Meta Development is planning a boutique lowrise condominium with 36 units in Miami’s Brickell, once it completes its acquisition of an assemblage for a total of $21 million.
The Miami-based firm, which launched late last year, is under contract to purchase a small apartment building at 1880 Brickell Avenue for $10.7 million, Meta President Andrew Rasken told The Real Deal. The developer plans to tear down the apartment building.
Last month, Meta paid $10.3 million for an adjacent vacant parcel at 1870 Brickell Avenue.
Meta, a partnership between Miami-based Lucid Investment Group, and Bruno Benevides of São Paulo, Brazil-based Iron Capital, expects to close on the 1880 Brickell Avenue building and submit a site plan to the city of Miami by the beginning of next year, Rasken said.
Mexican firm Menesse International is the seller of both 1870 and 1880 Brickell Avenue, assembling the properties for $6.5 million in 2018 and last year, records show. Rasken said he was a minority partner with Menesse, which had previously planned a 16-unit boutique condominium at 1870 Brickell Avenue.
Menesse, which moved its headquarters to Miami last year, is no longer involved in developing the two properties, which total 0.8 acres, Rasken added.
“We saw an opportunity and presented them with an offer to purchase the properties,” he said. “By combining the parcels, we can deliver a class A, luxury product that competes with the high-rises in Brickell.”
Designed by São Paulo, Brazil-based Ospa Architecture, the planned condominium would entail two five-story buildings atop a parking podium that would be connected via a rooftop pool deck, Rasken said. Units would be a mix of three-, four- and five-bedroom condos with an average starting price of $2.5 million.
While Meta is less than a year old, Rasken and Benevides have more than two decades of experience as developers, Rasken said. “I was formerly a student housing developer that built class A products for Ivy League schools,” he said. “For the past decade, I’ve developed luxury spec homes in Coconut Grove, Bay Harbor Islands and Pinecrest.”
Benevides’ Iron Capital has built roughly $3 billion worth of large condominium projects in Brazil, Rasken said. “We have known each other for years,” he said. “We came together with an intent on finding a niche in South Florida that doesn’t exist.”
In August, Meta launched sales for Opus, a planned six-story boutique condominium with 14 units in Miami’s Coconut Grove that the firm anticipates completing in 2026.