Avra Jain and Joe Del Vecchio sold a gutted building in Miami’s Little River neighborhood to a group of New York investors for $10 million with plans to turn it into a live/work office development.
AHOS 2 LLC sold the 178,000-square-foot building at 7924 Northeast Second Avenue in Miami, which sits on a 3-acre property, to MD 79th Holding LLC in an off-market deal, broker Devlin Marinoff told The Real Deal. State records show the LLC is controlled by Robert Danial, who owns the Rail 71 retail development with other investors.
Jain will stay on and work on the project, and said she teamed up with the buyers to accelerate the redevelopment. “They’re going to make it happen now,” she told TRD.
Devlin Marinoff
Marinoff, of Whitehall Realty Group, represented the buyer and Metro 1 Commercial’s Tony Arellano, Tony Cho and Alfredo Riascos represented the seller.
The demand for creative office space in the Little River/Little Haiti neighborhoods is high, Jain and Marinoff both said, with businesses relocating from the Design District and Wynwood.
“There’s a lot of work to do to turn this into a completed project,” Marinoff said, citing the success of Rail 71 nearby. The 120,000-square-foot flex warehouse conversion at 7205 Northeast Fourth Avenue is fully leased with “outperforming rents” to tenants like Bousa Brewery and Ironflower Gym.
“It’s a great opportunity to create something really special on that corner,” Del Vecchio told TRD. He and Jain have redeveloped a number of properties in MiMo, including 5555 Biscayne Boulevard and the Vagabond Hotel. Jain was also part of the Rail 71 project early on.
The Little River neighborhood has quietly attracted investors in recent years.
Jain and investor Matthew Vander Werff want to transform a 20-block area located roughly between Northwest 71st and 75th streets, North Miami Avenue and Northwest Second Avenue. Their goal is to turn a place once dominated by abandoned warehouses, rag shops, and storefront churches into “Little River // Miami.”
Metro 1 could not immediately be reached for comment.