assemblage north of downtown Miami

The Melo Group is continuing to invest in Greater Downtown Miami, likely with plans for another rental development. The Miami-based company, led by Jose Luis Ferreira de Melo, Martin Melo and Carlos Melo, paid $16.5 million for an assemblage near Melo’s Art Plaza and Square Station apartment towers in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District, The Real…

Goldman: 750K households face eviction this year if rent relief isn’t sped up

With the federal ban on evictions nullified, economists are painting a grim picture for millions of Americans behind on rent. A new report from Goldman Sachs estimates that 750,000 rental households could face eviction this year if the slow rollout of rent relief persists in the absence of another moratorium. Analysts at the banking giant estimate that 2.5 to 3.5 million…

Three firms deal to build hotel at Miami International Airport

Three local firms shortlisted to develop a hotel at Miami International Airport are at individual negotiations with the county prior to the second phase of the request of proposals (RFP) that ultimately would award the project to only one firm.  “The end of the individual negotiations phase will lead right into issuance of Phase 2 of the RFP. The expected timeframe…

HighBrook Pays $70M for Florida Industrial Portfolio

HighBrook Investors has acquired a four-property industrial portfolio—three in Miami and one in Tampa, Fla.—totaling 740,400 square feet from Seaboard Warehouse Terminals. Americas Commercial Real Estate facilitated the sale and represented the buyer, while The Katsikos Group represented the seller. The portfolio traded for nearly $70.4 million…

Shrinking apartment inventory sends rents soaring

The multi-family apartment rental market is currently facing a shortage in Miami-Dade, with less than a month’s worth of inventory, according to local residential real estate experts.  There’s about a month of inventory in rentals, which are historical lows, according to Christina Pappas, vice president of the Keyes Co. Anything below six months of inventory is…

Underline linear park starts next phase, with traffic detours

Miami-Dade County’s signature linear park and urban trail project, the Underline, is on its way to deliver the second phase of its development, with the construction of a 2.14-mile segment connecting Southwest 13th Street to 19th Avenue. The project, which is now estimated to cost around $141.2 million, came to life with the public-private partnership of the…

Work to begin on luxury auto track Drivers Club Miami

A luxury auto track and commercial development planned near Miami Gardens is scheduled to begin construction in November after a delay in early phases pushed the completion date back almost two years.  Drivers Club Miami, a more than $100 million project being developed by 13 Pista LLC, would include a two-mile private driving track, club, hotel, retail…

County readies pact for Miami-Miami Beach monorail

Miami-Dade County is finishing pre-development and preparing an agreement for a monorail and rapid mass transit line that would cross the MacArthur Causeway, connecting Downtown Miami to Miami Beach.  The Department of Transportation and Public Works is working with MBM Partners LLC in an interim agreement to finish pre-development work…

Upland Park plans for nearly 2,000 units at county transit hub

A 44-acre development near and over the county’s Dolphin Station is set to begin construction of its first phase on county-owned land in February 2022, according to documents delivered by an affiliate of developer Terra Group to the county’s Internal Services Department. Plans include an amendment to Chapter 33 of the county’s code and a new zoning district.

Emirati wealth fund launches $1B U.S. industrial real estate venture

An Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund is betting big to capitalize on the hot industrial real estate market in the U.S. Mubadala Investment Co. has partnered with Dallas-based real estate investment firm Crow Holdings to develop $1 billion of Class A industrial properties across the country, according to Pensions & Investments. “Mubadala is seeking to invest…”

South Florida by the numbers: Record rents go through the roof

“South Florida by the numbers” is a web feature that catalogs the most notable, quirky and surprising real estate statistics. For local renters, a perfect storm of challenges has made South Florida living dramatically more expensive in 2021. A surge in demand (primarily driven by out-of-staters unburdened by their previous home’s state income taxes)…

Lease roundup: Blue Zones to run Legacy Hotel & Residences health and wellness hub at Miami Worldcenter & more

