Retailer picks up Brickell building for $5.45M

A national retailer is opening a new showroom in Brickell after it purchased a three-story office building in the neighborhood for $5.45 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The building, at 268 Southwest Eighth Street, has 16,000 square feet and sits on a quarter-acre corner lot.

Alfonso Jaramillo of Fortune International Realty told TRD that an unnamed national brand plans to gut the building and transform it into a glass-front showroom, though there isn’t a known timeline yet.

Jaramillo, director of commercial real estate with Fortune, represented the buyer. The seller was represented by brokerage Esslinger Wooten Maxwell.

This is the fourth property within a mile of the upcoming Brickell City Centre that’s been sold in recent months.

In February, Argentine businessman Alfredo Coto bought a pair of lots on Southwest Ninth Street for a combined $7.2 million. Two months later, Walgreens sold a vacant site on Southwest Seventh Street for $15.5 million after its plans to build a modern-style store there fell through.

Jaramillo said property values in the area are shooting up because of Brickell City Centre.

That factor, coupled with a lack of properties for sale, has brought the average price per square foot to roughly $420 — almost double what it was last year, Jaramillo said.

“People are taking advantage of the momentum,” he said.