UPDATED, May 23, 10:01 p.m.: Brick & Timber Collective doubled its Wynwood portfolio with a $9 million off-market purchase of a recently completed mixed-use project.
The San Francisco-based developer and real estate asset manager bought a three-story office and retail building at 2724 and 2734 Northwest First Avenue. Brick & Timber Collective, led by partners Jesse Feldman and Glenn Gilmore, paid $900 a square foot for the building. The property the building is fully leased to a bay area tech company that will be increasing the square footage of the building, according to a source familiar with the deal.
The seller, an affiliate of Miami-based Fortis Design Build, paid $1.8 million for the two properties in 2018, records show. The 10,000-square-foot project was completed in March, said Fortis Managing Partner David Polinsky.
Brick & Timber Collective is bullish on Wynwood, having acquired the Wynwood Annex Class A office building for $49 million in late February. Brick & Timber Collective is “absolutely” looking to buy more Wynwood properties, Feldman said.
The firm specializes in leasing office space to tech companies, and Feldman said he’s been scouting Miami, and specifically Wynwood, for more than a year. “We were surveying the rest of the country to decide which market was going to benefit in the way San Francisco has from the tech industry,” he said. “And we landed squarely in Miami and Wynwood. There is a clear migratory shift taking place.”
Feldman said he reached out to Polinsky last year about acquiring the Fortis mixed-use project when it was still under construction. “The building is one of the best assets, in the best neighborhood, in the best city in the country,” Feldman said. “It is a jewel box and it will be an extremely appealing place for tech companies.”
Designed by Florida International University Dean of Architecture Jason Chandler, the building features ground-floor retail, office space on the second floor and a rooftop deck that can be built out, Polinsky said.
Originally, Fortis and the project’s general contractor, First Florida Constructors, were going to move into the second floor, and Fortis was going to lease the retail component. Polinsky said. But both firms expanded more than anticipated during the construction phase and it no longer made sense to move into the new building, Polinsky added.
“We had it listed for lease, and the buyer showed up,” Polinsky said. “It’s a hot market.”
The building is directly adjacent to Wynd 27 and Wynd 28. The latter is a mixed-use project with 152 apartments and 79,500 square feet of office and retail that is being developed by Kushner Companies and Block Capital Group.
Corrections: A previous version of this story misstated Brick & Timber Collective’s name and the titles of the firm’s partners.