Blue Legacy Ventures I Legacy Hotel & Residences at Miami Worldcenter Blue Zones – which identified the healthiest places in the world with the aim to put the research toward improving community wellbeing – will run the 10-story medical and wellness center at the Legacy Hotel & Residences planned for Miami Worldcenter. The commercial lease marks the…

REEF Technology and Archer Aviation to run air taxis from parking garages

REEF Technology has unused flat rooftops. Archer Aviation has electric mini-helicopters. Together, they might have something. The two firms are partnering to run Archer’s proposed air taxis from REEF’s parking garages in Miami and Los Angeles. The partners aim to launch air taxi service from REEF garage rooftops by 2024, according to the Commercial Observer.

“Hardest project in my career to capitalize”: Diversity fund proves tough test for Peebles

More than two years after Don Peebles launched a $500 million fund to support minority and women developers, he has had little success so far garnering support from investors. The developer launched a fund in June 2019, aimed at projects ranging from $10 million to $70 million throughout the country. The fund intends to help established developers as well…

KKR plans $3B triple-net-lease portfolio

Global investment firm KKR is diving deeper into real estate, launching a platform designed for triple-net lease investments. The company announced the formation of Strategic Lease Partners this week. KKR has plans for a portfolio that will exceed $3 billion with diversified assets, according to Commercial Property Executive. The platform intends to…

Brazilian real estate giant JHSF buys oceanfront Miami Beach hotel, plans first Fasano

An affiliate of Brazilian developer JHSF bought the Como Metropolitan Miami Beach hotel, with plans to renovate and brand the property a Fasano, The Real Deal has learned. The purchase marks the developer’s first acquisition in South Florida. A Como Hotels and Resorts affiliate sold the oceanfront 74-key property at 2445 Collins Avenue for $70 million to…

Lender acquires Variety Hotel in Miami Beach following foreclosure suit

One of the first South Florida hotels to be on the receiving end of a foreclosure suit during the pandemic was seized by its lender. An affiliate of BridgeInvest obtained the title to the Variety Hotel in Miami Beach through an auction, more than a year after it filed to foreclose on the 68-key renovated hotel at 1700 Alton Road. The borrower is an entity led by…

Hotel Greystone to reopen in September amid partnership break-up

The Hotel Greystone at 1920 Collins Ave will reopen after a Miami-Dade judge reversed a previous ruling appointing a receiver to take over the Art Deco hotel. The Miami Beach property is set to start receiving guests on Sept. 16. Former college pals and ex-business partners Branden Muhl and James Vosotas are locked in a bitter legal battle in New York and…

Rolling the dice: Charter school, apartments planned for Hialeah Park racetrack and casino property

A public charter school and low-rise apartments are planned next to the Hialeah Park racetrack and casino, as the first phase of a long-term development of the 200-acre property. The Brunetti family, which owns Hialeah Park, is developing the projects in partnership with Miami Lakes-based developer Prestige Companies and Mater Academy, which…

The rent is finally due: Supreme Court ends moratorium

The Supreme Court dropped the hammer on nonpaying tenants Thursday, ruling President Joe Biden’s latest eviction ban unconstitutional. The decision frees landlords to move forward with eviction proceedings, except in the few places where local moratoriums remain in place. New York’s ban, which was severely weakened by the high court this month, is due to…

Miami Beach bans new apartment hotels in parts of South-of-Fifth — for now

The 5-to-0 vote last week will prevent property owners in a large chunk of residential South-of-Fifth from converting their buildings into apartment hotels. After more than a dozen residents described public sex acts, defecation and the need to carry a gun when going outside, the Miami Beach Planning Board backed a proposed ordinance to ban new…

Investors put waterfront Normandy Isle apartment complex on the market for $15M

Two years after picking up two apartment buildings in Miami Beach’s Normandy Isle for $7.3 milion, an investment group led by Jonathan Politano is looking to sell the Pierre on the Bay complex for double the price. The 70-unit waterfront complex, at 2050, 2070 and 2095 Bay Drive, is listed for $15 million. The pair of two-story buildings were built in 1951.

