South Florida report

1 Hotel South Beach on the market

Barry Sternlicht’s 1 Hotel South Beach is being marketed for sale, several sources told The Real Deal. The sale of the trophy property at 2341 Collins Avenue could mark a record for the most expensive hotel deal of all time in Miami. If the 426-key hotel sold at $1 million a key, it would beat a record held by the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, which traded hands a year ago for $325 million, translating into $1.076 million per key.

A deal of that size would likely sell to a foreign buyer, like a sovereign wealth fund, or a large institutional investor, sources said.

The LEED-certified hotel and condo development opened last year as part of a joint venture between Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group [TRData] and LeFrak.

Atlanta-based hotel real estate firm Hodges Ward Elliott is the listing brokerage, according to multiple sources.

For Sternlicht, the South Beach hotel is the first of the 1 Hotels brand to open. Other properties include 1 Hotel in New York’s Central Park and 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, which is set to open later this year.

Rendering of Thor Equities’ retail project at 70 Northeast 39th St.

Thor proposes retail for Design District

Thor Equities has filed its plans for the former post office in Miami’s Design District, proposing a three-story modern retail building that includes a rooftop deck.

New York-based Thor bought the U.S. Post Office at 70 Northeast 39th Street in December 2015, paying $43.2 million, or $1,409 per square foot, for the land. The existing two-story, 12,972-square-foot building was built in 1947, records show. It sits on a 30,660-square-foot lot.

Thor is seeking to build a 57,961-square-foot building designed by Touzet Studio, according to plans filed with the city of Miami. The building will have a ground floor, second floor and third-floor rooftop deck. It will have space for six retail tenants, plus 26 parking spaces.

Thor, led by Joseph Sitt, has been particularly active in the Design District as well as in Wynwood and South Beach. In addition to 70 Northeast 39th Street, Thor currently also owns the property at 120 Northeast 39th Street. In February, Thor sold eight sites, totaling nearly two blocks, to Redsky Capital and JZ Capital Partners for $128.3 million. In January, Thor doubled its investment when it sold four other properties to Redsky and JZ in the Design District for $60 million.

Aerial shot of Little Havana

Little deals, big potential in Little Havana

Under-the-radar sales in Miami neighborhoods like Little Havana and the Miami River have underscored the potential for commercial activity just outside the bustling Greater Downtown Miami market.

Little Havana in particular has become a magnet for multifamily investment, broker Patricia Rotsztain told TRD. Rotsztain brokered the sale of two buildings for about $80,000 per apartment in May and said that asking prices rose by about 30 percent from the time of contract to closing. The three-story, 24-unit building at 1528 Northwest Third Street sold for $1.92 million in mid-May, up from $1.68 million in 2014. The buyer, a Brooklyn-based LLC, plans to renovate the 1923 building and bring the rents up to market rate, Rotsztain said. Pre-renovation, a two-bedroom unit may go for about $700 a month, she said. In Little Havana, a two-bedroom apartment rents for a median of  $1,795 to $1,850.