South Miami site of Fox’s Lounge hits the market for $7.5M

About a year after South Miami’s Fox’s Lounge closed its doors, the property is hitting the market asking $7.5 million.

The listing includes two adjacent buildings and land in the rear. Known as Fox’s Plaza, the property is being marketed as a redevelopment opportunity in a retail market that has seen significant commercial activity in recent years and has new projects in the pipeline.

Listing broker Marcos Puente of Colliers International South Florida told The Real Deal he’s targeting mid-market developers and “anybody who’s looking to capture a piece of the South Miami market right now.”

The property has 165 feet of frontage along South Dixie Highway and comes with approved plans for two four-story, mixed-use buildings with retail, office and apartments. The existing buildings, at 7435 Southwest 61st Avenue and 6022-6030 South Dixie Highway, could also be turned into an adaptive re-use project. In all, the site has 48,350 square feet of land and 10,830 square feet of buildings.

When owner Rene Dahdah closed Fox’s last July, he told the Miami Herald he was planning to knock the buildings down and build a mixed-use project, potentially with a new Fox’s. The popular lounge, built in 1946, was open for 69 years.

Dahdah sold the Doral Professional Center last year for $6 million, and in May bought a unit in New York’s tallest tower for $9.6 million. Records show he paid $3 million for the South Miami properties.

Rents have increased by more than 30 percent along the South Dixie Highway corridor, according to a press release. Fox’s Plaza is sandwiched between South Miami Pharmacy and the mixed-use building at 5966 South Dixie Highway, completed in 2014. Just east of that property is the retail and office project currently under construction at 5998 South Dixie Highway, formerly the popular New Chinatown restaurant.

On the north side of U.S. 1, a developer purchased the lease for land near the South Miami Metrorail station in May. Treo Group paid $13 million for the site, which has a five-year development timeframe. South Dixie Highway also runs parallel to the planned Underline, a $120 million planned linear park and trail under the Metrorail tracks.

Puente also brokered the $9 million sale of a nearby Wendy’s, also fronting U.S. 1.