915-943 Washington Avenue hits market: $20M

A retail building at 915-943 Washington Avenue has hit the market, as demand heightens on the once-forgotten South Beach street.

Robert Kaplan, principal of Ackman-Ziff Real Estate in the southeastern U.S. told The Real Deal that there is no asking price for the property, but the “whisper price” is $20 million.

Ackman-Ziff is charged with marketing the 22,030-square-foot building, which sits on a 26,000-square-foot lot. The price equates to $908 per square foot for the building or $769 for the land.

The seller is Grand Trine Limited Partnership in care of Streamline Management Corp., according to Miami-Dade property records. The entity’s general partner is Saul K. Gross, records show.

Built in 1937 and designed by noted South Beach Art Deco architect Henry Hohauser, the property offers “in-place cash flow” with the potential to increase rents and upgrade the tenancy, according to an Ackman-Ziff release. It can also be redeveloped into a mixed-use project incorporating the existing retail and a new hotel or residential component, the firm said.

Washington Avenue is experiencing a new wave of redevelopment, amid the city’s approval of 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.

A new zoning ordinance approved in October allows for a building height of up to seven stories on the Washington Avenue property, Ackman-Ziff said. With the addition of a hotel or residences, the maximum development potential is 52,000 square feet.

In recent months, several retail sites have traded hands on the South Beach street. In October, Scott Robins sold the 17,500-square-foot building at 743 Washington Avenue for $18.55 million to Jamestown, an Atlanta and New York-based real estate investment and management firm. Also in October, Jason Weisman of JAW Commercial and Chaim Cahane of Forte Capital Management paid $2.7 million for the 4,500-square-foot building at 1331 Washington Avenue. And a month earlier, Weisman purchased a 6,200-square-foot retail building at 1413 Washington Avenue for $4.55 million. Plans are to bring new retail and restaurant tenants to the sites, Weisman had told TRD.

Additional restaurants are also signing on as tenants. Spring Brothers Irish Pub signed a lease for 4,500 square feet at 1248 Washington Avenue, Noah Fox, associate and general counsel for Koniver Stern Group recently told TRD. Fox also represented eateries Yuca and Ceviche 105, which are teaming up to open Cubiche 105, a new 7,130-square-foot restaurant at 1555 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach, on property owned by the city.