SJC, Nuveen drop $32M for Doral dev site, plan Whole Foods-anchored mixed-use project

SJC Ventures and Nuveen Real Estate scooped up a development site in Doral for $32 million, with plans for a Whole Foods Market-anchored project. 

Atlanta-based SJC and New York-based Nuveen bought the 10-acre vacant property on the southwest corner of Northwest 41st Street and Northwest 107th Avenue from Bridge Industrial, according to an SJC and Bridge news release. The release didn’t provide the purchase price, but sources disclosed it as $32 million. 

Michael Finkle of Koniver Stern Group represented SJC, and Mark Gilbert of Cushman & Wakefield represented Bridge Industrial.

SJC and Nuveen plan the 89,000-square-foot Doral Marketplace with restaurants, retail and service providers such as salons and veterinarians. Aside from Whole Foods, other tenants on tap include Shake Shack, First Watch, GoodVets, The Spot Barbershop, Encore Nails, VIO MedSpa and Apizza Brooklyn Resto + Vino, according to the release. 

Construction is expected to start this fall, the release says. The first openings at Doral Marketplace are expected in the second half of next year.

SJC, led by principals Jeff Garrison, Jeff DeHart and Fain Hicks, is a commercial real estate investor and developer, its website shows. It has purchased or developed more than 60 retail, multifamily, office and mixed-use projects across in the U.S. 

Nuveen Real Estate, an arm of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, had $147 billion of assets under management as of the end of March. 

In South Florida, Nuveen Real Estate owns some prime assets and has been on a selling spree in recent months. This month, Nuveen sold a 197-unit apartment complex in Plantation for $49.4 million, a 5 percent discount from its purchase price a decade ago. In Miami’s Brickell, Nuveen sold the 801 Brickell office tower last fall for $250 million and also listed this spring its 701 Brickell office tower for over $500 million. 

The Doral Marketplace development site is next to Chicago-based Bridge Industrial’s 2.6 million-square-foot Bridge Point Doral industrial project that’s under construction. Bridge Point Doral is expected to be completed early next year. 

Doral Marketplace is an anomaly of sorts, as few developers are starting strictly retail projects with restaurants and service providers in South Florida. Generally, retail and dining space are woven into mixed-use developments that also include apartments or condos.