New Yorkers trade Charming Charlie building on Collins Avenue for $12.5M

Updated, 11:08 a.m., Jan. 9: Manhattan-based Jenel Management has sold a renovated retail building in South Beach to a Lawrence, New York-based company for $12.5 million. 

The deal marks a nearly 67 percent increase from its last sale in 2012.

Records show 735 Collins LLC, a company controlled by Jenel, sold the 12,966-square-foot building at 735 Collins Avenue to 735 Collins Ave. Realty LLC for $964 per square foot, which is lower than recent comparable sales. The buyer is led by Avi Solaimanzadeh and Steven Solaimanzadeh, with addresses in Lawrence and Bay Harbor Islands.

Also known as the Lynmar Building, and once the Lynmar Hotel, the property is leased to Charming Charlie on the ground floor and Figuerella SoBe on the third floor, and the second floor, which spans 5,375 square feet, is available for lease. Fabio Faerman of Fortune International Realty/FA Commercial Advisors represented the seller.

The buyer financed the deal with a $9 million mortgage from RAIT Partnership LP.

Jenel Management purchased the three-story Art Deco building in 2012 for $7.5 million and completed a full renovation of the property last year. It sits on a 7,000-square-foot lot with 50 feet of frontage on Collins and was built in 1941. Jenel is a privately held real estate investment company led by CEO Jack Dushey. The firm focuses on retail properties, and also owns property on Lincoln Road.

Renovated Art Deco buildings along the Collins Avenue shopping district have been hot commodities over the past two years. The Victoria’s Secret building right next door sold in March 2015 for nearly $25 million, or about $1,860 per square foot, to Jamestown.

In February of last year,  Thor Equities listed a renovated three-story building at 852 Collins Avenue for $17.33 million, or $1,866 per square foot. Closer to the Lynmar, a two-story building leased to Club Monaco sold to the Riese Organization, also based in New York, for nearly $24 million in September, a price that breaks down to about $2,770 per square foot.