Aimco plans to list waterfront Hamilton apartment tower, its second major Miami asset to hit market 

Aimco’s waterfront Hamilton apartment tower in Edgewater will hit the market, marking its second major Miami property to list for sale this year. 

The real estate investment trust will put the 28-story, 276-unit Hamilton at 555 Northeast 34th Street on the market this quarter, according to Aimco’s filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. An asking price was not disclosed. 

Wes Powell is CEO of Denver-based Aimco. 

Aimco’s plan to sell the apartment tower follows the REIT’s listing in March of a 4.3-acre waterfront site in Miami’s Brickell. It consists of the 32-story Brickell Bay Office Tower at 1001 Brickell Bay Drive and the adjacent 31-story, 357-unit Yacht Club Apartments at 1111 Brickell Bay Drive. The assemblage, which could be redeveloped with more than 3.1 million square feet in several supertalls, has an asking price of $650 million. 

In its SEC filings, Aimco says it plans to close on the sale of the Hamilton and Brickell assemblage by year-end “if pricing and terms are acceptable.” 

The Hamilton was completed in 1984 by late Carnival Cruise Line founder Ted Arison, with the tower designed to look like a ship. In 2020, Aimco bought the tower for $89.6 million from an affiliate of the Arison family. 

The deal included an adjacent parcel of land and small apartment buildings. At least 26 units have since been demolished, Aimco said in an SEC filing. It doesn’t seem the sites will be listed with the Hamilton, as they are part of Aimco’s larger assemblage in the area where the REIT has planned a new tower. 

After its purchase, Aimco started a major renovation of the Hamilton, which had fallen into disrepair since Hurricane Irma. It faced pushback in 2021 from longtime tenants angered over their lease terminations. Last year, the REIT completed the redevelopment project and leased up the tower “at rates well ahead of underwritten rents,” according to its SEC filings. 

The Hamilton has one-bedroom to three-bedroom apartments, with monthly rents ranging from $3,647 to $8,639, according to its website. The tower also has penthouses. 

The Edgewater and Brickell properties may not be the only Miami assets Aimco plans to offload. 

In its first quarter earnings release, Aimco said that consistent with its “capital allocation strategy, it may choose to monetize” some of its planned projects in South Florida and Aurora, Colorado before it starts construction “in an effort to maximize value add and risk-adjusted returns.” 

The release and SEC filings don’t reference specific South Florida projects. 

In 2022, Aimco filed plans for a 60-story, 241-unit waterfront rental tower on just over an acre at 560, 600, 610, 620, 630 and 640 Northeast 34th Street, immediately south of the Hamilton. (The parcels include those Aimco bought along with the Hamilton.)

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In Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village, Aimco has a 9-acre assemblage that it purchased for a combined $100 million in 2022, where it is expected to develop a mixed-use project. The site allows for up to 1,500 units, more than 300 hotel keys, and over 100,000 square feet of retail for a combined 3 million square feet. 

Aimco has a minority ownership stake in a nearly 3-acre megaproject development site at 3333 Biscayne Boulevard in Edgewater, which also might be on the market. After developer Ben Beitel bought it in 2022, he joint ventured with Aimco, and the duo announced a project. 

Although an offering memorandum listed the site for sale for $75 million in March, Beitel has insisted he is pursuing the project, and the listing was done for “valuation” purposes, he told The Real Deal at the time. 

Aimco declined to comment for this story. 

When the sales of the Hamilton and Brickell assemblage close, “net proceeds will be prudently allocated with a preference for returning capital to stockholders,” Aimco said in its SEC filings.