AMAC scoops up Miami Beach retail building for $33M

UPDATED, Jan. 4, 8:10 p.m.: AMAC paid $32.5 million for a Class A retail building in Miami Beach, near the Sunset Harbour neighborhood.

AMAC partnered with Miami Beach developer Daniel Neary to buy 1800 Alton, a five-story urban retail center at 1800-1824 Alton Road, according to a press release. With 31,840-square-feet of retail space on two floors, 1800 Alton also has a three-level garage with 136 parking spaces.

In a statement, Maurice Kaufman, an AMAC founding principal, said his firm was interested in 1800 Alton because the property is located in one of Miami-Dade’s “most desirable locations.” Kaufman co-founded the New York-based real estate firm with Ivan Kaufman, chairman, CEO and president of publicly traded Arbor Realty Trust.

The seller is New York and Aventura-based Saber Real Estate Advisors, which completed the 110,000-square-foot building designed by Kobi Karp in 2018. Saber bought the property three years earlier for $7.3 million and financed construction with a $22.3 million loan, according to records. The half-acre lot was the former site of a Chevron gas station.

Saber previously listed 1800 Alton for $47.5 million in 2019.

Jordan Gimelstein and David Spitz with Koniver Stern Group brokered the most recent sale.

1800 Alton’s anchor tenant is arts and crafts retailer, Michaels, which occupies 23,000 square feet. Citibank leases 5,000 square feet and Starbucks leases about 2,300 square feet. The retail center currently has two vacant ground-floor spaces totaling roughly 4,036 square feet, the release states.

In May, AMAC bought a multifamily and retail development site in Aventura for $10.3 million, where it plans to build a mixed-use project in a joint venture with Coral Gables-based ROVR Development.

While outdoor shopping centers dominated the biggest retail deals in South Florida in 2021, investors are again showing an appetite for other types of retail properties. Last month, Los Angeles-based Black Lion Investment Group bought the two commercial condos in the Marea boutique condominium in Miami Beach’s South of Fifth neighborhood. The firm paid $19 million for 19,100 square feet of retail, of which more than half is currently leased to RED Steakhouse and KoSushi.

Also last month, Redfearn Capital paid $17.9 million for a two-story retail and office building in downtown West Palm Beach.