Watson Island condo revamp? Developers’ $160M+ purchases of city-owned sites head to Miami voters

Voters will decide whether the city can sell land on Miami’s Watson Island to two development groups in separate deals geared at developing more condos. 

Ecoresiliency Miami, a joint venture between ESJ Capital Partners and David Martin’s Terra, would tentatively pay $135 million for 5.4 acres that are currently part of the 13.3-acre Jungle Island property at 1111 Parrot Jungle Trail in Miami. ESJ Capital Partners owns the Jungle Island lease, and brought on Terra for this latest proposal, as first reported by The Real Deal. 

Ecoresiliency Miami is proposing 600 luxury condos on the 5.4 acres. 

In a separate deal, BH3 Management and the Motwani family’s Merrimac Ventures would acquire 3.2 acres — part of their leased property — for a fair market value of at least $25 million. That deal would include revising and extending the lease for an additional property anchored at 888 MacArthur Causeway.

On Thursday, the Miami City Commission unanimously passed two resolutions approving ballot question wording. Residents will vote on the items on the Nov. 5 general election ballot. 

The developers’ proposals to develop condos on both sites require that they own the land in order to sell residential units. Both groups are proposing public benefits as part of their projects. 

Terra and ESJ would return more than 13 acres of land, including much of the waterfront Jungle Island theme park, to the city to become a public park. The project would “deliver much needed public green space to Miami taxpayers, while providing much better financial benefits to the city,” according to a statement provided by the developers.

ESJ, an Aventura-based firm led by CEO Arnaud Sitbon, secured voter approval in 2018 that amended the city charter, allowing ESJ to modify its lease so that ESJ could build a 130-foot, 300-room hotel, new attractions at Jungle Island, and a retail, restaurant and meeting space expansion. The plan to develop condos would replace the hotel, which ESJ did not build. 

Commissioner Damian Pardo, who sponsored both resolutions at Thursday’s meeting, told TRD that the luxury condos “are really important in terms of boosting revenue to the city of Miami.”

The Terra and ESJ entity would also pay for the waterfront park, at a cost of $37 million, plus $2 million per year with annual cost increments.

BH3, led by Greg Freedman and Daniel Lebensohn, and Merrimac are seeking voter approval to extend the term of their lease by 24 years to a total of 99 years and gain approval to build about 100 condos instead of previously approved timeshare units, as well as add mixed uses like offices. They would make a $9 million contribution to affordable housing, infrastructure improvements and an expanded public waterfront. 

Last year, the developers partnered to take over the lease for about 10.5 acres on the west side of the island. The former developer, Mehmet Bayraktar’s Flagstone Property Group, was tangled in years of delays and litigation with the city of Miami. Voters approved Bayraktar’s deal via a referendum in 2001, but his firm only completed a portion of the then-planned project. 

In all, their Watson Harbour would include two hotels, retail, offices, condos, restaurants and public spaces. The commercial space would be reduced by about 10 percent from what was already approved, according to a news release from the developers.

Read more

Development

South Florida

Back to the voters: Jungle Island owner proposing condo project with Terra

Development

South Florida

“Leave our egos at the door”: Daniel Lebensohn on BH3’s approach, 2024 headwinds

South Florida

How David Martin plans to deliver the biggest project of his career