Kushner Cos. plans 1,100-unit rental project in Miami Opportunity Zone

Kushner Companies is planning to develop an 1,100-unit apartment project in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, marking its first in South Florida.

The company, led by Charles Kushner, Nicole Kushner Meyer and Laurent Morali, is under contract to buy a site at 2000 Biscayne Boulevard from investor Enrique Manhard, according to Bisnow. Manhard paid $13.1 million to buy the property, which is within an Opportunity Zone, from Verzasca Group in November. Verzasca originally planned to develop condos on the site.

Kushner plans to finance the $550 million, three-phase project through an existing banking relationship and will develop it without a local partner, Bisnow reported.

Kushner Cos. could develop the second and third phases on nearby land owned by Manhard. Between 2017 and 2018, Manhard’s company paid about $21 million to assemble 11 parcels on Northeast 20th Street between Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast Second Avenue.

Kushner Cos. plans to break ground on the first phase, a 400-unit tower, in the third quarter of this year.

Edgewater is in the midst of a building boom. Crescent Heights is moving forward with plans to build a major mixed-use project in the neighborhood on more than 5 acres of land with up to 754 residential units, nearly 269,000 square feet of office space, about 17,000 square feet of retail space, a 38,450-square-foot grocery store, parking and fitness space.

Last month, Kushner Cos. paid $1.1 billion to buy a portfolio of 6,000 rental apartments in Maryland and Virginia from the private-equity firm Lone Star Funds, its largest acquisition since it paid a record $1.8 billion for 666 Fifth Avenue more than a decade ago. [Bisnow] — Katherine Kallergis