Upscale stores up prices in Design District

A nearly 5,000-square-foot monolithic building in Miami’s Design District has sold for $10.5 million, according to Chariff Realty Group, who facilitated the deal.

The sales price represents a record value per square foot in an area that has quickly transformed from a hipster outpost to one of the city’s most luxurious locales.

Lyle Chariff, the real estate company’s president, described the purchase price, equaling more than $2,117 per square foot, as “a genuine game-changer” for the Design District, where the recent opening of store like Hermes, Prada and Cartier has boosted interest — and reduced supply — in the midtown Miami neighborhood.

“These are sophisticated buyers with a proven ability to discern trends in commercial real estate that are looking to secure locations that are starting to bring in rents as high a $200 per square foot and rising,” Chariff said in a company press release.

“There is limited space, and there are many other luxury brands looking for locations to have a presence in the Miami Design District,” he said. [Chariff Realty Group] –Emily Schmall