PMG sells its last Johnson & Wales University property in $11M flip

Buyer Tate Capital leased the three-story building to city of North Miami

1600 Northeast 126th Street and Tate Capital’s Kenny Tate and Jimmy Tate (Google Maps, Tate Capital)
1600 Northeast 126th Street and Tate Capital’s Kenny Tate and Jimmy Tate (Google Maps, Tate Capital)

Property Markets Group sold the last property it owned at the Johnson & Wales University campus, less than a year after it bought portions of the shuttered school in North Miami.

PMG flipped the building at 1600 Northeast 126th Street for $10.7 million, or more than double the $4.5 million it had paid in July, records show.

Buyer Tate Capital leased the three-story building, which served as JWU’s recreation center, to the city of North Miami under a 15-year term, the company’s president, Jimmy Tate, told The Real Deal. The city has the right to buy the building in the third year.

Called the Wildcat Center in an homage to JWU’s mascot, the building includes basketball courts, a gym, locker rooms, an auditorium and offices, Tate said. North Miami could use the building as a recreation and events center, he added.

The Senator Gwen Margolis Community Center, at 1590 Northeast 123rd Street, was built in 1974, according to property records. By contrast, the Wildcat Center was completed in 2012.

The city’s parks department did not immediately return a request for comment on how it will use the building.

JWU, a nonprofit tourism and hospitality school based in Providence, Rhode Island, closed its North Miami and Denver campuses after completing the 2022-21 academic year. Its campuses in Providence and in Charlotte, North Carolina, remain open.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

JWU sold its North Miami properties west of Biscayne Boulevard and north of Northeast 123rd Terrace in several deals to various buyers.

PMG, which has offices in Miami and Manhattan, had paid $2.5 million for six campus properties in July, and then flipped three of them for $10 million in October to an affiliate of Chicago-based commercial real estate developer Golub.

PMG – led by Kevin Maloney, Ryan Shear and Dan Kaplan – originally seemed like it would be redeveloping parts of the campus, as Bilzin Sumberg attorneys had registered as PMG lobbyists in connection to land use and zoning, TRD reported.

PMG declined comment on its latest sale, except to say through a spokesperson that it no longer owns JWU parcels.

Mater Academy Foundation, which is tied to Mater Academy Charter Schools, also bought four JWU properties for a combined $16.8 million in July, records show. It opened a K-12 charter school in at least one of these properties, the building at 12900 Northeast 17th Avenue, according to the school’s website.

Also, developer Yoram Izhak’s IMC Equity Group bought a JWU dorm, golf management center and other properties for a combined $21 million in July.