DWNTWN Realty Advisors closed a monumental transaction in Wynwood’s history, representing the culmination of many years of organic, artistic and eclectic development efforts, led by many shareholders with vision and grit inspired by visionaries like Tony Goldman.
This transaction, the $44 million sale of Wynwood Annex, underscores a paradigm shift in rates and market fundamentals and sets a new bar for the Miami office market.
Wynwood, a once sleepy and functionally obsolescent shoe wholesale and manufacturing district in the center of Miami, has transformed into one of the most vibrant and cool streets in the country. This office transaction represents a turning point in the market. Wynwood is now accepted as home by the top VCs, technology and finance firms like Founders Fund, Atomic VC, GAC Financial, Ramp Financial, Open Stores, Blockchain.com and Schonfeld – to name a few.
Miami is now regarded as the “Capital of Capital,” and efforts by the founders of these new to Miami companies like Peter Thiel, Keith Rabois and Jack Abraham, in lockstep with Mayor Francis Suarez, has created a pro-business city with inertia and durable momentum behind it. The market dynamics and fundamentals in Wynwood currently are some of the strongest in the country as markets, tenants and cities have rebalanced. Today, decoupled from their old foundations in the pandemic, business leaders have taken a step back to rethink everything. Investors, tenants and employees continue to choose Miami and Wynwood as their home and headquarters because it is an ideal place to live, work and enjoy a great quality of life.
DWNTWN Realty Advisors was retained by Related Group President Jon Paul Perez and East End Capital Managing Partner Jonathan Yormak to stabilize the asset during the depths of the pandemic. Tony Arellano P.A. and David Lerner at DWNTWN led the marketing and lease-up efforts, stabilizing over 60,000 square feet of rentable office area within six months to 100% occupancy, with landmark tenants all new-to-market. This is a departure from historical Miami office norms.
“Typically, we see relocations from within the city as the majority of tenants play musical chairs,” Lerner said. “In this cycle our firm took advantage of changing fundamentals and with our feet on the ground, led the charge outpacing competitive office towers in Miami, pushing Wynwood as the go-to creative office district.”
The lease-up was so successful it attracted unsolicited offers from all over the country. DWNTWN ran a very clean and concise off-market process and connected with a new-to-market buyer, Brick & Timber Collective, who closed the approximately $44 million sale.
Brick & Timber Collective is from the San Francisco’s Bay Area, making its first foray into the Wynwood Miami market. DWNTWN Co-Founders and Managing Partners Tony Arellano and Devlin Marinoff represented both sides of the transaction.
“We are honored and grateful to be a participant in Wynwood over the past 16 years. We are excited to see Wynwood become the go-to neighborhood for technology and modern finance,” Arellano said. “Wynwood Annex is the perfect fit for this San Francisco-based buyer’s debut investment in our market. DWNTWN is grateful to investors like Brick & Timber Collective for adding value to our market, community and the Greater DWNTWN Miami Area.”
DWNTWN has more than $100 million in pending transactions expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, with a trailing 12-month gross sales volume of a quarter billion dollars.
“The incredible demand for prime real estate in Miami is only getting stronger,” Marinoff said. “The pandemic accelerated the city’s evolution into a vibrant, full-service economy and a place where you can work year-round in a pro-business environment. Miami’s ‘secret’ is out and businesses and investors from high-tax states around the U.S. are taking notice.”
Over the course of his career, Arellano has completed more than 150 significant leases in Wynwood and played a pivotal role in the neighborhood’s evolution from an overlooked, largely neglected collection of old industrial buildings, into a vibrant new urbanist walkable city center.
Marinoff and Arellano have also brokered many of the neighborhood’s hallmark transactions and continued to set the standard as market leaders of the Greater DWNTWN Miami Area.