UPDATED, Jan. 8, 3:20 p.m.: Miami architect Kobi Karp bought the Miami Ad School campus in Wynwood, but doesn’t yet have plans to move his firm from Edgewater.
Karp, who owns Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design, paid $6.7 million for the advertising school’s parcels at 588 and 570 Northwest 29th Street, as well as 571 and 565 Northwest 28th Street, property records reveal. They total 1.1 acres of land and 14,000 square feet of buildings.
The total price, which includes artwork the Miami Ad School is leaving behind, is closer to $13 million, Pippa Seichrist, a founder of the Miami Ad School, confirmed.
Jonathan Gerszberg of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller.
Advertising & Design Educational Corp. sold the campus to a Delaware company tied to Karp. The Wynwood school is in the northwest corner of the booming neighborhood, fronting I-95. New development, including Sterling Bay’s 545 Wyn office project, has started creeping west away from Wynwood’s core.
Miami Ad School was founded in 1993 in Miami Beach, and moved to Wynwood in 2013. Seichrist said she felt it was a good time to sell the Wynwood campus. The school will move to a new location of roughly the same size on the third floor of 3415 Northeast Second Avenue. It will relocate in April, she said. It signed a 10-year lease with renewal options at the Midtown location, which is owned by Avra Jain and partners.
The school has about 150 to 200 students enrolled, depending on the time of year, she said.
Miami Ad School now has 15 schools in 10 countries, including Germany, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, and Australia. In the U.S., it has locations in New York, San Francisco and Atlanta.
Seichrist said that the Wynwood property is “wild and crazy and interesting” inside and that the buyer wanted to keep whatever was left. One room, she said, is wallpapered with blue jeans.
“We’re taking some, but we’re leaving some, and excited to create an interesting experience,” she said.
Seichrist’s Advertising & Design Educational Corp. paid $2.85 million for the property in 2013.
Karp, whose firm is based in an office and retail building he owns at 2915 Biscayne Boulevard, said he has not decided what he will do with the new property — including whether he’ll move his office there.
“I like that location in Wynwood. It’s very nice. And I like my space here in Edgewater,” he said. “We’ll have to wait and see what works out.”
Karp’s company has worked on some of the biggest projects in South Florida. Among them: the Four Seasons Residences and Hotel at the Surf Club, Palazzo del Sol on Fisher Island, 1 Hotel South Beach and Panorama Tower.