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$40M Whole Foods Project In Miami Beach Gets Green Light

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Russell Galbut’s plan for a $39.8 million Whole Foods Market-anchored retail building in Miami Beach is getting a kick start after nearly a decade of inactivity.

The Miami Beach Design Review Board on Tuesday approved the planned four-story project spanning 199,000 square feet at 1901 Alton Road. Miami-based Crescent Heights, led by Galbut, Sonny Kahn and Bruce Menin, is under contract to purchase the 1.3-acre site from Wells Fargo.

Crescent Heights would demolish the existing single-story building, currently occupied by a Wells Fargo branch. National grocer Whole Foods and a new Wells Fargo branch would occupy 38,100 square feet of ground-floor and mezzanine level spaces in the new building, documents filed with the city of Miami Beach show. The planned project would also have 277 parking spaces.

Crescent Heights also secured Whole Foods as the anchor tenant at Nema Miami, a mixed-use project in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood that will have 50,000 square feet of retail space. In 2020, the national grocer signed a 20-year lease with six five-year renewal options, records show.

 

Source:  The Real Deal

 

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Miami Retail Leads Nation In Rent Growth As Brands, Chefs Follow The Money

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Michelin-starred chefs and high-end retailers continue to expand into Miami as they follow their customers from places like New York, California and Chicago.

The flow of new tenants is pushing up rents to prices second only to New York City, according to a Lee & Associates report, and driving vacancy down to among the lowest levels in the country.

Miami retail vacancy is at 3.7%, 50 basis points below the national average of 4.2%, and the city leads all major U.S. markets in rent growth, rising 11.6% year-over-year to $42.40 per SF, according to a second-quarter report from Marcus & Millichap.

The market “is exponentially better in terms of occupancy and rental rates than pre-pandemic. I think it’s just a different world that we live in now,” said Lisa Ferrazza, the senior director of retail leasing at the Miami-based investment firm Tricera Capital. 

The city’s trendiest neighborhoods have seen the greatest growth, driven by a rise in demand from restaurants and luxury retailers. Asking rents in Brickell and Miami Beach were above $70 per SF at the start of April, according to Marcus & Millichap, and highly coveted space can fetch considerably more.

Ferrazza said her firm has done deals above $115 per SF in Wynwood with retailers looking to capitalize on Miami’s rising profile. She said retailers are bringing flagship stores to the city in growing numbers.

In the second quarter, Ralph Lauren and Amsterdam-based furniture company Eicholtz opened flagship locations in the Miami Design District, a high-end shopping destination that spans 18 blocks.

Lincoln Road, the iconic shopping destination in Miami Beach, landed eight new tenants this quarter, including Cheesecake Factory and a range of retailers selling everything from footwear to candy. The Museum of Ice Cream revealed plans for a 14K SF experience-focused shop at Miami Worldcenter, a 27-acre mixed-use development in Downtown Miami that will host the company’s first permanent location.

“If they have determined that Wynwood or the Design District or Lincoln Road is their market and where they want to have a flagship, they’re usually willing to pay the freight regardless,” Ferrazza said.

Much of the demand for space is coming from the food and beverage sector. Miami now has 12 restaurants with Michelin stars after the acclaimed guidebook announced in 2021 that it would begin rating restaurants in the city. The growth of the city’s food scene and influx of new residents is drawing more star chefs and creating expansion opportunities.

“Retailers are one thing,” Ferrazza said. “The pool of expanding soft goods, fashion retailers is much more shallow than the food and beverage market. That’s really where we see most of the activity.” 

Just this week, celebrity chef Juan Manuel Berrientos opened Elcielo Miami at the SLS South Beach hotel, the second location in the city for the Michelin-starred restaurant. Michael Beltran, the chef at Michelin star-earning Ariete in Coconut Grove, announced in May that he would open a cigar and cocktail bar in Miami Worldcenter.

Some of the new upscale restaurants coming to Miami are aimed squarely at the wealthy new arrivals who moved to South Florida during the pandemic.

