Chicago Firm Plans Rentals on Edgewater OZ Site

A Chicago-based real estate firm made its first venture in Miami in a bet on the Magic City’s thriving apartment market and tech industry.

Trilogy Real Estate Group plans to build a 20-story rental tower on a site it purchased in December in the Edgewater neighborhood, and it also just bought an adjacent 0.6-acre property with plans to convert it into a commercial complex. The properties are in an Opportunity Zone.

The company paid $9.8 million for the three lots at 2634 Northeast Second Avenue, and 192 and 186 Northeast 27th Street, said Jesse Karasik, of Trilogy.

The seller of these properties, Y & K Enterprises, is led by Young Koo Kim and Kyong Kim, records show.

The sites are home to a two-story, seven-unit apartment building constructed in 1939, and a small retail property, according to property records. One of the lots is vacant.

Alex Tsoulfas and Jamie Maniscalco of Apex Capital Realty represented the buyer.

The purchase came on the heels of Trilogy scooping up the miniature soccer fields directly to the north of the recently acquired site for $12.5 million in December.

The plan is to build the apartment high-rise on the soccer fields at 169 Northeast 27th Street and 2728 Northeast Second Avenue, Karasik said. Zoning allows 20 stories and more than 190 units.

As for the property that was just purchased, Trilogy envisions either offices or retail, or a mix of the two. This plan is a bet on the growth of Miami’s technology industry, as Trilogy is in talks with a startups incubator, although no agreement has been hammered out, Karasik said.

Trilogy, led by Neil Gehani, develops, manages and buys apartment communities and commercial real estate throughout the U.S., according to its website. It has an investment in South Florida, which Karasik declined to disclose, but this is its first venture in the city of Miami.

“Miami has always been a leisure and hospitality market and has been very good at that, but what has been so interesting is to see the additional diversification of new talent coming in,” Karasik said, referencing the tech industry growth.

In one of the biggest tech leases this year, Microsoft took roughly 50,000 square feet at the 830 Brickell office tower under construction at the Brickell Financial District.

As for the multifamily market, Miami rents jumped 38 percent in 2021, marking the biggest increase nationwide, according to a December report from Zumper.