Landlords are their own worst enemy: report

Listen up, landlords: The culprit behind tenant churn has been unmasked, and it was you all along. A report by resident-experience firm Zego found that tenants were twice as likely to turn down a lease renewal because of a factor under their landlord’s control than for personal reasons. Citing a survey of 372,000 renters by the National Multifamily Housing Council…

Peebles loses $15M claim tied to allegations he was duped out of Miami Overtown project

Eight years ago, Don Peebles was poised to build a commercial project in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood. Now, as a different developer is building on the same site, Peebles has suffered another defeat in his legal battle over the property. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman this week struck Peebles’ affiliate Overtown Gateway Partners’ claim for a…

Video: NAREIT’s Midyear Outlook; Robust Recovery, Growth

Economist Calvin Schnure from the National Association of REITs, more commonly referred to as NAREIT, appears on America’s Commercial Real Estate Show with its Michael Bull to share an update on REITs (real estate investment trusts) and how the economy, trends in work from home, and the recovery will impact the interest rate environment, various…

Circle Capital Partners buys Davie apartments for $35M

Coral Gables-based Circle Capital Partners paid $34.7 million for the Vue on 67th apartment complex in Davie. Records show Circle Capital, through an affiliate, bought the community at 4199 Southwest 67th Avenue from an entity led by executives at Boca-Raton based Park Partners Residential. Circle Capital took out a… Rick Giles and Rosemurgy Properties…

JV buys Hollywood office campus for $50M

Two Broward County real estate investment firms teamed up with New York City-based TFK Real Estate Investment to acquire a three-building office campus in Hollywood for $50 million. The joint venture among TFK, Fort Lauderdale-based Fox Ridge Capital and Pompano Beach-based Jax Capital Investments paid about…

Tamarac city manager charged with conspiracy against developer Arnaud Karsenti

Tamarac City Manager Michael Cernech was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering for his alleged role in attempting to extort $3.4 million from Miami-based development firm 13th Floor Investments. In a press release, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation…

Amazon pays $85M for Sunrise fulfillment center site

Amazon paid $84.5 million for a 133-acre tract in Sunrise where it plans to build a fulfillment center. Jeff Bezos’ e-commerce giant, which has grown as consumers increasingly turn to online shopping, bought the land on the northwest corner of 44th Street and Hiatus Road, records show. The sellers are Section 18, managed by Curtis Deem; and the Trust Indenture of…

Deepak Khosa buys West Palm Beach apartments for $8M

Real estate investor Deepak Khosa paid $7.9 million for the Lake Arjaro Apartments complex in West Palm Beach, The Real Deal has learned. DME Trust, an affiliate of Port St. Lucie-based DME Group managed by Maria Garcia and George Hartley, sold the seven buildings at 4885 Lake Arjaro Drive. Khosa, owner of Palm Beach Gardens-based Atlantic Property…

Acquest Development buys Royal Palm Beach offices for $23M

Acquest Development paid $23 million for a pair of office buildings that are part of South University’s Royal Palm Beach campus. The New York-based real estate investor bought the properties at 9801 and 9901 Belvedere Road from affiliates of Rendina Real Estate Development, according to records. The purchase closed in two deals, with Acquest Development paying…

Home Depot buys former Sam’s Club site near Lake Worth Beach for $26M

Home Depot bought the former site of a Sam’s Club store near Lake Worth Beach for $26 million. Records show the home improvement and building materials retailer bought the building at 7233 Seacrest Boulevard from an affiliate of Alliance HP, which has offices in Fort Lauderdale and Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The 135,268-square-foot building, constructed…

