Related Group to get $23M for Brickell Heights retail space

Carlos Rosso and Hernan Gleizer
Carlos Rosso and Hernan Gleizer

The Related Group has a deal in place to sell two retail spaces in its Brickell Heights development for about $23 million combined, The Real Deal has learned.

Related, which is building the mixed-use project at South Miami Avenue and Southeast Ninth Street in collaboration with Crescent Heights, has the retail space under contract in two separate transactions, according to Hernan Gleizer, CEO of Optimar International Realty and head of the firm’s commercial division. Gleizer represented the buyers in both deals. The transactions will close when the developers receive occupancy permits upon the project’s completion.

In the more expensive deal, a New York investor paid $17.5 million for a two-story space totaling 21,484 square feet, according to Gleizer, who would not disclose the specific buyer. The space will have nearly 9,800 square feet on the ground floor when the project is completed. Related and Crescent hope to finish the development during the third quarter of 2016.

A group of South American investors teamed up to acquire the other retail space for $5.4 million. They picked up 8,015 square feet of ground floor space.

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The developers also have a deal with luxury fitness club Equinox to occupy more than 3,000 square feet at the project.

Brickell Heights “will have great exposure on South Miami Avenue for restaurants and retailers,” Gleizer told TRD. “This is much better than Brickell Avenue, with real street-level retail space.”

Carlos Rosso, president of Related’s condo division, confirmed the transactions. He cited “an offer that we couldn’t refuse” for the decision to sell the retail spaces instead of leasing them.

“South Miami Avenue is becoming Brickell’s own Lincoln Road,” Rosso said in a written statement. “Anchored by our own SLS Lux and Brickell City Centre to the north and SLS Brickell to the south, these seven city blocks are poised to become Brickell’s major pedestrian center. That is why we are bringing chefs like Michael Schwartz and Jose Andres, or brands like Equinox and Soul Fitness Cycle Studio, to redefine South Miami Avenue.”