Feb 21, 2018 - 0 Comments - Top Stories -

Miami Commercial Real Estate News February 21, 2018: Swire Partnering to Develop Next to Brickell City Centre; More…

Swire partners with Carlos Mattos to develop site next to Brickell City Centre

Swire Properties is making moves again in Brickell. Swire is partnering with Colombian businessman Carlos Mattos to jointly develop the property at 650 South Miami Avenue, a spokesperson told The Real Deal. The developers are planning a residential project on the former Tobacco Road site. Mattos made his money with Hyundai Colombia Automotriz, a car import and distribution company he founded in…

The site of Dean’s Gold strip club will become a massive mixed-use project

Uptown Biscayne is headed to the North Miami Beach intersection What was once Dean’s Gold, a Miami Vice-era North Miami Beach strip club that the Miami Herald dubbed a “historical landmark,” will one day be the site of a one million-square-foot mixed used development. CK Privé Group’s Uptown Biscayne project just received City Council approval to build a complex, the South Florida…

Hyde Midtown Suites & Residences is in its final stages

The mixed-use project is wrapping up After topping off this time last year, mixed-use development Hyde Midtown Suites & Residences at 3401 NE 1st Avenue is ready to open its doors. The Next Miami reports that closings of residences are underway and that the hotel will be ready for guests next month. The mixed-use development includes 410 luxury residences, 60 hotel suites, retail space, and six stories of…

Markers Grove Isle battles way to condo starting line

Markers Grove Isle on Fair Isle is marked by controversy. Developer Eddie Avila expects the $200 million project to place the Grove community on par with Tahiti Beach in Coral Gables and Fisher Island. But most current island residents aren’t on board. Fair Isle, commonly called Grove Isle, boasts three residential towers with a total of 510 units that date to the 1970s and a club that debuted in…

Collection Residences site listed for sale as litigation between Ugo Colombo and Masoud Shojaee drags on

More than two years after a partnership to develop the Collection Residences fell apart, the Coral Gables development site at the heart of it all is hitting the market. A county judge ordered the 2.8-acre property be listed for sale as litigation rolls on. A broker was hired to list the assemblage at 250 Bird Road, 245 Altara Avenue4112 Aurora Street, 4101 Salzedo Street, and 4111 Salzedo Street

Dufry signs lease for future HQ at Prologis’ Beacon Lakes

Swiss travel retailer Dufry just inked a 200,000-square-foot lease at Prologis’ Beacon Lakes business park in northwest Miami-Dade County, where it’s planning to move its regional headquarters. The building is breaking ground soon and will rise at the southeast corner of Northwest 137th Avenue and Northwest 14th Street, between Northwest 14th and State Road 836, according to a spokesperson for…

Brightline owner’s proposal to build a new Miami-Dade courthouse lives on

A proposal by Brightline’s parent company to build a new Miami-Dade Courthouse has been revived. The Miami-Dade County Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution directing Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to continue negotiating with New Flagler Courthouse Development Partners, or NFCDP, to build a new civic courthouse near the existing courthouse at 73 West…

Developers refinance 2500 Biscayne, sell ownership stakes

Greystone Development just sold its stake in a new mixed-use rental tower in Edgewater, and the remaining owners refinanced the property. The New York-based development company partnered with Alta Developers to build the 19-story, 156-unit building at 2500 Biscayne Boulevard. Alta refinanced the building with a loan in the $50 million to $60 million range from Invesco, sources said.

New renderings of Aston Martin Residences, Estates at Acqualina & more

A handful of developers just released new renderings of some South Florida projects that are in the works, including Aston Martin Residences tower in Miami, Uptown Biscayne in North Miami Beach, the Estates at Acqualina and the Water Club North Palm Beach. G&G Business Developments and Aston Martin unveiled the interiors of the luxury car-branded condo tower planned for downtown Miami.

Home sales, prices rose in all three SoFla counties in January: Florida Realtors

New year, new South Florida? Home sales were up in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties at the start of 2018, according to new reports from the Florida Realtors. Median prices were also on the rise. The higher sales figures follow a slow 2017. Despite an overall increase in residential dollar sales volume in South Florida’s three counties last year, the number of sales fell. Residential sales posted…

Avra Jain turns to Overtown for next restoration project

Real estate developer Avra Jain is looking at Overtown for her next big preservation project – and wants the area’s community development agency to help fund it. The Omni Community Redevelopment Agency submitted a proposal to the Miami City Commission, including a request by Avra Jain’s Vagabond Group to buy and restore five garden apartment buildings just south of Northwest 16th…

Video: Integra Realty Resources Chairman Anthony Graziano on Office and Tenant Opportunities

Anthony Graziano, Chairman at Integra Realty Resources, joins host Michael Bull to talk about Integra’s Viewpoint 2018. Topics discussed include tenant trends for office properties, expected office property occupancy levels, cap rates for office property commercial real estate, interest rates, revenues and expenses, office property appraisal value, challenges, and opportunities for the office property sector.

