Turkish firm pays Miami church $18.1M for development site

A Turkish company paid $18.1 million for part of a parking lot near the historic Central Baptist Church in Miami.

Istanbul-based Okan Group plans to build a mixed-use development on the 37,500-square-foot site.

Okan bought part of the church’s parking lot, not the church itself, a neo-classical structure at 501 North Miami Avenue with a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Engin Yergin and Steven Brodsky of Common Capital Partners represented Okan in the $18.1 million transaction. Joel Rodriguez of Global Investments Realty represented the church.

Yergin told the South Florida Business Journal the 37,500-square-foot site is zoned for a 1,000-foot-tall building and could have as much as 1.3 million square feet of space for retail stores, offices, hotel rooms and condos.

Yergin also told the business journal that the site’s location is “the epicenter of future development in Miami.” It is just south of the 27-acre Miami Worldcenter mixed-use development and several blocks east of the site of a Brightline and TriRail passenger train station now under construction. [South Florida Business Journal] — Mike Seemuth