Masaveu Real Estate US beefed up a West Brickell development site after purchasing an adjacent property for $15.5 million.
An affiliate of Masaveu, the American arm of Spanish conglomerate Corporacion Masaveu, led by Chairman Fernando Masaveu Herrero, acquired a 0.3-acre parcel with a three-story commercial building at 268 Southwest Eighth Street in Miami, records and real estate database Vizzda show.
Completed in 1964, the vacant 16,815-square-foot building was previously leased to Okey Dokey food hall. The seller, an entity managed by Nathanael Cohen and Yonel Fellous in Miami, evicted Okey Dokey in February, court records show.
Cohen and Fellous own Miami-based luxury furniture retailer Modani Furniture with a celebrity clientele that includes Lady Gaga and Lebron James, according to published reports. In 2015, the pair’s entity paid $5.5 million for the West Brickell property, records show.
Masaveu also owns a neighboring nearly half-acre lot at 242 and 250 Southwest Eighth Street. The firm bought the property for $14.7 million in 2022, and last year Masaveu demolished two small commercial buildings that were on the site, records show.
Masaveu representatives declined to comment about the company’s development plans. The firm’s nearly 0.8-acre assemblage is zoned for 150 units per acre and for projects up to 48 stories in height. Masaveu is also seeking to boost the density of the lot acquired in 2022 through a transfer of air development rights deal.
The city of Miami has a process that allows the owners of commercial properties that have been designated historic or are within historic city districts to sell the air rights above their buildings to developers seeking to increase the number of units and floor-to-area ratio of planned projects on properties zoned for high-rise development.
Dr. Just Brahmatewari, the owner of a one-story retail building in Miami’s historic MiMo District, transferred air rights in December representing 22,050 square feet and 48 condo or apartment units to the Masaveu entity that owns the half-acre lot on Southwest Eighth Street, records show. The sale price is not disclosed in the deed. Masaveu’s U.S. portfolio consists of two hotels in southern California, two office buildings in Washington D.C., an office building in Houston and Courvoisier Centre, an office project in Brickell Key. In 2014, Masaveu paid $146 million for the two-building property.