Retail building on Washington Avenue sells for $4.55M

A retail property on Washington Avenue has traded hands for $4.55 million, as the street undergoes transition, The Real Deal has learned.

Jason Weisman, principal of JAW Commercial, told TRD that he purchased the 6,200-square-foot retail building at 1413 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach. The closing took place late Friday.

The building includes two spaces: a vacant restaurant along with a tattoo shop that is currently operating on a month-to-month lease, Weisman said.

“I have a long-term horizon on Washingon [Avenue],” he told TRD. “I have patient capital, and I’m currently looking at additional acquisition opportunities on the street. I’m 25 and I want to own this real estate for many years to come.”

Weisman, a broker/principal who launched his brokerage firm focused on urban retail earlier this year, represented both the buyer and seller in an off-market, $29 million deal in April for almost an entire block in Wynwood.  A month later, he represented David Edelstein in the purchase of 3322 North Miami Avenue for $10.2 million.

He also represented luxury eyewear brand Illesteva on its first Miami location in Wynwood, which opened this summer across from Panther Coffee.

Weisman said he expects to lease the vacant restaurant space on Washington Avenue in the next few months. He said he is talking to prospective tenants for various uses, including a restaurant or retail use.

Miami-Dade property records show the building was built in 1936 and was last sold to Amsterdam Ventures LLC, based in New York, for $3.3 million in November 2007.

Washington Avenue is experiencing a new wave of redevelopment, as the city considers new measures that are designed to increase hotel space and retail and dining opportunities on the street, which lags far behind Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive in attracting first tier retail, dining and hotel venues.

At a recent Miami Beach City Commission meeting, commissioners said they welcomed plans that would allow height limits to be increased to 55 feet from the current 50 foot limit for most buildings, and higher for larger buildings, reducing or in some cases eliminating parking requirements for hotels and businesses and adding parklets — parking spaces converted to temporary patios for outdoor dining.

The proposals come out of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel for Washington Avenue, chaired by former commissioner Saul Gross, president of Streamline Properties, and a longtime business owner on Washington Avenue.

To increase foot traffic during the day, the proposed ordinance calls for new nightclubs with a maximum of 25 feet of frontage on Washington Avenue, to provide some kind of active use during the day. And to encourage hotel investment, height limits for buildings with more than 200 feet of frontage will be increased from the current 50 feet to 75 feet with a 35–foot setback from the street.