In March, chef Shaun Hergatt announced plans for a private restaurant and speakeasy concept exclusively for residents at the Perigon condo tower in Miami Beach, which is expected to open in 2026. Weeks earlier, Todd English signed on to open a private lobby restaurant at the Bentley Residences, a 62-story luxury condo tower in Sunny Isles that is also slated to deliver in 2026.

Tricera is working on deals with chefs from Las Vegas and Boston, Ferrazza said.

“We’re getting a lot more Michelin chefs, and everybody knows how competitive the F&B market is,” she said. “So everyone is trying to outdo each other in the Miami market to have a presence to be talked about and be seen.”

Developers are responding to the strong demand by building more space. Across South Florida, there is more than 3.5M SF of retail space under construction, including around 1.9M SF in Miami as of March.

Miami is slated to see 1.6M SF of new space come online in the second half of this year, following the completion of around 400K SF through the second quarter, according to Marcus & Millichap.

Deliveries in Miami will be four times higher than in 2022 and “may result in some upward pressure on vacancy in the near-term while new stock leases up,” the report’s authors wrote. But with vacancy rates at some of the lowest levels in the country, Ferrazza said the market is well-positioned to absorb the new inventory.

The inflow of new residents, growth of tourism and the business-friendly environment in the state has made Miami an ideal location for retail tenants looking to grow, she said.

“I don’t know where else you would look if you are looking to expand throughout the country,” she said.

 

Source:  Bisnow

 

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Mast Capital, Rockpoint Underway On Nine-Story Multifamily Project In Miami Beach

Mast Capital, in partnership with Rockpoint, is underway on a nine-story, 178-unit multifamily development located at 3900 Alton Road in Miami Beach.

Designed by Arquitectonica, the unnamed apartment community will consist of units ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments sized from 560 square feet to 1,410 square feet.

Amenities will include an elevated pool deck, barbecue area, outdoor gaming area, fitness and yoga studio, resident lounge, coworking spaces and a pet washing station.

After securing a $64 million construction loan from PNC Bank in Nov. 2022, Mast Capital and Rockpoint broke ground on the development in February 2023 and plan to open the community by fall 2024.

 

Source:  RE Business

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NY Firm Sells Miami Beach Mixed-Use Building At 40% Loss

Distressed real estate investor ArcPe scooped up a mixed-use building on the previously popular retail strip of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, paying 41 percent less than the property’s purchase price a decade ago.

Shire Realty sold the three-story building at 826 Collins Avenue for $5 million, according to a news release from the buyer’s broker.

Although the deal comes as distressed sales are expected amid rising interest rates, the Collins Avenue building didn’t trade at a discount because of debt issues. Records show Shire Realty had not taken out a mortgage on the property.

 

Source:  The Real Deal

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Aging Beachfront Condo Towers Are Hot Properties In Miami Beach

Developers are targeting hundreds of aging condo apartment buildings in Miami Beach for acquisition so they can tear them down and build new luxury residential towers, zeroing in on towers approaching a 40-year deadline to recertify structural integrity.

At least eight waterfront condo buildings in Miami Beach currently are involved in discussions for sale to developers, according to brokers and developers surveyed this week by the Wall Street JournalWSJ said developers including Related Group and Starwood Capital Group are pursuing aging waterfront properties in the Miami area.

Florida law requires that 80 percent of condo unit owners agree to a sale before a condo building can change hands, often forcing developers to go through a tedious process known as condo termination, effectively negotiating the purchase of each unit with its owner.

The requirement in South Florida that buildings older than 40 years must be recertified for structural integrity is creating a reckoning of sorts for the existing inventory of beachfront apartment buildings in the area, a majority of which date back to the 1970s or earlier.

The viability of older apartment towers in the Miami area has come into question in the wake of the partial collapse of a 12-story beachfront condo building in nearby Surfside last summer that killed 98 people.

