Baron Property Group has taken full control of two apartment projects in Hialeah and near Coral Gables after buying out its partner, MG Developer.
“We made a deal that made sense for the both of us,” Matthew Baron, president of his eponymous New York-based firm, told The Real Deal. “Both sides were happy with it. And the buyout doesn’t change the timeline for either project.”
In a statement, Giovanni Insignares, an MG Developer vice-president, said the Coral Gables-based firm’s “decision to divest its interest in the Metro Parc North and Merrick Parc projects represents a strategic shift, enabling the reallocation of resources toward future developments within Hialeah.”
Both firms declined comment on how much Baron paid to buy out MG’s 50 percent stake in Metro Parc North, a planned 10-story building with 620 apartments in Hialeah, and Merrick Parc, a planned 806-unit multifamily complex comprised of two 31-story towers near Coral Gables.
The firms are still partners in Metro Parc, a planned 10-story building with 559 apartments currently under construction near the development site for Metro Parc North, Baron said. The Hialeah projects and Merrick Parc will have units set aside for workforce housing,
Baron Property and MG, led by CEO Alirio Torrealba, began working together four years ago when his firm had just entered the South Florida market and needed a local partner to get a lay of the land, Baron said.
“We have been developing multifamily buildings for 20 years in New York,” Baron said. “We wanted to break into Miami, but we didn’t have an office and we didn’t have a team down there. That was initially the reason for partnering with MG.”
When fully completed, Metro Parc and Metro Parc North will span 2.3 million square feet with a total construction cost of $600 million, Baron said. The entire development, which is adjacent to a Metrorail and Tri-Rail train station, has been dubbed Metro Center.
Merrick Parc is still in the planning phase. Baron has a pending site plan application with Miami-Dade County to approve the two 31-story towers. The project will also have 17,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, an 865-space garage and over 60,000 square feet of open space.
“We are big believers in workforce housing and transit-oriented development, which is what we have done up in Long Island City,” Baron said. “When I saw Hialeah, it reminded me in a lot of ways of Long Island City with its access to mass transit.”