A joint venture between Deco Capital Group, led by Bradley Colmer, and New York-based private equity firm RWN Real Estate Partners, just paid $7.425 million for a retail building on Alton Road.
The sale marks the latest deal on a redeveloping stretch of the major Miami Beach north-south artery, near the intersection of Lincoln Road.
Miami Beach-based Deco Capital and RWN, led by Ari Shalam, bought 1671-1673 Alton Road, a 7,200-square-foot property on 0.17 acres with three ground-floor retail units and a second-floor loft space. The price breaks down to $1,031 per square foot for the building.
The seller is Alton Florida Properties, led by Miami Beach investor and former mayor Norman Ciment and his sons Ivan and Avi Ciment. The property has not yet cleared records.
The building, built in 1936, is currently triple-net leased to Nutritional Power Center, Naughty Rooster and Masaru Sushi & Thai.
CBRE’s Todd Weintraub, first vice president with CBRE Investment Properties Group, and Zach Winkler, senior associate in CBRE’s Miami urban and high street leasing practice, represented both the seller and buyer in the deal.
“The long-term plans are going to potentially involve re-tenanting and bringing rents up to market,” Weintraub told The Real Deal. Rents in the area, particularly the nearby 1111 Lincoln Road extension, are “north of $200 per square foot,” he said, declining to provide the current tenants’ rents.
Colmer, managing principal of Deco Capital, told TRD that the existing leases extend through at least 2018. His plans, he said, are “at the very least to clean it up and allow for greater walkability and potentially access not only on the Alton Road side but also on the back side facing the [municipal] parking lot, as well.”
For the future, Colmer said there is a possibility of redeveloping the property, “expanding the building or maybe even cutting it back, but making it more efficient in its use of space,” he said. “So we’re considering lots of different avenues.”
Developers have been targeting the strip of Alton Road near the intersection of Lincoln Road in recent months. Weintraub, who focuses on multi-tenant strip centers, single-tenant net leases and urban/street retail, calls it “the epicenter of the expanded Miami Beach retail corridor.”
“For us, the western half of Lincoln Road through to Sunset Harbour is ultimately the premier commercial corridor in Miami Beach,” Colmer said. “And between the mixed-use development already in place and the [projects] going in, it is the area we like most in the city right now.”
Across the street, Crescent Heights, led by developer Russell Galbut, is planning 1212 Lincoln, a five-story mixed-use project that will bring a hotel, luxury retail, and a large indoor food court with a second floor balcony stretching along the 1600 block of Alton Road.
And Trader Joe’s will open its first Miami Beach outpost at a new development called 17 West, at 1698 Alton Road and 1681-1683 West Avenue. A partnership between Rock Soffer of Turnberry Associates, Elion Partners and members of the Sredni family are developing the five-story, mixed-use project with ground floor retail, loft-style apartments and a parking garage.
Deco and RWN are also teaming up to develop Sunset Harbour Residences in Miami Beach, with 15 luxury condos on top of retail spaces at 1733-1769 Purdy Avenue. Colmer said they are redesigning the project, after being shot down in their request for added height in the Sunset Harbour neighborhood. RWN Real Estate Partners as also purchased property in Surfside.