The collapse in Surfside of one of two beachfront Champlain Towers, which were erected in 1981 and found to be in need of significant structural repairs, drew attention to a 2020 Florida International Survey of the coast which reported that much of the ground under Miami Beach is slowly sinking.

According to WSJ, hundreds of apartment buildings, representing more than two-thirds of the inventory in the Miami area, are either approaching or more than 40 years old.

After the Surfside collapse, numerous Florida lawmakers said they would enact tougher inspection requirements for beachfront apartment buildings as well as retrofit funding requirements for condo owners, but no action was taken before the state legislature session ended last month.

Repair costs to retrofit aging condo towers, which must be assessed and then paid by the unit owners, can exceed by far the building’s overall value as well as the ability—or willingness—of condo owners to pay these costs. Failure to make needed repairs can set off a domino effect of assessment defaults, budget shortfalls or building code violations for unfinished repairs.

The best-case scenario for developers who want to buy a condo building is for all of the condo unit owners to agree to sell as a group. Prior to 2007, 100% agreement to sell was required by Florida law. In 2007, Florida enacted a condominium termination statute that reduced the threshold of agreement by unit owners needed to sell the building to 80 percent.

With most of the prime waterfront locations in Miami completely built out and the demand for luxury condos skyrocketing, many developers are offering condo unit owners sale prices much higher than the market rate in an effort to reach the condo termination threshold, WSJ said.

Owners of condo units who are on fixed incomes are confronted with choosing between a sale offer—which may not completely cover their debt on the property—and looming repair assessments they can’t afford, according to the WSJ report.

 

Source:  GlobeSt.

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Miami Beach Leaders Want Office-Housing Towers Off Lincoln Road. Will Locals Approve?

If Miami Beach residents approve, two development projects would convert three parking lots off Lincoln Road into apartments, plus office and retail space. The city-approved plans are part of a larger effort to diversify the community’s economy amid South Florida’s migration of professionals working largely for tech and financial services companies.

Miami Beach voters will decide in either August or November whether the city should enter into public-private partnerships with two development teams, said Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola, sponsor of the plan to build on the three surface parking lots. The city needs at least 50% of voters to approve it. Developers proposed two buildings with 43 apartments, 187,000 square feet of office space, 33,000 square feet of retail and 715 parking spaces, more than double the number of existing spaces. The buildings would rise up to 80 feet.

Miami Beach officials approved two bids in February after receiving 18 submissions. The move comes two years after the commission first issued a request for proposals in late 2020 and later issued a formal call for bids. Lincoln Road Property Owners — comprised of Integra Investments, Starwood Capital Group and the Comras Company — plan to redevelop the lot between 17th Street and Lenox Avenue and 1040 Lincoln Road into two buildings with office and retail space. The Peebles Corporation, Scott Robins Companies and former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine aim to convert the lot at 1664 Meridian Ave. into a building with apartment rental, office and retail space.

“The city is doing everything it can to diversify the local economy,” Arriola said. “We are taking surface parking lots that are not the best use of public land into something that will make it into an economic engine for the city.”

Developers would undergo the site plan and design review approval steps once receiving support from residents, Arriola said. Construction would start in 2023 and the developments would be completed in 2026. The Lincoln Road Property Owners said in a joint statement, “This development will position Miami Beach to attract new businesses, create sought-after jobs, spur additional private sector investment and create new revenue that will enable Miami Beach to continue investing in infrastructure and quality of life initiatives.” The housing piece will benefit the community, Scott Robins Companies President Scott Robins said, because “people want to live close to their office.” Demand in Miami Beach is anticipated to remain high for office space. “The world that we live in is full of risk,” but “we are not talking about a ton of space,” said Bob Orban, principal in the Miami office of commercial real estate market analytics firm Cresa. Businesses will benefit from an increase in the daytime population, said retail expert Beth Azor of Azor Advisory Services in Weston.

