Venezuelan investors complete Calle Ocho assemblage

A group of Venezuelan investors has closed on the final portion of a land assemblage in Little Havana, bringing its total to nearly $9 million. 

Auyantepuy Investments LLC in late December paid $3.35 million for the properties at 901 and 925 Southwest Eighth Street in Miami. The company, controlled by Adriana Josefina Pena Borges, Maria Gabriela Davila, Juan Fernando Soto and others, purchased 939, 955 and 965 Southwest Eighth Street and 922 Southwest Seventh Street in March 2016 for $5.4 million, records show.

Marcus & Millichap’s vice president of investments Landy Toledo and associate Jonathan De La Rosa listed the properties. They declined to identify the buyers, but said they are Venezuelan investors who have been investing in Miami for the past 30 years. Toledo represented the buyers along with Esmir Palacios of the Keyes Company.

“They’ve seen the uptick in the movement westward from the Brickell Financial District,” Toledo told The Real Deal.

The combined $8.75 million price tag for the 61,678-square-foot assemblage breaks down to about $142 per square foot, which De La Rosa said is a record for that area, with the exception of a property at the intersection of Eighth Street and Fourth Avenue that sold for $253 per square foot, but that was “right off I-95,” he said.

Many investors and developers are looking to cash in on Little Havana‘s proximity to Brickell, and are encouraged by the $89 million sale of the newly built InTown apartment complex in November. Astor Companies paid $5.4 million for the development site at 1900 Southwest Eighth Street in 2011, and sold the completed tower to Greystar late last year. “When they see that kind of sale, you can imagine what is expected,” Toledo said.

In 2015, a neighborhood supermarket in East Little Havana with similar zoning as the latest assemblage sold for $1.06 million. That property, near Ball & Chain, Azucar Ice Cream and Domino Park, sold for about $100 per square foot, based on land value.

De La Rosa said retail rents on Calle Ocho in Brickell are now pushing north of $100 per square foot, triple net, making the $25 to $30 per square foot in Little Havana appealing to tenants being priced out of Brickell.

The property, which has 400 feet of frontage on Eighth Street, could be developed into 200 units and eight stories, or up to 12 with public benefits. Toledo said the buyer is not flipping the assemblage, but hasn’t yet determined what they will build on the land. He said his client is always looking for well-positioned opportunities, including more land in Little Havana.