Self-storage firm buys Wynwood redevelopment site in Miami for $11M

wo office buildings and parking lot are on same block as a warehouse Storage Deluxe purchased last year for $49M

Storage Deluxe's Steven J. Guttman with 330 NW 29 Street (Google Maps, iStock, Storage Deluxe)
Storage Deluxe's Steven J. Guttman with 330 NW 29 Street (Google Maps, iStock, Storage Deluxe)

UPDATED, March 24, 10:20 a.m.: A New York-based self-storage developer picked up a three-property assemblage in Miami’s Wynwood that is primed for redevelopment.

Buyer Storage Deluxe, led by firm founder and chairman Steven J. Guttman, paid $11.5 million for the property, which consists of two adjacent warehouses repurposed as office space and a parking lot at 328, 330 and 342 Northwest 29th Street.

The firm does not have any immediate plans for the site, a company executive told The Real Deal. A project of up to 12 stories can be built on the three parcels, according to current zoning.

An entity managed by a Storage Deluxe executive and with the same New York address as the firm bought the parcels from Gabriele Braha Izsak’s Red Group, according to records. A Red Group affiliate paid $6.3 million for the properties in 2016.

Tony Arellano and Devlin Marinoff with DWNTWN Realty Advisors represented the seller in the latest deal.  Jordan Karp with Jordan Karp LLC represented the buyer.

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In April, Storage Deluxe paid $49.2 million for an 85,190-square-foot warehouse at 346 Northwest 29th Street that is adjacent to the parking lot the company just acquired. The two buildings in the most recent purchase total 10,858 square feet, and were completed in 1951 and 1960, records show.

“As of now, we don’t have any clear plans [for the assemblage],” Daniel Alvarez, Storage Deluxe’s director of acquisitions and leasing, told TRD. “Since we own the property at 346, it just made sense for us to buy the two buildings and the lot.”

Alvarez said both buildings are fully leased, but he declined to identify the tenants. The South Florida headquarters for Sonder, a tech firm that does online hotel and short-term rental bookings, occupies the building at 330 Northwest 29th Street, according to the company’s website.

Northwest 29th Street is becoming one of the most active areas for redevelopment in Wynwood. In December, New York-based R&B Realty got a temporary certificate of occupancy for its new mixed-use project, The Gateway at Wynwood. Two tenants, Veru and OpenStore, have moved into the 12-story development at 2916 North Miami Avenue.

Also in December, L&L Holding Company and Carpe Real Estate Partners closed on a 15-parcel assemblage that includes the former site of the Rubell Museum at 95, 81 and 73 Northwest 29th Street. The partnership paid roughly $53 million for the land. It plans on building a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use project called Wynwood Plaza.

New York-based Forte Capital paid $6.4 million for a retail building at 2830 Northwest Fifth Avenue that spans almost an entire block to the corner of Northwest 29th Street. Forte plans on converting the building into creative office spaces.