Rubells add to Allapattah portfolio with former pork processing facility

Rubells appear to be buying the 1.5-acre warehouse property next door as well

The property with Jason and Mera Rubell (Getty, Trulia)
The property with Jason and Mera Rubell (Getty, Trulia)

A former pork processing facility in Allapattah could be given a new life.

Jason and Mera Rubell of the art collector family paid $5.4 million for the former Hightop Products warehouse at 1000 Northwest 23rd Street in Miami, The Real Deal has learned. A company led by Charlie and Marilyn Vazquez sold the 1-acre property.

Stefano Santoro, broker and partner at Current Real Estate Advisors’ Miami office, brokered the deal.

The nearly 29,000-square-foot warehouse, built between 1946 and 1951, has been in the Vazquez family for decades. It last sold in 1980 for $400,000, records show.

Santoro said the Rubells were his first call. He called the deal a “nice, easy negotiation.”

The Rubells, who moved their Rubell Family Collection to Allapattah from Wynwood in late 2019, appear to be assembling more land in Allapattah. Records show Jason and Mera Rubell are managers of an LLC named after the property next door to the warehouse they just acquired. Carrera Family Investments owns the nearly 1.5-acre property, which also includes a warehouse.

Mera Rubell declined to comment through Santoro. The museum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The Rubell Museum was redeveloped on the site of a former food processing complex. The 100,000-square-foot campus features 40 galleries, a library and restaurant.

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Parts of Allapattah, an industrial and working class neighborhood east of Miami International Airport and west of Wynwood, are being gentrified.

Robert Wennett, the developer of 1111 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, is among the developers who have invested in Allapattah over the past five years. Wennett is planning a 1.4 million-square-foot mixed-use development on the Miami Produce Center site that is being designed by architect Bjarke Ingels.

Developer Lissette Calderon recently completed the first of her three apartment projects in the neighborhood.

In 2019, Related Group founder and billionaire Jorge Pérez opened his gallery called El Espacio 23 in Allapattah.