A 450-foot tall building in Wynwood? Abingdon Square Partners is dangling that possibility to incentivize a buyer for a blocklong development site listed for $31 million.
New York-based Abingdon Square is telling prospective buyers that a 0.7-acre assemblage at 2200 and 2230 Northwest Second Avenue and 224 Northwest 22nd Terrace could potentially accommodate a skyscraper with 789 residential units under Florida’s Live Local Act, according to an offering memorandum.
Ari Dispenza with Miami-based Central Commercial Real Estate is marketing the site. Abingdon Square, led by principal Benjamin Atkins, purchased the three properties for $5.1 million in 2013, records show.
Prospective buyers will be interested in knowing that they could build a potentially larger project under the Live Local Act, Dispenza said. “The Live Local Act provides for 1,000 units per acre,” he said. “It’s a sea change in terms of zoning and must be featured in any zoning analysis today.”
In Wynwood, the height of buildings is capped at five to eight stories, but developers can go as high as 12 stories in some areas of the neighborhood by offering public benefits. The Abingdon site’s current zoning allows for a five-story mixed-use development of office or residential with ground-floor retail, the offering states. A residential component could only have a maximum of 70 units.
But a project could score an additional three stories and 55 more units by providing public benefits, the memo states.
Yet, the memo primarily highlights the advantages of the Live Local Act, which allows developers to build new mixed-use or residential projects that can be as tall as buildings within one mile. The Abingdon site is within one mile of multiple high-rise buildings.
In exchange, developers must set aside at least 40 percent of units for households earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income for at least 30 years to qualify under the Live Local Act. For mixed-use projects, at least 65 percent of the total square footage must be residential to qualify.
Planned projects that meet Live Local Act requirements can ignore municipal and county zoning regulations and bypass public hearings for approval. The Florida Legislature recently tweaked the law to also allow Live Local Act projects to bypass any local government caps on floor area ratio.
While potential buyers weigh their development options, they would enjoy net income growth from a fully leased, two-story office building with ground-floor retail at 2200 Northwest Second Avenue and a single-story building at 2230 Northwest Second Avenue leased to Dr. Smood restaurant, the offering shows.
The net operating income for both properties is projected at $1.7 million in 2025, an estimated 54 percent boost over the projected $1.1 million net operating income this year, the offering states.
In a statement, Atkins said he’s been an active investor in Wynwood since 2011. “While it remains one of the most exciting destination neighborhoods in the U.S.,” Atkins said, “my focus has largely shifted to growing Zenith IOS, my industrial storage outdoor platform.”
Abingdon Square also owns four other commercial properties in Wynwood, including the building that houses Gramps, one of the oldest bars in the neighborhood, records show.