How’s this for neighborliness?
Betting that there is strength in numbers, a group of homeowners who have watched property values in Miami’s Design District surge in value have banded together to market their sites as an assemblage, asking $18 million.
At that price, the combined 30,000-square-foot property on the edge of the district would sell for $600 per square foot.
Key to the sale: the assemblage can be upzoned from T-4 to T-5 commercial, allowing for up to 81 feet, with 104 hotel rooms, 52 condos and 110,000 square feet of commercial space, Michael Davalos of Fortune International Realty, who has the listing, told The Real Deal. He is co-listing it with Sonia Rodriguez, who is also with Fortune.
The 300-foot by 100-foot assemblage includes six parcels: 99, 93-5, 77-79, 69, 61 and 53 Northwest 38th Street. The properties include five single-family homes and one duplex. The property has frontage along the northern end of the 112 expressway and borders on the east by North Miami Avenue.
A total of seven families have agreed to market their adjoining sites, including two owners of the duplex property, Davalos said. Property records show they have owned their modest homes for decades — as many as 40 years — purchased for $30,000 to $51,000, each.
The owners are all either retired, ex-military or work in government jobs, said Davalos, who met with their children and grandchildren at breakfasts and barbecue picnics. “It’s a multigenerational thing,” he said.
Rendering by Kobi Karp
Getting the group to agree to market their properties and having Pathman Lewis attorneys David Sacks and Wayne Pathman and architect Kobi Karp conduct zoning and land use analyses has been a year-long endeavor, Davalos said. The owners interviewed dozens of brokers before signing the contract with him, he said.
So far, Davalos said he had interest from potential buyers like a Spanish wealth fund with a concentration in hotels. He said he also envisions potential buyers to be companies that want their offices to be visible on the highway.
Miami’s Design District is increasingly attracting major investors. In March of last year, a retail building at 111 Northeast 40th Street sold for $21.5 million to Harbor Group International, based in Norfolk, Virginia. Elizabeth and Neil Rosen, who had owned and operated Carpet Creations in the Design District for more than 40 years, had purchased the 8,794-square-foot, two-story building for $320,000 in 1999.
Other major investors include Brooklyn-based Redsky Capital and London-based JZ Capital Partners who added to their added to their growing portfolio in the area last February, buying eight sites encompassing nearly two blocks for $128.3 million. In all, the joint venture partners have invested more than $233 million in the district in recent years.
The Design District is transforming into a luxury shopping, dining and cultural destination, spearheaded by Robins, president and CEO of Dacra. Dozens of stores are currently open, and a total of about 120 are expected to open on Dacra property by the end of 2017, with another 40 on other property owners’ land, as well as about 10 restaurants, Robins has said.
In addition, the Institute of Contemporary Art topped off a few months ago and is expected to open in late 2017. And Helm Equities is bringing the contemporary art-driven 21c Museum Hotel to the Design District, as part of its planned mixed-use development.