Hidrock Properties, Robert Finvarb pay $13M for Wynwood site

New York-based Hidrock Properties and its partner, the Robert Finvarb Companies, purchased a property in Wynwood for $13 million that they eventually plan to redevelop, The Real Deal has learned. The two firms acquired the building at 2534 North Miami Avenue and the adjacent lot at 26 Northwest 26th Street, as Hidrock expands in South Florida, Hidrock…

California investor buys new Medley industrial park for $35M

A California-based real estate investor bought a new Medley industrial park for $34.8 million, marking its first venture in Florida. VlietCo Enterprises, based in Santa Monica, California, bought the South River Industrial property at 8200 Northwest 93rd Street. It scored a $13 million acquisition loan, according to the financing broker’s release. Melissa Rose and Cody…

Witkoff buys South Beach restaurant building off Lincoln Road for $15M

New York-based developer and investor Witkoff bought a South Beach retail property off of Lincoln Road for $15.4 million. Witkoff, led by Chair and CEO Steven Witkoff, bought the free-standing building at 1681 Lenox Avenue from an affiliate of New York-based real estate development, investment and management firm Marx Realty, according to records.

That’s a hard no: Coral Gables board rejects Allen Morris development near The Plaza megaproject amid public outcry

A Coral Gables board flat-out rejected all seven items related to the approval of a mixed-use apartment tower near The Plaza megaproject. That means the developer, The Allen Morris Company, will have to go back to the drawing board. The city’s planning and zoning board rejected the proposed ordinances and resolutions at its meeting late last week, following…

After helping kill off department stores, Amazon plans to open its own

After amassing an e-commerce empire by disrupting brick and mortar retail for the better part of three decades, Amazon is now taking the competition into the real world. The e-commerce behemoth is planning to open “several” large brick-and-mortar retail locations, similar to department stores, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

‘Pandemic-Ready’ Tower Breaks Ground at Miami Worldcenter

A partnership of Royal Palm Cos., Adventist Health, Blue Zones and Accor Hotels has broken ground on what is being called the world’s first COVID-conscious, pandemic-ready, all-in-one residential, hotel and medical center skyscraper. Located in Miami, Fla., the $500 million, 55-story Legacy Tower at Miami Worldcenter marks the first major construction start at Miami…

Joint Venture Breaks Ground on 255-Room Legacy Hotel & Residences Hotel at Miami Worldcenter

The joint venture, Blue Legacy Ventures, has broken ground on Legacy Hotel & Residences Hotel, a mixed-use tower in Miami with 255 hotel rooms, 310 residences and a $100 million medical center. Legacy Hotel & Residence is part of Miami Worldcenter, a $4 billion, 27-acre mixed-use development in downtown Miami. The tower sits on 1.3 acres. All 310…

Futuristic $100M Wellness Center Takes 10 Floors At Miami Worldcenter

In what is being described as one of the largest commercial leases to be executed in Downtown Miami’s history, Adventist Health and Legacy Hotel & Residences have teamed up to bring a center for well-being to a skyscraper in Miami Worldcenter, a multibillion-dollar mixed-use project. The Blue Zones will occupy 10 stories and cost $100M, according…

Miami Office Market Update: Vacancy on the Right Track

As of July, Miami’s office vacancy rate was 14.2 percent, dropping 40 basis points month-over-month, according to CommercialEdge data, and below the national average of 15.5 percent. The metro’s rate expanded by 160 basis points when compared to the same period in 2020. Miami and Los Angeles were the only gateway markets to lower their vacancy rates…

Restaurants plead for more relief as Delta variant keeps diners away

The restaurant industry is coming back for seconds. The National Restaurant Association on Tuesday urged lawmakers to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, warning that increased costs and changes to consumer behavior amid rising caseloads has put restaurant owners under “crushing long-term debt loads.” “The small gains that our industry…

Australia’s Harbour Outdoor buys Miami Design District building for nearly $7M

Furniture design company Harbour Outdoor picked up a Miami Design District redevelopment site for $6.5 million. The Sydney, Australia-based firm plans to open a flagship showroom inside the 3,224-square-foot retail building at 170 Northeast 38th Street, according to brokers involved in the deal. The site is zoned for a new development of up to 20 stories.

