South Beach office building inks lease for record $92 psf

Deal marks an expansion for NY-based firm

119 Washington Avenue Miami Beach
119 Washington Avenue Miami Beach

Investment management firm J. Goldman & Co. signed a lease expansion at a South Beach office building for $92 per square foot, reportedly a record for South Florida.

The company inked an eight-year lease for 3,318 square feet at the Yukon at 119 Washington Avenue. The six-story Class A office building is being marketed for sale for $45 million, according to brokers involved in the deal. The landlord is Yantra 119 LLC, led by Giulio Rangoni and Cinzia Zanella.

J. Goldman’s deal at the Yukon includes a 700-square-foot covered terrace.

The investment firm, which is based in New York, was previously leasing 1,223 square feet on the fourth floor of the building, according to a release. The building is now nearly 100 percent leased.

Cyril Bijaoui of The Company Real Estate and Amit Egan Datwani of The Global Consulting Organization are listing the building for sale, with offers due Oct. 2. Egan Datwani said the $92 per square foot is a gross price.

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Brickell and downtown Miami have the highest Class A asking rents in Miami-Dade County, according to Newmark Knight Frank’s second quarter office report. In Brickell, the average per square foot asking price for Class A space was nearly $57 per square foot. Miami Beach averaged about $46 per square foot, according to the report.

Though rents saw little change in the second quarter, leasing activity fell sharply in South Florida, according to the report.

Still, luxury office buildings in markets like Miami Beach may secure expensive leases now due to an increase in CEOs moving to South Florida, brokers say. Starwood Capital Group CEO Barry Sternlicht, a Miami Beach resident, is building a new headquarters for the company near 1 Hotel & Homes South Beach, a project Starwood co-developed.

The Yukon, in the South-of-Fifth neighborhood, is near popular restaurants such as Joe’s Stone Crab and Prime 112, and condo towers like One Ocean and the Continuum.

“Some very high-end boutique office buildings on the beach have captured really the top rents because many of these executives live on the beach,” said Tere Blanca, CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate.