Latin investors turning to office condos

Camilo Lopez
Camilo Lopez

Latin American buyers have long buoyed South Florida’s residential market. But now Latin American investors are reinvigorating South Florida’s office market.

Last week Solution Group announced Ofizzina 1200, a 97,000-square-foot office project at 1200 Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables. The 16-story Mediterranean-style building will feature 47 office suites.

“There’s not a lot of opportunities to buy in many places where [office] investors want to be,” Camilo Lopez, president of the Solution Group, told the Daily Business Review. “The expansion Miami is having is enough to support not just one but I believe various luxury office building projects.”

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And in May, Argentina’s Coto supermarket family bought 19 office condos at 1200 Brickell Avenue and later paid a record-breaking $125 million for a riverfront development site in downtown Miami, according to the Daily Business Review.

“Buying it as a rental and turning it into a condo is a quick way to make money,” Fernando Levy-Hara, a developer and principal of the Aventura-based mckafka Development Group, said. “You buy at $180 [per square foot] right now, and for sure can sell at $300 right now.” [DBR] Christopher Cameron