Some Lincoln Road business owners are looking at the long-term gain, despite a potential shortage of parking spaces during construction, including V&E Restaurant Group CEO Matias Pesce. His firm owns restaurants Vida & Estilo, Havana 1957, La Cerveceria de Barrio and Cortadito Coffee House. “The shortage of parking may have an impact on guest traffic,” Pesce said, “but we know it will be for the best.” Another challenge would be a lack of affordable and workforce housing, Orban said. Robins said he and his partners are in talks with the Beach officials to possibly include affordable or workforce housing. “For the people that work for these financial services firms that are going to answer phones and type documents,” Orban said, “it would be more attractive in terms of having something affordable close to their place of work.”

 

Source:  Miami Herald

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Miami Beach Mayor Announces List Of New Projects – New Cancer Center, 3-Acre Public Park And Push To Renovate Lincoln Road

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber on Monday rattled off a list of new projects coming online this year — including a new cancer center, a 3-acre public park and a push to renovate Lincoln Road — during his annual State of the City speech.

Gelber, speaking from the stage at the New World Center, announced the development of the $250 million Irma and Norman Braman Cancer Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center.

With Braman, the billionaire philanthropist, and his family in attendance, Gelber showed a rendering of the sleek new building that he said will be an “ultramodern” facility overlooking Biscayne Bay. He also announced the opening of a new 3-acre public park at Sixth Street and Alton Road to be built as part of the Park on Fifth condo development. Other park projects, like the conversion of an old Mid-Beach golf course into a sprawling new park, are expected to break ground in months, he said.

“Our goal: No city anywhere should have better parks, promenades and outdoor spaces than we do,” Gelber said.

Gelber said that in April he will also advocate for $60 million in renovations for Lincoln Road using property taxes from an anti-blight Community Redevelopment Agency, or CRA. Upgrades would include more fountains, cultural event space and a children’s park.

 

Source:  Miami Herald

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Offices On The Beach: Billionaires Bankroll Class A Office Space Near Their Homes

Since the beginning of the 20th century, when developers cleared away vegetation and alligators from a sandbar just off the coast of Miami, Miami Beach has been a retreat for the wealthy wishing to escape cold winters.

But now the wealthy don’t want to just play in Miami Beach; they want to work there, too. More wealthy executives, including those who arrived during the Covid-19 pandemic, are bankrolling buildings and leasing office space close to their sprawling mansions and luxury condominiums. It’s a burgeoning trend that could help change the perception of Miami Beach as a place just for fun and sun.

The city is poised to welcome its first top-of-the-line Class A office projects in years as officials are eager to fast-track office development to diversify the municipality’s economy beyond hospitality.

Stephen Rutchik, executive managing director of office services at Colliers, said the demand for Class A office space is driven by principal decision-makers and their employees who live in Miami Beach and want to avoid commuting on South Florida’s congested roads.

“Living and having an office on Miami Beach is a quality-of-life decision,” he said.

There are 4.9 million square feet of office space in greater Miami Beach – which includes Surfside, Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands and Sunny Isles Beach – according to Colliers’ 2021 fourth quarter office market report. However, only 1.3 million square feet of that are the Class A spaces sought by companies hoping to encourage remote workers to spend more time in the office.

By comparison, downtown Miami has 5.1 million square feet of Class A space available, and the Brickell Financial District has 4.8 million square feet, the Colliers report stated.

Lyle Stern, co-founder of Miami Beach-based commercial brokerage Koniver Stern Group, said billionaires, technology and investment companies have been opening offices in Miami Beach for years, but that pace has quickened during the pandemic. However, hardly any Class A office space has been built since the early 2000s, he said.

“The vast majority of [wealthy] folks who moved down here during the pandemic want an office here; they just cannot find office space,” Stern said. “We are not just talking about someone sitting at home with a computer, but someone who has six, seven, eight, nine, 10 analysts working for him, as well.”

With vacancies at a considerable low in the city, some billionaires have sought to build offices of their own.