South Florida apartment crunch: Locals squeezed out, as demand from newcomers leads to record rents

Laura Flores is close to calling it quits on her apartment hunt. The 40-year-old Miami resident has done everything to position herself as the perfect candidate: She has a full-time job that allows for $2,400 in monthly rent, and she started searching four months before her current lease ends. Yet, she has only seen one apartment in Doral since June…

Related and Two Roads to pay about $130M for the oceanfront Carlton Terrace condo building in Bal Harbour

A number of developers tried to do it before, but the Related Group and Two Roads Development are now close to completing a bulk purchase of units at the Carlton Terrace condominium at 10245 Collins Avenue in Bal Harbour, The Real Deal has learned. The developers’ joint venture is spending roughly $130 million for…

Action on vast Wynwood project deferred for changes

The developer of one of the largest mixed-use residential and office projects to rise in Wynwood has deferred a city review and promises to work with City of Miami staff to help improve the overall project. The developer aims to tweak the plan based on a series of comments and concerns voiced by members of the city’s Urban Development Review Board (UDRB) at a…

Cryptocurrency Trading Platform OKcoin Expands to Miami

The Sunshine State is beginning to seem more like the Crypto State. A new cryptocurrency trading platform called OKcoin announced it would open an office in Miami, marking the San Francisco-based company’s seventh global office. The platform, which lets users buy and sell cryptocurrencies, says it will bring about 100 jobs with its move. “Looking forward to…”

Chart: Miami-Dade Commercial Real Estate Sales July 2021

This chart displays the number of closed commercial property sales in Miami-Dade county and the cities, including both improved commercial properties and vacant commercial land, that were recorded in the Miami Commercial MLS for the two years ending July, 2021. The number for last month, July 2021, seems to have reverted to more of a normal, non…

Twin 52-Story Miami Towers Are Complete, Fully Pre-Leased

Melo Group announced Friday that it has completed the second tower at Downtown 5th, consisting of two identical 52-story apartment towers. The project is already 100% pre-leased. It is the largest multifamily project in Downtown Miami’s Central Business District, with 1,042 rental apartments in total and 12,500 SF of ground-floor retail. Units of 650 SF to 1,200 SF…

Alex Hurst: Firm he founded now holds $1.6 billion in real estate assets

Perhaps, in a parallel universe, Alex Hurst is a successful author of business strategy books rather than the founder and managing principal of real estate investment firm Palatine Capital Partners. He nearly went down that path while on hiatus from college. He was working abroad in England, where he’d gotten in on the ground floor of a successful internet…

The Fed: Rents still rising with regional riffs : Rent CPI has outpaced headline CPI for 20 years

If you’ve been paying rent just about anywhere in the United States, you likely already know that rent has been going up. And the FRED graph above shows exactly that. Average rent in U.S. cities has risen by 85% in just the past 20 years. That’s 30 percentage points above the 55% inflation that’s occurred between then and now (July 2021, at the time of this writing).

Chart: Miami Commercial Real Estate Sales to List Price Ratio July 2021

This chart displays the selling price to list price ratio as reported in the Miami Commercial MLS for improved commercial real estate (MLS classification: commercial/industrial) within Miami-Dade county, including cities within, in the sunny state of Florida that were priced from $1 million to $10 million and that closed from January 2011 to July 2021. This…

B Group Capital Management buys Shoppes of Coral Way in Miami for $24M

B Group Capital Management bought the Shoppes of Coral Way in Miami for $23.7 million. The Miami-based firm scooped up the retail center at 2690 Southwest 22nd Street from private investor Rajen Properties, according to a news release. Kirk Olson and Drew Kristol of Marcus & Millichap handled the deal, after listing the property in September 2020. The sale price is…

