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Mexican developer-led JV plans Brickell apartment tower

Menesse International makes its U.S. debut, buying dev site for $23.5M

Lucid Investment Group's Andrew Rasken with 143 Southwest Ninth Street
Lucid Investment Group's Andrew Rasken with 143 Southwest Ninth Street (Loopnet)

A joint venture consisting of two Mexican firms making their U.S. debut and a Miami-based partner is betting on Miami’s booming apartment market with plans for a 24-story tower in Brickell.

Menesse International bought the development site at 143 Southwest Ninth Street from an affiliate of Miami-based Habitat Group for $23.5 million, according to the seller’s broker, Alfonso Jaramillo of Fortune International Realty.

Margarita Sanclemente of Douglas Elliman represented the buyer.

The property’s existing five-story, 39-unit rental building was constructed in 1968 on 0.7 acres, property records show. Habitat Group paid $14.5 million for the site in 2018, according to a deed.

Menesse International consists of Playa del Carmen, Mexico-based Menesse Condos; Investee, which specializes in residential development in Mexico; and Lucid Investment Group, the Miami-based partner, according to Menesse International’s website.

The plan is for a Class A building with 350 rental units, ranging from studios to two-bedroom apartments, atop an eight-story podium with roughly 180 parking spaces and ground-floor retail, Andrew Rasken, Lucid Investment’s managing director, told The Real Deal. The Behar Font & Partners-designed project will include a full suite of amenities.

Construction is expected to start in the second quarter of next year.

Menesse Condos, which designs, builds and consolidates projects, has developed in Argentina and Mexico’s Riviera Maya and has a portfolio of 22 developments with more than 1,200 units sold, according to its website.

Investee, which also has focused on Riviera Maya and on Mexico City, is a partnership among Habitania Real Estate Group, Haiat & Amezcua, Grupo Quatro and IDE, Menesse International’s website says.

Lucid Investment has developed projects across asset classes, including student housing nationwide, and also is a brokerage and general contractor, Rasken said.

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This is the trio’s first joint U.S. project. It also is the latest planned for the Brickell Financial District, which is seeing residential development boom alongside an influx of companies that is also prompting office construction.

Ken Griffin is among the tycoons in the financial services arena moving to Brickell. He announced in June his hedge fund Citadel and financial services firm Citadel Securities will move their headquarters from Chicago to an undisclosed office location along Brickell Bay.

In April, the Hollo family sold a 2.5-acre, bayfront development site at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive for a record $363 million to a mystery buyer, whom Bloomberg reported as Griffin and his Citadel, citing anonymous sources. Citadel has retained Chicago-based Sterling Bay to build the new headquarters.

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In another planned Brickell office project, Swire Properties and Stephen Ross’ Related Companies plan One Brickell City Centre at 700 Brickell Avenue and 799 Brickell Plaza. At 1,000 feet, the tower at the mixed-use Brickell City Centre complex would be one of the state’s tallest.

Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group and Cain International are building the 55-story 830 Brickell office tower, which has scored multiple leases. Canadian asset management firm CI Financial signed a 40,000-square-foot lease for its new U.S. headquarters.

More than a dozen apartment and condominium projects are in the pipeline that will add 6,000 units to Brickell in the coming years. Michael Stern’s JDS Development Group and Major Food Group plan the 90-story, 259-unit Major condo at 888 Brickell Avenue.

In March, Property Markets Group filed an application for a pair of residential towers with 803 units, combined, between Southwest Eight and Ninth streets and west of Southwest First Avenue and the Metromover tracks. The plans did not specify whether the 31-story and 46-story buildings will have condos or apartments.

Tel Aviv-based Gazit Globe Group’s U.S. subsidiary, Gazit Horizons, wants to build a 504-unit apartment tower at 90 Southwest Eighth Street that would rise 642.8 feet, which is over 50 stories.

OKO and Cain also are partnering on the 47-story, 135-unit Una Residences condo under construction at 175 Southeast 25th Road in Brickell.

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BrickellRetail Market