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Michael Shvo Plans Second Miami Beach Office Project

Michael Shvo is doubling down on Miami Beach’s office market.

Fresh off obtaining city approval for an office project along Alton Road, Shvo has filed plans for a six-story office building at 1665-1667 Washington Avenue, according to city records.

The Kobi Karp-designed development would have 21,000 square feet of offices on the top five floors, 58 parking spaces, a 1,000-square-foot ground-floor coffee shop and a 5,500-square-foot rooftop amenity deck. The site is just over a quarter of an acre.

The Miami Beach Planning Board is expected to vote on the proposal Sept. 20.

Shvo’s eponymous New York-based company, through an affiliate, bought the property at 1665 Washington for $4.5 million in February, property records show. It currently houses a three-story office building spanning 10,000 square feet. The vacant lot at 1667 Washington Avenue was included in Shvo’s $103 million purchase of the Raleigh Hotel in 2019.

In his other South Beach office development, Shvo wants to build a 250,000-square-foot project that will include retail on the site of a commercial strip at 1656-1680 Alton Road — including the former home of Epicure Gourmet Market & Café — as well as an adjacent parking lot at 1677 West Avenue.

In June, the Miami Beach Planning Board approved vacating an alley to allow the project to proceed. The Alton Road building still needs design approval from the city.

Shvo’s office projects come as South Beach approaches a crossroads. Developers and some city officials are calling for office construction that would help shed the area’s party image. Yet, others are pushing back over traffic concerns and questions regarding demand to lease the space.

In November, Miami Beach voters will cast ballots on plans by two development teams — one led by Don Peebles, and the other by Integra Investments and including Barry Sternlicht as a partner — to build offices on separate sites near Lincoln Road.

Shvo, who started out as a broker before becoming a developer in New York, initially set his sights on Miami Beach’s oceanfront hotel market, with plans for redevelopment. He and his partners, Turkish investor Serdar Bilgili and Deutsche Finance, bought the Raleigh, South Seas and Richmond hotels for a total of $243 million in 2019. The partnership hit rough patches, with heated lawsuits erupting between Bilgili and Shvo. The suits were settled, with Shvo and Deutsche pursuing their plans for the hotels.

They plan to restore the properties and develop a 17-story, 44-unit condo tower on part of the Raleigh site. The high-end Rosewood Hotels & Resorts will manage the Raleigh and brand the new tower.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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Ex-Google CEO Owns Major Interest In South Beach Class A Office Project In The Works

A proposed five-story Class A building that is majority-owned by the former CEO of Google and his philanthropist wife is scheduled to come before the Miami Beach Planning Board on Jan. 25.

Eric and Wendy Schmidt own a 88% interest in 411 Michigan SOFI Owner LLC, the developer of the proposed building, at 411 Michigan Ave. Eric Schmidt was a top executive and adviser for Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc., from 2001 until 2020. Wendy Schmidt is the president of the Schmidt Family Foundation, a Palo Alto, California-based nonprofit that holds over $1 billion in assets.

Lauren Pressman, director of investments for Hillspire, LLLC, the family office for the Schmidts and the Schmidt Foundation, has a 2% interest in the venture, according to city records. Sharing the remaining 10% interest are New York-based real estate developers Davide Bizzi, Saif Sumaida, and Amit Khurana, as well as New York entrepreneur Paramdeep Singh.

Called “Fifth and Michigan,” the planned 75-foot-tall building is slated to become the first project in the United States designed by Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza if the building can get the necessary approvals from the city, including a conditional-use permit from the Planning Board.

According to a memo from Planning Director Thomas Mooney, the building “as presented by the applicant” will be 41,377 square feet in size and include 38,252 square feet of office, 3,2125 square feet of retail, and mechanical parking. The project also involves moving and lifting a two-story structure built in 1933 and turning it into a cafe, the memo stated. A one-story structure on site is slated to be demolished.

 

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