German investment fund buys 1111 Lincoln Road for $283M

In one of the biggest deals on Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road, German investment fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) paid $283 million for 1111 Lincoln and an adjacent property.

CBRE Global Investors and German investment firm Universal-Investment acquired the mixed-use parking garage and nearby retail space on behalf of BVK, CBRE announced on Thursday. Developer and investor Robert Wennett sold the 146,327-square-foot property. He declined to comment on the deal.

1111 Lincoln, an award-winning mixed-use garage designed by Herzog & de Meuron Architects, sold for $1,932 per square foot. The Miami Herald first reported the sale, and the South Florida Business Journal reported the price, which has not yet been recorded with Miami-Dade County. It closed on Wednesday, June 28.

Eastdil Secured represented Wennett’s MBeach1 LLLP, Stuart Sziklas, managing director of CBRE Global Investors-Americas, told The Real Deal. The buyer, 1111 Lincoln LLC, financed the purchase with a $66.85 million mortgage from Universal-Investment-Gesellschaft mBh.

Property records show Wennett paid $23.5 million for the site in 2005 before developing the properties.

The 1111 building, which sits at the northwest entrance of the Lincoln Road mall, includes 94,488 square feet of office space, 51,839 square feet of retail space, and a 300-space parking garage/event space. 1111 Lincoln’s retail space has floor-to-ceiling glass storefronts and high ceilings, and the office space features open floor plans and ceiling heights of up to 14 feet. The building’s signature seven-story exposed concrete structure includes retail space, parking and open-air event space.

Wennett recently renovated the lobby and converted some of the office space on the fourth floor to retail, Sziklas said. The developer also made improvements to the alley north of the parking garage.

The deal included the retail space at 1664 Lenox Avenue and 1666 Lenox Avenue, both newly constructed, but excludes the two residential units, according to Sziklas.

In 2015, Zara billionaire Amancio Ortega paid $370 million for an entire block of Lincoln Road, marking one of the largest real estate deals in Miami-Dade history and the most expensive on the pedestrian-only street. A year before that, a six-property portfolio on the Miami Beach block sold for $342 million.

The 1111 Lincoln sale could be considered a sign of optimism after nearly two years since Ortega picked up the Nike and Apple-anchored block. The leasing market has softened since then, with rents and demand on the decline.

CBRE Global Investors and Universal-Investment have no immediate plans to buy more South Florida property on behalf of BVK, but are “always looking for top quality assets,” Sziklas said.

“Retail in general has seen some negative press [lately],” he added. “But if you walk down Lincoln Road, the foot traffic is incredible. The sales are great … We saw some opportunity there.”