An investment group with properties on Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue just paid $19.5 million for the Via Bice building, adding to its holdings on the pricey retail street.
Via Bice Worth Avenue LLC, an affiliate of the Amirsaleh Family Trust, purchased the building at 313 1/2 Worth Avenue and 320 Peruvian Avenue, Greenberg Traurig attorney David M. Layman said on Wednesday. It hit the market in December with HFF broker Luis Castillo, who at the time said the building could sell for more than $20 million.
Another family-owned real estate firm, Tricony Management, is the seller. Tricony sold the 18,712-square-foot, five-building property for about $1,000 per square foot. Layman said the trust plans to modernize and upgrade the building, but did not know how much it would spend.
Bice is leasing 4,635 square feet, generating about $349,000 a year in rent. About 12,100 square feet is leased to retail tenants, generating nearly $828,000 a year in rental revenue, according to marketing materials. Castillo co-listed the building with HFF’s Hermen Rodriguez and Eric Williams. Castillo could not immediately be reached for comment.
Records show Tricony paid $750,000 for the 24,800-square-foot plot in 1998.
Properties on Worth Avenue “tend to be in the same hands for many years,” Layman said. At least three deals have closed on Worth Avenue over the past decade. In early 2014, the buildings at 150 and 151 Worth Avenue sold for about $2,000 a square foot. With this latest deal, only one property is currently for sale on Worth Avenue. The Tiffany & Co. building at 259 Worth Avenue hit the market in November unpriced, but brokers said it could sell for more than $40 million.
The Amirsaleh trust also owns the building at 90 Via Mizner, in addition to other retail and restaurant properties, Layman said. He declined to comment on the family.
Worth Avenue, which ranked in 2015 as the 14th most expensive retail street in the U.S., is home to Cartier, Tiffany, Chanel, Gucci, Graff Diamonds, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo and others.