Special delivery: Thor Equities lists former Miami Design District post office for $80M

UPDATED, April 4, 7:40 p.m.: A former post office building in a prime area of the Miami Design District is hitting the market, The Real Deal has learned.

New York-based Thor Equities put the 12,972-square-foot building at 66-70 Northeast 39th Street up for sale, listing broker Stefano Santoro with Disruptive Real Estate told TRD.

The 30,600-square-foot lot is zoned for redevelopment into a mixed-use project that includes a hotel, office spaces or both, according to a property marketing brochure. The asking price is $80 million, Santoro said.

“We think [the] site is best suited for a Class A office with ground-floor retail,” Santoro said. “But you also have the option to build a 212-key hotel between eight to 12 stories. We are getting a lot of interest early on in the process, including some new-to-market players.”

Thor Equities, led by Chairman Joseph Sitt, paid $43.2 million for the property in 2015. Completed in 1947, the building was home to a U.S. Post Office for decades that served residents and businesses in the Miami Design District and the surrounding neighborhoods of Buena Vista, Morningside and Bay Point. The post office closed in 2018.

The city of Miami previously approved plans submitted by Thor Equities for a three-story, 57,961-square-foot building designed by Touzet Studio. It included a rooftop deck and 26 parking spaces. The property is also on the same block as Swan Miami, a swanky restaurant owned by hospitality mogul David Grutman.

According to the marketing brochure, one of the redevelopment concepts entails a 100-room hotel with a 40,230-square-foot private club, 32,718 square feet of retail and 228 parking spaces. The site could also be redeveloped into a 12-floor mixed-use project with 158,109 square feet of office, 11,548 square feet of retail and 340 parking spaces.

And a third option could entail a 212-room hotel, 46,776 square feet of office, 7,356 square feet of retail and 238 parking spaces, the brochure shows.

The former post office building is the second Thor Equities-owned property in the Miami Design District to be listed in the past six months. The real estate investment firm is also trying to sell a retail building leased to men’s luxury fashion retailer Stefano Ricci. That property at 120 Northeast 39th Street hit the market in November for $32 million.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the asking price.