Industrious hires new COO to lead IPO prep, international expansion

Industrious has a new chief operating officer. The flex-office provider has tapped Liz Simon, chief operating officer at tech-focused continuing education school General Assembly, as its new COO, The Real Deal has learned. Tasked with overseeing Industrious’ legal department, cross-functional operations and “people function,” according to the company…

Eviction ban heads back to Supreme Court

Joe Biden’s new eviction moratorium is set to face its biggest challenge yet: the Supreme Court. Real estate groups and property owners petitioned to the nation’s highest court on Friday to strike down the ban on evictions, which applies to most of the country. Chief Justice John Roberts has asked the government to respond to the petition by Monday at noon, according…

Restaurant Migration Creates Dire Shortage Of Eatery-Ready South Florida Space

Wife-and-husband restaurateurs Christie Tenaud, a chef, and Roberto Colombi, a sommelier and general manager, operated The Blue at the Boca Raton Resort & Club but wanted to open their own space somewhere in South Florida. They started looking in December of 2018. “We looked from Wellington to Hollywood,” Tenaud said. In February of 2020, they homed…

Lease roundup: New York hedge fund takes Miami space for HQ2, More…

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors I The Dorsey in Wynwood Hedge fund Schonfeld Strategic Advisors signed a long-term, 18,441-square-foot lease at The Dorsey project in Miami. New York-based Schonfeld is opening its second headquarters at the new Wynwood development. A partnership among Related Group, Tricera Capital and Lndmrk Development is…

Medical Properties Trust completes $900M portfolio buy with Hialeah Hospital

A Birmingham, Alabama-based real estate investment trust that binges on medical sites picked up Hialeah Hospital for $133.7 million. An affiliate of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare is the seller of the 378-bed medical facility at 651 East 25th Street in Hialeah, records show. The purchase completes Medical Properties Trust’s play for a South Florida medical portfolio…

Developers of Society Wynwood mixed-use project scores $142M construction loan

PMG and Greybrook Realty Partners scored a $142.3 million construction loan for their planned mixed-use rental project in Wynwood. Pacific Western Bank and Square Mile Capital provided the loan for Society Wynwood, which broke ground earlier this year at 2431 Northwest Second Avenue, according to a release. The 10-story building will have 318…

Life sciences sector poised to shatter records again in 2021

Unprecedented demand for life sciences real estate has prices soaring in markets across the country. Pricing for life science and R&D properties averaged $585 per square foot in the first half of this year, up 50 percent over last year’s average, according to a new report from Newmark. That increase was partially driven by a handful of major deals. In March…

North Beach multifamily portfolio trades for $31M

A dozen apartment buildings in Miami Beach traded for $31 million, as demand for multifamily assets in the city’s North Beach neighborhood heats up. Records show the entity Kerem North Beach Apartments bought the 12 properties between Byron and Carlyle avenues from 75th Street to 84th Street. Kerem is an affiliate of another similarly named entity managed…

Public Storage and American Homes 4 Rent Founder Wayne Hughes Dies

B. Wayne Hughes Sr., who built Public Storage into an industry behemoth and repeated the feat four decades later in single-family rentals with American Homes 4 Rent, died Wednesday. He was 87. The billionaire died at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky, a legendary Thoroughbred breeding ranch that he bought in 2004, according to the Los Angeles Times. Born in…

Toys ‘R’ Us to be resurrected inside 400 Macy’s locations

Call it a miracle on 34th Street. Three years after shuttering its remaining U.S. locations, Toys ‘R’ Us is planning a large-scale comeback with the help of fellow iconic retailer Macy’s. The two retail brands are teaming up, with Toys ‘R’ Us set to bring more than 400 shops-within-ships to Macy’s department stores across the country starting next year, according to…

Developers of Little Havana mixed-use project score $27M construction loan

A planned Little Havana mixed-use development at 805 W Flagler Street anchored by Ross Dress for Less and Aldi scored a $26.5 million construction loan from Parkview Financial, a mortgage real estate investment trust based in Los Angeles. The development team, made up of New York-based Posner Group and Miami Beach builders Todd Michael…

Opportunity Zone site in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District hits market — again — for $21M

A development site in a Miami Opportunity Zone is on the market again with an asking price of $21 million. The lot, which is slightly less than an acre, could be developed with a 48-story tower, with either 427 residential units or 854 hotel keys, with bonuses, according to a release from listing brokerage Colliers South Florida. It is at 1550 Northeast Miami Place.