Barry Sternlicht, president and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, an investment firm overseeing $100 billion in assets, moved his company’s headquarters out of Lincoln Place at 1601 Washington Ave. after completing a new 144,430-square-foot building at 2340 Collins Ave. And energy investor and Miami Beach resident Wayne Boich is constructing a 15,997-square-foot office at 1910 Alton Road that will include a penthouse for him on the fifth floor.

Colliers’ Rutchik said he is negotiating per-square-footage rents in the low to mid-$100s for Eighteen Sunset, a mixed-use office project at 1733 Purdy Ave., which is slated for completion in 2023. The project is being developed by Marc Rowan, CEO of New York-based Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO), and Bradley Colmer, managing partner of Miami Beach-based Deco Capital Group.

Colmer said he originally planned to build a residential building in Sunset Harbour. But he opted to build a Class A office project when he noted older office buildings in Miami Beach were snaring premium rents “for product that you would typically call Class B,” leaving money on the table for any developer willing to offer more amenities.

“We thought there was an opportunity there,” he said.

Diversifying The Economy

The Miami Beach City Commission already increased the height limits of office buildings to 75 feet on Terminal Island, western segments of Alton Road, and within the Sunset Harbour Overlay district. On Collins Avenue between Sixth and 16th streets, where height for new construction is maxed out at 50 feet, an urban plan designed by architect Bernard Zyscovich would include 75-foot-tall Class A office structures. The city also issued a request for proposals for developers interested in turning three city parking lots and the municipality’s 17th Street parking garage into Class A offices.

Rickelle Williams, Miami Beach’s director of economic development, said encouraging more Class A office development is part of a strategy to attract businesses in industries that employ a high-wage workforce. That includes technology and financial services firms, as well as companies willing to relocate corporate or regional headquarters, or expand existing offices. That mostly leaves out hospitality businesses, known for paying lower wages.

The city’s strategy includes expediting the permitting process for office projects and giving up to $60,000 a year for the next four years to companies with more than 10 full-time jobs that pay more than $69,385 a year. (The exact amount awarded depends on the number of jobs.)

 

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Real Estate Wins in Miami’s Mayoral Elections

Real estate-friendly candidates and initiatives came out victorious across Miami in Tuesday night’s election, particularly in the mayoral races in the high-profile cities of Miami and Miami beach.

In Miami Beach, Mayor Dan Gelber handily won reelection, capturing 62 percent of votes for this third term. The Democrat had tied his campaign to a controversial referendum to curb partying in South Beach. The referendum proposed rolling back the last-call time to serve alcohol at establishments along famed Ocean Drive, to 2 a.m. from 5 a.m.

The majority of voters agreed with Gelber, with 56 percent approving the non-binding measure.

Proponents say the initiative will help curb disorderly conduct and crime at the wee hours of the night.

“They don’t have to have a 24-hour party. Our residents cannot be held captive to a business model that creates disorder,” Gelber said last night.

Real estate is also at play. Endorsers believe the measure will help revive a historic but shabby part of town, and soften its wild-party image incongruent with the expensive condominiums that surround it.

As Miami attracts corporate giants, developers, including Jorge Perez of the Related Group, say Miami Beach has fallen behind, partially because of the perception of mayhem. Related is looking for a marquee name to fill its One Island Park office development in Miami Beach.

Last month, a tape leaked of Gelber talking with unidentified developers about creating a Political Action Committee to fund city commission candidates that support redevelopment, according to the Miami New Times, which first reported about the tape. The mayor also said he could put initiatives on the ballot favored by developers as a way of bypassing the commission approval.

“In politics, money plays a big part …” Gelber is heard saying. “Tell us what you need to reimagine the areas we know need to be reimagined.”

A Political Action Committee supporting the Ocean Drive measure earned donations from Starwood Capital Group’s Barry Sternlicht and developer Alex SapirThe Real Deal reported.

Critics, like the Citizens for All a Safe Miami Beach, say the measure will cost as much as $40 million in lost tax revenue and drive up unemployment, which will only worsen crime in the area.