Mixed-use development Buena Vista Lofts just broke ground

It’s the first of two planned projects in the neighborhood Buena Vista, an 18,500-square-foot mixed-use development, just broke ground last week in the Buena Vista District on 47th Street and 2nd Avenue. The project is from developer Harry Benitah/RFIF, LLC, and it will include two floors of residential units with ground-floor retail. According to the developer, the neighborhood and its location just…

MiamiCentral, the mixed-use project at Brightline’s Miami station, completes first tower

Check out 3 MiamiCentral MiamiCentral, the mixed-use project near downtown Miami’s upcoming Brightline high-speed train station, just hit a major milestone. Office building 3MiamiCentral is now open, the South Florida Business Journal reports, ahead of Brightline’s opening in Miami in the coming months. MiamiCentral posted on Twitter: Florida East Coast Industries is pleased to announce the…

Restaurants at CityPlace Doral sued for unpaid rent

PGIM Real Estate is suing two tenants at CityPlace Doral, alleging hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid rent, court documents show. Park Square 5 LLC is suing Sushi Siam and Flair Street for breach of lease and breach of guaranty. In two complaints filed earlier this month in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the PGIM affiliate alleges that Sushi Siam Doral LLC and Flair Street’s YKC Doral LLC have not paid…

Mexican real estate investors focus on South Florida amid heated presidential race

In the last two months, Diego Arnaud of Aventura-based DA Luxury Realty has spotted a noticeable increase in sales activity among his clients from Mexico, who account for nearly all of his business. Several have just purchased multimillion-dollar units at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Sunny Isles Beach and at Prive at Island Estates in Aventura, the broker-owner said. And one Mexican investor is under…

Video: Integra Realty Resources Chairman Anthony Graziano Presents Retail Property Viewpoint for 2018

Anthony Graziano, Chairman at Integra Realty Resources, appears on the Commercial Real Estate Show to discuss his firm’s Viewpoint 2018. Topics that are discussed include expected retail property occupancy levels, cap rates for retail commercial real estate, interest rates, online investments, effects of ecommerce, outlook for restaurants, challenges, and opportunities for the retail commercial property sector.

Miami Yacht Show will move to a new location next year

It’s been in the same spot for 30 years The Miami Yacht Show is wrapping up its last day today, but next year’s event is already making news. The Miami Herald reports that the Miami Yacht Show will move in 2019 to Biscayne Bay in Miami between the Venetian and MacArthur causeways. That’s the waterfront site that once housed the Miami Herald and is now transitioning to a live events space.

Foreclosure fight heats up: Trial could give Schecher Group nearly complete control of Miami Beach’s Sixty Sixty Resort

An investment company could score a major victory this week in its alleged hostile takeover of a 1990s Miami Beach condo-hotel. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko has set a three-day trial beginning Tuesday to decide the outcome of foreclosure lawsuits the Schecher Group has brought against 35 unit owners at the Sixty Sixty Resort at 6060 Indian Creek Drive. The trial is moving forward…

Gut checking real estate’s interest rate fears

Federal Reserve chairs have the power to put financial markets in a frenzy with a few seemingly harmless phrases. In June 2013, then-Fed Chair Ben Bernanke stepped to the microphone for a regular press conference and suggested the central bank might start winding down its bond-buying program — first enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis — if the economy continued to improve. Immediately…

Here’s the little secret to winning a bidding war that could totally backfire

In a hot real estate market, buyers will often put in offers with an escalation clause – something akin to an auto bid in the event a bidding war breaks out. But there are drawbacks for those on both sides of the negotiating table, according to the Wall Street Journal. An escalation clause is an addendum to a contract that automatically raises a buyer’s offer by predetermined increments up to a maximum…

Winn-Dixie may be headed back to bankruptcy

The corporate parent of supermarket chain Winn-Dixie may file for bankruptcy as soon as March. Bloomberg also reported that the Winn-Dixie’s corporate parent Bi-Lo LLC plans to close nearly 200 of the supermarket chain’s locations either before or after filing for bankruptcy. In previous corporate incarnations, the Winn-Dixie business declared bankruptcy in 2009 and 2005, and Bi-Lo still may…

