Gramercy Property Trust buys Opa Locka Hialeah Flea Market for $80M, brings in new operator

Gramercy Property Trust just paid $80 million for the Opa Locka Hialeah Flea Market and inked a lease with a new operator, a group of Miami investors led by Chris Kallivokas.

The New York City-based real estate investment trust picked up about 72 acres of Opa-Locka land for $1.1 million per acre, according to a press release. The deal includes the 43.8-acre flea market at 12691 and 12705 Northwest 42nd Avenue and the 28.3-ace Insurance Auto Auctions property at 12700 Northwest Le Jeune Road.

The sellers are Bodwin Ltd. and Seabase Florida Corp. Both are entities managed by North Miami Beach attorney Sheldon Zipkin.

The new flea market lessee, RER Outdoor Marketplace, is led by Kallivokas, founder and head of Coral Gables-based RER Ventures, and includes Miami businessman Rodney Barreto, lobbyist Brian May, and Michael T. Fay, principal and managing director of Avison Young in Miami. Fay also arranged the deal.

The flea market is one of the largest in South Florida, with more than 100,000 people attending every week. It has nearly 200 merchants.

Kallivokas and his group plan to renovate the flea market by making significant improvements to parking, paint, canopies and restrooms. RER signed a 27-year lease.

RER will invest “over seven figures” into the flea market, Barreto and Fay said. They have no immediate plans to redevelop the property, although Fay expects there to be development opportunities at some point over the course of the lease. They declined to comment on the terms of the lease.

Barreto called the deal “an alternative retail play,” and cited the property’s size, highway frontage and central location. Amazon recently broke ground on an 800,000-square-foot distribution center nearby at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport.