Condo buyout fever is creeping deeper into Coconut Grove, where a pair of Miami firms paid a combined $27.7 million for a majority of units in an aging complex.
Miami-based Canero Group, led by Jose Canero Sr. and Jose Canero Jr., and Miami-based 8K Capital, led by Alexander Levin, acquired 59 of the 66 units in the Virginia Pointe Condominium at 3245 Virginia Street, records and real estate database Vizzda show. The joint venture paid an average of $470,000 per unit.
The 1966-built Virginia Pointe is near the Grove’s business district, and most of the units carried Miami-Dade County taxable values below $300,000, underscoring the premium that Canero and 8K paid to assemble control of the building. The joint venture does not have any immediate plans to redevelop the site and will convert the property into rentals, Canero said in a statement.
Virginia Pointe marks the second bulk purchase for Canero in less than a year as South Florida’s condo buyout market heats up. In May, the firm bought out the neighboring Chateau Grove Condominium at 3265 Virginia Street for $17.2 million. The firm paid an average of $688,000 per unit for the 25-unit condo. Canero also converted that complex into rentals.
The Virginia Pointe deal lands amid intensifying pressure on condo owners in older buildings across South Florida, who are grappling with ballooning costs tied to stricter structural inspections, repairs and reserve funding requirements adopted after the Surfside condo collapse in 2021.
Aventura-based BH Group is targeting another Coconut Grove site. In January, the firm sent out letters to unit owners at the Mutiny, a 170-unit condo-hotel built in the 1960s, dangling a $160 million bulk buyout.
In West Palm Beach, Gilbert Benhamou’s Immocorp and O.D. Kobo’s BEKO Equities have proposed a roughly $430 million buyout of the Portofino South and Flagler Yacht Club condominiums. The joint venture is offering about $2.4 million per unit, among the priciest bulk bids in West Palm Beach.
Also in West Palm, Nadim Ashi’s Fort Partners finalized a $100 million buyout of the Harbor Towers at 3901 South Flagler Drive, with sellers walking away at about $1.4 million per unit. Fort is moving ahead with terminating the condo after a bruising legal battle with billionaire Steve Ross’ Related Ross for the waterfront two-building complex ended with a settlement.
Separately, Related Ross in January acquired 27 units at the neighboring Southbridge condominium for $25.4 million, or about $829,000 per unit. Related Ross now controls 45 out of 63 condos at Southbridge.