County records reveal David Beckham and his investors paid $18.95 million for a portion of the land needed to build their Major League Soccer Stadium in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood.
Miami Beckham United announced the deal on Thursday, marking the first time the group had closed on land for a soccer stadium in Miami following years of failed attempts to find a site. As proposed, the nine-acre stadium site would be between Northwest Sixth and Eighth streets, north of the Miami River in Overtown and include county-owned land.
California-based 0101 Miami Properties LLC, an affiliate of Beckham’s group, purchased the 5.8 acres of private land in two purchases recorded late Thursday. The group also took out a $17.4 million loan from N&P Holdings Limited Partnership that can be boosted up to $45 million. One of the members of N&P Holdings Limited Partnership is Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, according to the mortgage.
Miami Beckham United paid about $75 per square foot for the assemblage. Windsor Investment Holdings, a private company managed by Roland DiGasbarro of Coral Gables, sold 4.44 acres at 570, 566 and 650 Northwest Eighth Street for $12.75 million. Windsor bought the properties out of foreclosure in 2010 for $600,000, according to property records.
Beckham and his investors paid $6.2 million for the remaining 1.37 acres of land on Northwest Seventh Street and Northwest Sixth Avenue. New Miami River View, which is managed by Democratic fundraiser and lobbyist Christopher Korge and Thomas J. Korge of law firm Korge & Korge, sold those parcels. The company also lists Barry Goldmeier, a Miami developer who builds rental apartment complexes. New Miami River View paid $1.4 million for the land in 2006.
Prices have surged in Overtown, where developers and investors have been buying up apartment buildings and vacant parcels at high premiums. Just last week, a 47,000-square-foot plot across the street from the stadium site sold for $6.7 million.
Claure, a Beckham partner and the CEO of Sprint, said on Thursday that the group has the right site and the right ownership group. “We’re all-in on Overtown, and we couldn’t be more excited about moving forward with plans to deliver the most responsible stadium in Miami history,” he said in a statement.