Across Biscayne Bay in Miami, Mayor Francis Suarez also cruised through reelection, winning nearly 79 percent of the vote. The Republican elected official was a shoo-in, having raised millions of dollars.

Suarez’s crowning achievement has been to rebrand Miami into the “Wall Street and Silicon Valley of the South” by courting companies to relocate while embracing cryptocurrency. Many took note. Corporate heavyweights BlackstonePoint72 Management and Microsoft, just to cite a few, signed office leases in Miami this year.

Developers have reaped the benefits of the corporate migration. Office landlords have kept rates high thanks to the new-to-market demands. Residential rents and home prices have skyrocketed over the past year due to the influx of moguls and high-earning workers.

Suarez will undoubtedly continue to lobby companies — now with voters’ blessings. “Today we embark on a new chapter to finish what we started,” Suarez said last night. (Representatives for the mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The mayoral race in Sunny Isles Beach, a town littered with new oceanfront high-rises, will go to a runoff since no candidate captured more than 50 percent of the vote. Real estate attorney and town commissioner Dana Goldman will face another commissioner, Larisa “Laura” Svechin. 

Down south, Homestead Mayor Steve Losner squeezed out a victory, winning by 68 votes.

Out west in Hialeah, Esteban “Steve” Bovo, who earned an endorsement from former President Trump, won the mayor’s race.

 

Source:  Commercial Observer

 

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New York Developers Unveil Plan For South Beach Office Project

Two New York-based development firms are teaming up to build a Class A office project in Miami Beach.

Sumaida + Khurana and Bizzi & Partners are planning a five-story building with 56,177 square feet at 944 5th Street and 411 Michigan Avenue in the city’s South of Fifth neighborhood, according to a press release. An entity managed by principals of both firms bought the two vacant lots for a combined $8.9 million in June, records show.

The joint venture tapped renowned Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza to design the building, and hired Miami-based Cube 3 as the project’s executive architect.

The South of Fifth office project would be Baeza’s first building in the Miami area, and his first commercial building in the U.S., according to the release. Over the last decade, developers have enlisted world-renowned architects like Renzo Piano, Bjarke Ingels, Rem Koolhaas and the late Zaha Hadid to design luxury condominiums in South Florida.

The proposed office building will be made of white concrete, glass, and marble, featuring high ceilings, open and flexible floorplans, private outdoor terraces and floor-to-ceiling windows. The building is planned to also have a fitness center, multiple food and beverage venues, a large atrium and a private rooftop with water views.

The two development firms are collaborating on a wide range of commercial buildings across the U.S., focusing on office projects, the release states.

Founded in 2000, Bizzi & Partners focuses on developing high-end commercial and residential properties in Europe, the U.S. and Brazil, according to the company’s websites. Bizzi developed Manhattan’s 565 Broome SoHo and co-developed Eighty Seven Park in Miami Beach.

Sumaida + Khurana, which developed condos at 152 Elizabeth Street and 611 West 56th Street in New York, and its affiliates are currently developing more than 300,000 square feet of ground-up residential projects in Manhattan, with a total projected sellout of about $700 million, according to the firm’s website.

Demand for office space is rising in Miami Beach. The city’s vacancy rate was 8.2 percent in the third quarter, compared to 10.7 percent for the overall Miami-Dade office market during the same period, according to Colliers. The average asking rent hit $51.57 a square foot compared to $44.59 for the overall Miami-Dade market in the third quarter.

Last month, Pebb Capital and Maxwelle Real Estate Group formed a joint venture with Miami Beach developer Russell Galbut to convert the shuttered Bancroft Hotel at 1501 Collins Avenue into a high-end office property. The partnership bought the site for $47 million from a Galbut-related entity. Galbut submitted plans for the conversion to the city of Miami Beach in April.

In August, an entity tied to Scarsdale, New York-based Greenacres Management bought a renovated office building at 1688 Meridian Avenue near Lincoln Road in Miami Beach for $49.5 million.

 

Source:  The Real Deal

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