South Beach vacant lot trades, boutique condo project planned

A vacant parcel fronting West Avenue in South Beach just traded hands for $4.75 million, with plans for a new boutique condo project.

Casaluna LLC, led by Boston-based developers Abner Kurtin and Jonathan Seelig, sold the property at 1312 and 1320 14th Terrace to 1414 West Avenue LLC. The buying entity is linked to Spencer Blank of Boca Raton-based Redcliff Builders and investors Axel Knauf and Bernard Petit of Belgium, records show. The price equates to $297 per square foot of land.

Rena Kliot, owner of Pulse International Realty, represented the seller, and Yanarys Fundora, of the same firm, represented the buyer.

Kliot had handled Kurtin and Seelig’s original $4.1 million purchase of the land in 2015, and said their plan was to build a condo project. “They were going to do that and they are just busy in Boston, and — rightly so — thought that one of the partners needed to be present to bring it to fruition,” she told The Real Deal. “So [Kurtin] said, ‘We either need to find a joint venture partner or sell it.'” Kliot said she found both a partner and a buyer, and they chose the buyer. The deal took nine months to negotiate, she said.

The new owners plan to build a 14-unit modern condo building with cantilevered balconies and a rooftop deck, Carlos Bravo, owner of Miami-based UrvanX Architects, told TRD. The exterior is the same that the previous owners had planned, but the interiors have changed. Units will now range from one-bedroom, one-bath condos with 672 square feet to three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath units with 1,315 square feet. The group plans to submit an application to the Miami Beach Design Review Board by the end of this month, he said.

Pulse International Realty will be handling sales. “It’s contributing to the changes taking place at West Avenue,” Kliot said. Among them, Russell Galbut’s Crescent Heights is planning a mixed-use project called the Wave between 500-702 Alton Road and 501-651 West Avenue. And a partnership between Rock Soffer of Turnberry Associates, Elion Partners and members of the Sredni family are building a five-story, mixed-use project with a Trader Joe’s at 1698 Alton Road and 1681-1683 West Avenue.

Closer to 14th Terrace, New York developer Michael Stern’s JDS Development is planning Monad Terrace, a 59-unit luxury condo building at 1300 Monad Terrace, designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Jean Nouvel. JDS is developing the project along with New Valley, an investment company owned by the Vector Group. Sales launched in February.