Patience is a virtue.
A downtown Miami landowner apparently hopes so. The owner is asking $16.5 million for a half-acre property it bought more than four decades ago for $225,000. The site borders Miami Worldcenter, one of the largest mixed-use projects under construction nationwide.
Colliers International is marketing 33-35 NE 6th St. for the International Longshoremen’s Association, a New Jersey-based pension fund that acquired the site in 1973, according to public records. The land, known as The Link, is a block from a Virgin MiamiCentral commuter train station and is approved for 396,000 square feet of development, 275 units and up to 60 stories, Colliers noted.
The association uses the site as an office, but a sale is “financially a great opportunity,” fund manager Edwin Stewart said in a statement.
"The area and traffic [have] changed and grown substantially in these last 40 years,” he said in the statement. “The majority of our participants, retirees and staff, live up north and the site no longer makes sense from a logistical standpoint.”
In the past two decades, Miami has become the cultural capital of Florida and a hot spot for international real estate investment, particularly after the housing bust and financial crisis. More than 92,000 people live in downtown Miami, a 30% increase since 2010, according to the Miami Downtown Development Authority.
Domestic demand is largely driving the market now, and thousands of downtown apartments and condominiums have opened in recent years, and more are in the pipeline.
About 5,500 apartment units are under construction in the downtown area, which amounts to nearly a 25% increase of the existing supply, according to the latest report from CoStar Market Analytics. Over the past three years, 7,000 units have been completed for a cumulative inventory expansion of 40%, the report noted.
"As long as the national economy continues to perform well, the long-term prospects for Downtown Miami remain good," the report stated. "The current level of construction will cause some indigestion for the market but will eventually be absorbed as long as owners have the ability to withstand the slowdown. If, however, the economy deteriorates, fundamentals in this area will slip much faster than any other area in Miami."
The proposed $4 billion Worldcenter, along Northeast 1st Avenue, includes plans for two apartment buildings, a condominium project, 300,000 square feet of retail, an office building totaling up to 500,000 square feet and more than 2,000 hotel rooms, including a 1,700-room Marriott Marquis.
The Caoba apartment building opened this year, and sales have started at the Paramount condo. Some of the other projects are due to be finished by the end of 2020, but completion dates for the planned office building and the Marriott Marquis have not yet been announced.
Bids for The Link are due Nov. 15. Colliers broker Mika Mattingly said the site easily could have been part of Worldcenter because its developers were buying parcels in downtown over more than a decade, but the association wasn't ready to sell at the time.
The Link can accommodate different types of projects, making it an attractive play for developers wanting to build multifamily, offices or a hotel, according to Mattingly. In addition, a new owner won't have to wait for the area around the site to develop, she noted.
"The heavy lifting is done," she said in an interview. "Miami Worldcenter is already happening. It's bricks and mortar, glimmering and gorgeous, and it's a reality."
For the Record
Colliers International urban core division brokers Jack Lowell and Cecilia Estevez are working with Mattingly on the listing.
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