Craig Zinn Automotive pays $24M for Kendall dealership dev site

Hollywood-based car dealer acquired 8-acre site approved for two-story building and 580 parking spaces

Craig Zinn Auto Pays $24M For Kendall Dev Site
The development site at 15200 Southwest 136th Street in Kendall with Craig Zinn Automotive Group's Craig Zinn (CZ Group, Google Maps)

Craig Zinn Automotive Group paid $23.5 million for a development site in Kendall.

The Hollywood-based car dealer acquired an 8.3-acre property at 15200 Southwest 136th Street, records and Vizzda show. The site is approved for a two-story auto retail building spanning nearly 76,000 square feet and 580 parking spaces, records and Vizzda show. 

The seller, an entity managed by Ben Joannou Sr. in Miami, paid $4.1 million for the property in 2015, records show. 

Named after its CEO, Craig Zinn Automotive Group owns five dealerships in South Florida: Toyota of Hollywood, Lexus of North Miami, Lexus of Pembroke Pines, Acura of Pembroke Pines and Subaru of Pembroke Pines.  

Craig Zinn’s latest land acquisition is adjacent to a 14-acre property at Miami Executive Airport that the automotive firm is leasing from Miami-Dade County. Last month, the county commission approved a 30-year lease agreement with two five-year renewal options that allows Craig Zinn to build a $15 million Subaru dealership and ancillary facilities, according to a Miami-Dade memo.

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During an 18-month due diligence phase, Craig Zinn will pay Miami-Dade $135,000 in rent. Craig Zinn will then pay $1.5 million for the first year of the lease. The rent increases by 2 percent in the second year, and then every five years based on appraisals, the memo states. 

Miami-Dade will receive roughly $77 million by the end of the 30-year term, the memo shows. 

In the past six months, a couple of automobile retailers have been cruising for south Miami-Dade properties to add to their portfolios. In August, Birmingham, Alabama-based Dream Motor Group acquired a Mercedes-Benz dealership and an auto body repair shop in Cutler Bay as part of a $150 million portfolio purchase. The deal also included a Mercedes-Benz dealership and former city government office building in Coral Gables. 

A month later, Miami-based auto mogul Luis Somoano paid $20 million for the land underneath his 7.3-acre Ford dealership in Kendall. 

Also last year, Tampa-based Morgan Auto Group expanded into Broward County. The firm paid $42 million for Al Hendrickson Toyota in Coconut Creek.