Alex Vadia, principal of Midtown Opportunities, has sold his Six Midtown Miami development site and additional land for $55 million, two months after filing a termination notice with the county for his previously planned project.
AMLI Residential, a Chicago-based developer of luxury apartments, bought the 6.6 acres of vacant property, which was the former site of a Chiquita Banana shipping facility. AMLI has approved plans to develop about 700 apartments on the site, between 2900 to 3010 Northeast Second Avenue in Miami, according to CBRE, which brokered the sale.
AMLI plans two rental building, designed by Zyscovich Architects. The north building would have 485 units in 12 stories. The south building would have 215 units in eight stories, according to a release.
AMLI has been on a buying spree in South Florida in recent months. In October, the company bought the Signature at Davie Apartments & Townhomes for a combined $114.8 million from a company led by Armando Codina. And in April, an AMLI affiliate paid $104.5 million for the 350-apartment community Modera Dadeland in Kendall.
Chiquita Banana site
Vadia had paid $11.5 million for the Six Midtown property in 2011. Extra value was created by assembling the lots and allowing AMLI Residential the time to entitle the property while under contract, according to CBRE.
CBRE’s Robert Given, Gerard Yetming, Zachary Sackley, and Mary Kate Swann, along with Casey Rosen and Dennis Carson of CBRE’s National Retail Investment Group, arranged the sale, according to the release.
CBRE marketed the property on behalf of Midtown Opportunities as part of a 17-acre portfolio in Midtown Miami. AMLI’s site are aimed to preserve water views for the next wave of development in Midtown Miami, CBRE said.
The remaining two tracts within Midtown are the ‘Entertainment Block’ at 110 N.E. 36th Street and ‘Midtown 1’ at 3501 N.E. 1st Avenue. The tracts are currently being positioned to be brought to the market soon, Given said in the release.
Vadia previously planned a 32-story Six Midtown Miami Condominium tower with 398 residential units that was to be built on a vacant 2.1-acre site in the 3100 block of Northeast First Avenue. In September, he filed a “Termination Of Condominium,” according to Miami-Dade County records. The Six Midtown Miami Condo project had been formally announced in July 2012, but Vadia never launched sales. Vadia had declined to discuss his plans for the site with The Real Deal in recent weeks.
Midtown Miami, a 56-acre urban redevelopment, has become a major residential and shopping area north of downtown Miami, and is considered one of the city’s few self-contained walkable communities.
As the area continues to develop, two separate residential projects are currently under construction: Midtown 5 and Hyde Midtown Suites & Residences.
Magellan Development are building Midtown 5, a 26-story tower at 3201 Northeast 1st Avenue. The project broke ground in January. When complete at the end of next year, it will have 400 apartment units, retail and office space.
Related Group and Dezer Development broke ground on Hyde Midtown Suites and Residences at Midtown Avenue and 34th Street in late September. When completed during the second quarter of 2018, it will include 60 hotel rooms and 410 luxury condominiums.
“This area continues to mature and attract Miami’s cultural elite, a dynamic mix of renters, owners, retailers and entrepreneurs,” Gerard Yetming, senior vice president of CBRE, said in a statement. “Wynwood, Edgewater, Midtown and the Design District have all experience phenomenal appreciation in real estate sales prices and rents over the last two years as the caché of these neighborhoods continues to rise.”