South Florida construction starts more than triple in June

South Florida construction starts surged in June, more than tripling the amount recorded in the same month of last year, according to a new report. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties’ total construction starts climbed 240 percent in June, year over year, reaching $1.9 billion, according to Dodge Data & Analytics, a Hamilton, New Jersey-based…

Melo Group Completes 52-Story Downtown 5th Apartment Towers in Miami

Melo Group has completed Downtown 5th, a pair of 52-story towers in downtown Miami with 1,042 rental apartments and approximately 12,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Construction began in late 2019 and move-ins are currently underway. Downtown 5th apartments include one-, two- and three-bedroom units measuring between 650 and 1,200 square…

The Miami Underline – Miami Public Transportation & Infrastructure Updates

Miami is undergoing a rapid expansion. Major tech companies, established investment and banking firms, start-ups, restaurant concepts, and more businesses are moving to Miami and the Tri-County area every day. The city’s focus on improving its public transportation systems and infrastructure has never been greater. With so many changes taking…

Alta Developers pays $23M for mixed-use dev site in Hollywood

Raimundo Onetto’s Alta Developers paid $23 million for a mixed-use site just north of Young Circle in Hollywood. The Miami-based developer plans a pair of 18-story towers with 452 apartments on 2.4 acres, according to a news release. The property is at 401 North Federal Highway. Records show seller Hollywood on the Golf is affiliated with Aventura-based…

Related Group sells downtown Fort Lauderdale apartments for $85M

Jorge Pérez’s Related Group sold the New River Yacht Club apartments in downtown Fort Lauderdale for $85 million. BJ Verde Properties, based in Harbor City, California, bought the multifamily tower at 400 Southwest First Avenue, records show. The buyer is managed by Baiyan Li. The deal for the 249-unit building breaks down to $341,365 per apartment. Coconut Grove…

Covenant Capital Group buys Tamarac apartments for $69M

Covenant Capital Group bought the Lakeview Flats apartments in Tamarac for $69 million. The Nashville, Tennessee-based investor bought the complex at 8800 Northwest 78th Court and 8900 Northwest 77th Court from affiliates of Ortsac Capital Group, based in Fort Lauderdale, records show. The buyer…

Bascom Group buys Lauderhill apartments for $79M

Bascom Group bought the Sunny Lake Apartments in Lauderhill for $79.3 million. The Irvine, California-based investor, through a partnership with Duff Bedrosian of Miami-based East Hill Capital Partners, bought the complex at 2360 Northwest 56th Avenue, according to a news release. An affiliate of Miami-based Bar Invest Group, an investor in multifamily…

RAM buys Boca Raton apartment complex for $20M

Rental Asset Management bought The Village at Boca East apartment complex for $20 million. Records show RAM, through an affiliate, bought the 84-unit community at 1551-1601 Northwest 13th Street. The deal breaks down to $238,095 per unit. Seller 3T (Country Club Village), a limited partnership whose president is Oded Meltzer, sold the property.

Deco Green multifamily, mixed-use project in Lake Worth Beach moves forward

A 127-unit multifamily project with retail, offices and green space is moving forward in Lake Worth Beach. Deco Green will have four residential buildings on 2.3 acres, along with 8,000 square feet of retail and offices, according to a news release. Miami-based Office America Group is developing Deco Green with an eye toward creating an outdoor…