Fresh off winning approval for a Miami Beach condo project, Northlink Capital bought a Hallandale Beach development site for $26 million.
An entity with the same corporate address as the New York-based real estate development and investment firm acquired the 1.5 acre-property at 900 South Federal Highway, records show. The buyer took out a $15.6 million loan with Hotowers Capital, an affiliate of the seller, LeaseFlorida, according to records.
Samuel Heskiel and Marilina Apfelbaum with Beachfront Realty represented Northlink. Alan Waserstein, a principal with LeaseFlorida, represented his firm’s selling entity.
In 2019, LeaseFlorida obtained city of Hallandale Beach approval to build a $131.6 million, 23-story mixed-use project with 320 apartments, a 140-room hotel, 5,469 square feet of retail and 580 parking spaces. Across the street from the Village at Gulfstream Park, the site is in an Opportunity Zone, a federally designated area that grants investors capital gains tax breaks for investing in distressed neighborhoods.
Miami Lakes-based LeaseFlorida assembled the land for $1.5 million in 2001, records show. In an email, Waserstein said the property was on the market for 18 months, and that the buyer’s brokers reached out to him.
Northlink, led by President Robert Rosenthal, and LeaseFlorida entered into a purchase agreement about three months ago, Heskiel said. “I contacted Robert and suggested he should buy this deal,” Heskiel said. “When the sellers got back to us, they wanted $26 million. We said okay.”
Northlink intends to move forward with the approved plans, Heskiel said. “It sold at that price because the site is ready to be built,” he said. “It’s the easiest way to sell the land because developers don’t have to wait a year for approvals and go through the risk of the market changing.”
Earlier this month, the Miami Beach Design Review Board approved Northlink’s 72 Collins Condominium, an 11-story condo and co-living project on the site of a former Denny’s in the city’s North Beach neighborhood. Northlink paid $17.3 million for the site in a foreclosure sale, according to records.
Northlink is an affiliate of Hampshire Properties, a New York family office that owns and manages more than $2 billion of real estate across North America, including 10,000 apartment units and more than 2 million commercial square feet, according to the firm’s website.