California firm pays $5.6M for building in Miami Beach, plans co-working space

Michael Simkins sold the four-story, 21k building at 820 Arthur Godfrey Road

820 Arthur Godfrey Road and Michael Simkins
820 Arthur Godfrey Road and Michael Simkins

A Hollywood, California real estate firm just paid $5.6 million for an office building on 41st Street in Miami Beach where it plans to launch a co-working space.

Property records show 820 AGR LLC, a company controlled by investor and developer Michael Simkins, sold the Mid-Beach building at 820 Arthur Godfrey Road to Sandhouse MB LLC, an affiliate of RLG Properties, a brokerage and developer led by Rachel Lee Gerstein. The seller took back a $4.15 million mortgage.

The buyer plans to open a shared workspace at 820 Arthur Godfrey Road, listing agent Ben Silver told The Real Deal. Silver and Doug Mandel, both of Marcus & Millichap, brokered the deal. The four-story, 20,915-square-foot building was fully renovated and modernized before it sold, Silver said. It hit the market in January for $6.25 million, or nearly $300 per square foot.

Simkins, an investor and developer, sold it for $268 per square foot. His company paid $3.4 million for the building in 2005, installed a new façade with floor-to-ceiling glass, upgraded the lobby and interior finishes.

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Gerstein plans to open the co-working space, called Sandhouse, by February of next year. It will take at least two of the three office floors and span about 15,000 square feet.

In South Florida, co-working operators include WeWork, Büro and Pipeline.

RLG developed a 15,000-square-foot co-working office space in Hollywood, California called Sandhouse, according to its website. Anchor tenants include Lego and the chipmaker AMD.

The 820 Arthur Godfrey deal is a rare sign of activity on the commercial corridor, which connects to the mainland via the highway, and would mark the first shared working space on 41st Street. In February, the Israel-based Netz Group sold the Sheridan Center at 410 West 41st Street for $17.85 million to a Palm Beach investor. An investor also paid $31 million for a site just off of 41st Street, at 4100 and 4120 Pine Tree Drive, that was approved for a residential development.