Beraja family picks up Little Havana apartments

Bar Invest Group sold an apartment building it built in Little Havana for $7.1 million to Beraja Investments.

Bar Invest paid $900,000 for the development site in 2004 and completed the 30-unit building at 401 Southwest 17th Avenue in 2015. Now, it sold the property to Beraja for nearly $237,000 per unit, according to Alfonso Jaramillo of Fortune International Realty. Jaramillo represented Bar Invest, while Andros Sarduy and Giovanni Vazquez, also of Fortune, represented the buyer.

Giovanni Vazquez

The 46,749-square-foot building sits on a 9,900-square-foot corner lot about four blocks away from Little Havana’s main street, Calle Ocho. Twenty-five of the 30 units are two-bedrooms, Jaramillo said.

Beraja Investments, led by Matilde, Roberto, Victor and Esther Beraja, owns and operates about 35 rental properties in the Miami area, including in Coral Gables, Little Havana and Coconut Grove, according to its website. The Beraja family also owns the Beraja Medical Institute, based in Coral Gables.

Little Havana’s multifamily market is seeing increased investment. Earlier this year, Key International sold Havana Palms II, a 79-unit multifamily complex at 931 Southwest Third Street for $10.1 million, or about $128,000 per unit. In April, a group of investors acquired a 103-unit apartment portfolio in the neighborhood, with plans to upgrade the properties and flip them.

Bar Invest Group has moved onto bigger properties. In May, it paid $59 million for a 405-unit apartment complex in Lauderhill. The Miami-based company, led by CEO Jacques Barbera, has invested in over 1,000 residential units and over 600,000 square feet of retail properties, according to its website.