UPDATED, Sept. 27, 5 p.m.: The former site of Walmart in Midtown Miami sold for $26.4 million to a neighboring Midtown developer, after years of contentious litigation from residents who opposed a superstore.
Walmart sold the 4.6-acre site at 3055 North Miami Ave for $131 per square foot to Midtown Opportunities, led by Alex Vadia, according to a press release. The developer could bring an organic grocer and indoor and outdoor retailers to the site, the release said.
The sale means that Walmart will no longer build a controversial 203,000-square-foot supercenter on the Midtown site. Walmart first received approvals for the store in 2013, and purchased the site in 2014. The plan, however, drew protests and litigation from community activists, led by Grant Stern, who said Walmart would bring too much traffic to the area and violated zoning ordinances.
According to a Walmart spokesperson, the company decided to sell the site due to such factors as the growth of Walmart’s e-commerce site, the opening of several new stores in the Miami-Dade area and the changing real estate market conditions in and around Midtown Miami. Walmart currently has three stores within 10 miles of the Midtown Miami site.
Midtown Opportunities now owns about 5.5 acres of contiguous land on the site. Zoning allows the developer to build from 24 stories to 36 stories.
Richard A. Perez and Shawn S. Amuia of Holland & Knight in Miami represented Midtown
Opportunities in the deal.
Midtown Opportunities is also partnering with Magellan Development Group to develop Midtown 6, a 32-story, mixed-use building projected to open in 2020.