US housing starts were up 10% in January, led by multifamily building

Housing starts nationwide jumped 9.7 percent in January over December, thanks largely to a 19.7 percent increase in residential rental and condominium starts — the biggest increase since December 2016. The annual pace of starts nationwide last month was 1.33 million, up from 1.21 million in December and up from 1.24 million last January, according to the Department of Commerce. January’s increase…

Miami investors score EB-5 funding for charter school in south Miami-Dade

Investors Mario and Ramon Castellanos just scored $5.5 million in EB-5 funding to build a charter school in south Miami-Dade, property records show. The Miami-based investors paid $469,000 for the 3-acre property at 12400 Hainlin Mill Drive in March. Records show the charter school chain AcadeMir, managed by Superior Charter Schools Services, will be leasing the property. The charter school manager…

Missoni Baia, Paseo Miami and Coconut Grove Playhouse submit new plans

The developers of three major projects will go before the city of Miami next week for approval from the Urban Development Review Board on Wednesday. 700 Edgewater Development LLC, a company tied to developer Vlad Doronin, filed updated plans for Missoni Baia, a 56-story luxury condo tower planned for 700 Northeast 26th Terrace in Edgewater. The developer is formally requesting a change in units…

Luxury Apartments Planned South of Miami

Multifamily developer Estate Investments Group (EIG) is moving ahead with plans to build a 200-unit luxury apartment project in Palmetto Bay, FL, south of Miami. The five-story Soleste Bay Village will rise at 18301 S. Dixie Hwy. Delivery is expected in the second quarter of 2020. “Miami’s residential market still has plenty of gas in the tank,” Robert Suris, principal of EIG, said in a statement. “Everyday there…”

See renderings of Miami’s Bijou Bay Harbor, now 75 percent sold

It’s slated for completion in 2019 Bijou Bay Harbor, a 41-residence development in the Bay Harbor Islands, is now 75 percent sold. The nine-story waterfront property at 9521 East Harbor Bay Drive is slated for completion by the second quarter of 2019. The project from Revuelta Architecture International and interior designer Adriana Hoyos is designed as a “quiet island sanctuary” with sleek lines and…

Grand jury investigation adds to Bal Harbour hotel developer’s woes

A Bal Harbour hotel developer wrapped up in multiple lawsuits alleging fraud has just revealed he is under investigation by a federal grand jury. Bal Harbour Quarzo LLC is facing 19 lawsuits in Miami-Dade, alleging the company failed to pay back loans for a hotel redevelopment planned for the 2.38-acre site at 10250 Collins Avenue. Because the loans were executed in foreign countries and didn’t…

Affordable housing crisis in Miami. For landlords, “the math just doesn’t work.”

Vagabond Group is nearly finished renovating more than 20 of its affordable housing units in Little Haiti, a project that benefits from a half million-dollar low interest loan from Miami-Dade County. Even with the favorable financing and some government funding, Vagabond founder Avra Jain said her company is still losing money on the investment. “In the end, without full subsidies, the math just…

Inflation drives mortgage rates to peak not seen since 2014

Mortgage rates on 30-year, fixed-rate loans climbed to 4.38 percent this week, the highest they have been since April 2014. The rates last week stood at 4.32 percent, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. The gains are a direct result of the rising yields for Treasury notes, which have been steadily increasing amid fears of an inflation, Bloomberg reported. The yield on the 10-year note reached above 2.94%…

Hotelier buys shuttered Miami Beach assisted living facility

Hotelier Simon Nemni just paid $17.6 million for a shuttered assisted living facility in Miami Beach. The seller, A.D.M.E. Real Estate, is owned by Morris and Philip Esformes, who are father and son, and business partners. Philip Esformes is the main defendant in a $1 billion Medicare fraud and money laundering case that has gained national attention. He was arrested July 2016, according to the Miami Herald.

Wynwood Yard chef to open food hall in Miami Heath District

Wynwood Yard chef and founder Della Heiman is taking her talents to the Miami Health District. Heiman, who’s also planning a location in North Beach, signed a 10,000-square-foot lease for a healthy food hall concept called Jackson Hall at 1050 Northwest 14th Street. John Ellis and Aaron Labovitz of RKF represented Heiman and her business partner Ken Lyon, and the landlord, Rockpoint Group. Jackson Hall…