Alex Karakhanian buys dry cleaners building in MiMo for $1.5M

MiMo developer Alex Karakhanian paid $1.47 million to buy a corner lot on Biscayne Boulevard and 61st Street. 

Karakhanian bought the Cleanway Cleaners building with plans to eventually redevelop the site into either retail or a restaurant, he told The Real Deal.

The 2,152-square-foot building, at 6100 Biscayne Boulevard, sits on a 12,679-square-foot lot in the MiMo district, which stretches from 50th Street to 77th Street. Karakhanian said the property would be perfect for a juice bar, cafe or other kind of restaurant, and that it has 20 parking spots, or 10 per 1,000 square feet. Built in 1963, the site is around the corner from the Cushman School, a private pre-K-8 school.

Kristine Flook and Janet Crucet

Ghazala Amjad sold the building, property records show. Urbanize Properties president Janet Crucet and director of sales Kristine Flook brokered the off-market deal, which took about six months to close. It traded for $683 per square foot for the building and $116 per square foot for the land.

Amjad paid $130,000 for the property in 1993.

Karakhanian, who owns more than 10 sites along Biscayne Boulevard, said he’s still actively looking for more real estate in MiMo, but that there are few buildings that haven’t traded or that are not on the market. “The truth is we’re kind of running out of space,” he told TRD.

Karakhanian developed and sold a retail building on 64th Street, slated to house Panther Coffee, in May for $6.7 million after buying the land in 2012 for $1.2 million. Around the same time, the Chevron gas station and cafe sold to a partnership of developers for $5.15 million – one block south of Cleanway Cleaners.