Zumba founder to open fitness spot west of Brickell

UPDATE 09/15/2015: Michelle Gonzalez, the Realtor who represented Alberto Perez in the purchase, said the property will not become a Zumba studio. Perez is debating his options for the property, though nothing has been set in stone as of yet. He purchased the property through an LLC he controls.

Colombian fitness buff Alberto “Beto” Perez didn’t break a sweat with his purchase of a commercial property west of Brickell.

Perez, better known as the founder of the Zumba dance program, just picked up a 10,600-square-foot commercial building with plans to turn it into a fitness studio.

Zumba founder Alberto Perez

The property is a two-story building at 591 Southwest Eighth Street. It was built in 1955 on a 7,000-square-foot corner lot. Perez paid $1.95 million to acquire the property from West Brickell 8th Street Investors LLC, a company managed by Pascal and Elisa Nicolle. The two are also the owners of Villa Paradiso, a 1930’s-era hotel in South Beach.

The Nicolles paid $1.22 million for the commercial property in July 2014. That’s a $730,000 appreciation in price after roughly a year.

Vincent J. Pastore of Vincent Pastore & Associates was the property’s listing agent, while Michelle Gonzalez of Floridian First Realty represented the buyer. Pastore said in a news release that Perez plans to renovate the property into a “state of the art facility for all his members of Zumba in the Brickell area.”