Melo Group pays $17M for assemblage north of downtown Miami

Properties are on North Miami Avenue, 13th Street

1301 North Miami Avenue with Martin Melo and Carlos Melo (Google Maps)
1301 North Miami Avenue with Martin Melo and Carlos Melo (Google Maps)

The Melo Group is continuing to invest in Greater Downtown Miami, likely with plans for another rental development.

The Miami-based company, led by Jose Luis Ferreira de Melo, Martin Melo and Carlos Melo, paid $16.5 million for an assemblage near Melo’s Art Plaza and Square Station apartment towers in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District, The Real Deal has learned.

The Robin H. Greene Trust sold 1301 North Miami Avenue and 1304 North Miami Court, totaling 17,340 square feet of land. Art Center LLC and Art Center Developers LLC, led by Randy Levine, sold 1312, 1326 and 1334 Northeast Miami Court, totaling 17,660 square feet.

Joel Rodriguez of Global Investments Realty brokered the deal for the 35,000-square-foot assemblage. It is west of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

The properties are zoned T6-24-A, which means Melo could build a 24-story building or taller with bonuses.

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Melo Group, which declined to comment on its plans for the site, has been incredibly active in the area stretching from downtown Miami to Edgewater. It has built 6,000 condo and rental units throughout Greater Downtown Miami and has 2,500 units in development. The company has been successful so far with its market-rate rental towers, leasing up quickly and securing long-term debt.

Earlier this year, Melo closed on a $99 million refinancing for Miami Plaza, a 425-unit tower at 1500 Northeast Miami Place.

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In 2019, Melo secured a $142 million refinancing for Art Plaza, a 667-unit apartment project at 58 Northeast 14th Street in 2019. A year earlier, it closed a similar loan for Square Station, a two-tower, 710-unit apartment development at 1424 Northeast Miami Place. Both have ground-floor retail space.

In June, Melo launched sales of Aria Reserve Miami, a two-tower, roughly 800-unit luxury condo project planned for 711 Northeast 23rd Terrace in Edgewater that was previously called Island Bay.