Make it work! Fabrics store of Project Runway fame buys Midtown Miami buildings

New York’s Mood Fabrics, featured in Bravo’s “Project Runway,” is heading to Miami.

The famed fabrics store, owned by the Sauma family, paid $7.13 million, or about $678 per square foot, for two buildings across the street from the Shops at Midtown Miami, near the Design District, The Real Deal has learned.

Dwntwn Realty Advisors broker Jordan Gimelstein represented Sauma Properties of Miami, as well as the seller, Edith Wigoda. The fashion fabric company plans to open a flagship Miami store at the adjacent properties, at 3550 North Miami Avenue and 24 Northwest 36th Street.

The deal includes about 10,500 square feet of building space on nearly 17,800 square feet of land at the corner of North Miami Avenue and 36th Street. It closed on Wednesday.

One of the Midtown properties was originally listed for lease, but Sauma Properties was interested in purchasing both buildings, Gimelstein said. Companies led by Wigoda paid a combined $3.9 million for the buildings in 2012, according to property records.

Mood Fabrics will be renovating the buildings. The property at 24 Northwest 36th Street is currently leased to Mattress 1, and the main building previously housed an office and art gallery.

Mood Fabrics opened in New York’s Garment District in 1991, expanding a decade later to a 40,000-square-foot space at 225 West 37th Street. It was first featured on “Project Runway” in 2002, and opened a store in Los Angeles five years later.

The Miami headquarters will be blocks away from the Design District, where new high-end stores and restaurants continue to open. In all, Miami Design District Associates, a partnership between Craig Robins’ Dacra and L Catterton Real Estate, is developing 1 million square feet of space and has development rights to another 1.5 million to 2 million square feet on its remaining property, Robins has said.