CIM Group buys land for Miami Worldcenter apartments: $28M

CIM Group has purchased a piece of Miami Worldcenter’s development site for $28 million as CIM and Falcone Group prepare to break ground on one of the mixed-use project’s apartment towers.

CIM and Falcone Group will break ground on Seven Street Apartments and its parking garage, between Northeast First Avenue and North Miami Avenue, in June with an estimated completion date of 2018. The 43-story, 450-unit tower will offer apartments ranging from studios to three-bedrooms priced at market-rate rents, according to a spokesperson for Miami Worldcenter.

Records show MWC Block G LLC, controlled by developer Nitin Motwani, sold a portion of the downtown Miami site to companies tied to CIM Group. In an agreement signed on Thursday, MWC Block G and Block G Phase 2 LLC, the latter of which is tied to CIM, states that if the buyer flips the land before April 2023, Miami Worldcenter Associates would be entitled to unspecified compensation.

CIM, a Los Angeles-based real estate and investment company, had to close on the land before it could begin construction, the spokesperson said. It’s split into a 56,522-square-foot parcel and a 20,980-square-foot parcel, records show.

Joining the rental tower is a second 413-unit apartment building, which brings the total to 863 multifamily units featuring more than 20,000 square feet of ground floor space that connects to Worldcenter’s retail component, according to a press release. That does not include Zom’s plans for a 429-unit rental tower, also part of the $2 billion, mixed-use development.

Both apartment buildings will be a block away from All Aboard Florida’s MiamiCentral station. Seventh Street Apartments was designed by Cohen & Friedman and will include a pool deck, fitness center, parking and concierge services.

Worldcenter’s 27 acre-development will run north and south from Northeast 10th Street to Northeast Seventh Street, and between North Miami, First and Second Avenues, with retail surrounded by residential towers, a hotel and exposition center, dining and entertainment options. Earlier this year, Miami Worldcenter Associates redesigned the project’s retail component: the original design as an enclosed mall was scrapped in favor of a “High Street Retail” layout reminiscent of Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road.

And MDM redesigned its Marriott Marquis Miami Worldcenter Hotel & Expo, which was originally planned to have 365,000 square feet of convention space and an 1,800-room hotel. In response to a shifting market, the developer will split the hotel portion into two phases so that construction financing can be quickly obtained.

Miami Worldcenter is expected to open in 2018.