The Venezuelan investors who planned to build Wyn 26, a 16-unit condo project in Wynwood, have instead put the site on the market for $2.85 million amid slumping sales, The Real Deal has learned.
Dave Colonna of FIP Realty Services, who has the listing, said the developers had received only a couple of reservations since launching sales last fall, and were unable to secure financing. The price for the 10,400-square-foot site at 50 and 58 Northwest 26th Street equates to $274 per square foot.
The Alvarez Group and the Palmar Group had teamed up to launch a 15-unit condo project with ground floor retail condo space. It was to mark their first development in the United States, Enrique Alvarez, a director of the joint entity had told TRD. The families, involved in the construction industry, have co-developed and built low-income housing in Venezuela and Panama for 12 years.
The project planned to have units sized from 1,057 square feet to 1,457 square feet, which is larger than the norm in Wynwood, Colonna said. They were to be priced from the mid-$500,000s to the mid-$800,000s, or between $520 per square foot to $560 per square foot. “We marketed it for sale as a condo and did not get much traction because of the size of the units and the price,” Colonna said. “So they decided to sell it.”
Alvarez did not respond to a request for comment.
Due to rezoning in Wynwood, a total of 35 residential units now can be built on the property that is also zoned for office and retail. “My belief is someone will want to revise the plans and move forward with a different concept,” Colonna said.
The Wyn 26 site is the latest planned project in Wynwood that is being marketed for sale. In March, Jeronimo Hirschfeld, founder and CEO of Miami-based One Real Estate Investment, put the site of his proposed Wynwood Square mixed-use project at 2201 North Miami Avenue project on the market. He had planned a 12-story project with 241 apartments, 60,290 square feet of office space, 27,212 square feet of retail, and 481 parking spaces.
Several other projects are underway in Wynwood. Among them, RedSky Capital is planning Cube Wynwyd, with 80,000 square feet of office space and about 11,400 square feet of retail space at 222 Northwest 24th Street. And East End Capital and the Related Group are building Wynwood 25, a mixed-use project at 339 Northwest 24th Street, which will include 289 apartments, about 31,000 square feet of retail space and 340 parking spaces. Earlier this month, the developers won design approval for the Wynwood 25 Annex, a roughly 40,000-square-foot office building that will be built alongside the apartments.