Genting scores 5 offers, each over $1B for downtown Miami dev site

Five bidders are willing to wager on a prime assemblage of waterfront land in downtown Miami, each offering more than $1 billion for the 15.5-acre site. 

Malaysian gambling operator Genting Group secured nine offers for the property at 1431 North Bayshore Drive in downtown Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District. Five exceeded $1 billion, and those could advance to the next stage, said listing broker Michael Fay of Avison Young. A team led by Fay and his colleague, John Crotty, listed the assemblage in November. 

The land, which includes the former Miami Herald headquarters, represents more than half of Genting’s holdings in the area. Genting acquired the ex-Herald’s 14.6-acre waterfront property for $236 million in 2011, at the time a record for Miami-Dade County land sales. The Herald building was torn down in 2015 and the site has been leased out for events that include the Art Miami and Context fairs. Genting will keep the Hilton Miami Downtown hotel and Omni Center north of the properties.

A $1 billion-plus sale of the property would mark a record for land sales in Florida, and possibly in the U.S. The property includes more than 800 feet of waterfront on Biscayne Bay, according to a press release.

The site is zoned T6-36b-O, which allows for up to 60 stories of development, 500 residential units per acre or about 7,800 units, and nearly 21 million square feet in total of development, the release states.

Fay declined to identify the bidders, but said the teams making the offers have until 5 p.m. on Thursday to submit their timelines and other details of their bids, including their capital stack plans, pricing, and their proposed due diligence and closing dates. 

The Kuala Lumpur-based conglomerate Genting, led by billionaire CEO Lim Kok Thay, had long pursued gambling uses for the properties, as part of a larger mixed-use project with a luxury resort, residential towers and retail. But the firm has been blocked by significant legislative opposition. 

Bloomberg first reported the news of multiple bids. 

Interest in the property shows continued demand for waterfront land in South Florida, despite the slowdown in land sales and pricing. 

The existing record price for land sales in South Florida is the Hollo family’s $363 million sale of the 2.5-acre property at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive, which closed nearly a year ago. Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin of Citadel was later revealed to be the purchaser. The Brickell property sold for $3,340 per square foot, or about $145 million per acre. (Based on that price per acre, the Genting assemblage could sell for over $2.2 billion.)