Developer Seeks Partner With $250M To Launch Massive Project Near Sawgrass Mills
Developer Joseph Kavana is looking to raise more than $250M to construct a master-planned development adjacent to the Sawgrass Mills outlet mall in Sunrise.
Kavana is looking for a joint partner to build the project, called Metropica, which is being marketed as a “city-within-a-city” and is expected to include 2,500 residential units, 240 hotel rooms, 480K SF of retail space and 650K SF of office space.
Kavana acquired the parcels, which cover about 48 acres at 1800 Northwest 136th Ave., in 2015 and completed the 263-unit Metropica One condo there in 2020. The developer has yet to break ground on the other portions of the project and has been marketing an office building at the site since 2018, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
Now, Kavana is looking for a partner to provide equity for the project, tapping Karson & Co. and Avison Young to broker a deal that is expected to bring in more than $250M for the project, according to a release from Avison Young. The Metropica One condo property isn't expected to be part of the venture.
The development parcel, one of the largest contiguous land sites available in South Florida, is located inside a Community Development District and comes with attractive economic incentives, according to the release.
“In land-constrained South Florida, aggressively zoned greenfield sites of this scale are increasingly rare,” Avison Young Managing Director Michael Fay said in a statement. “The equity partner for Metropica will have the opportunity to develop a ‘city-within-a-city’ with its own center of gravity, making it a true legacy asset.”
The site surrounds the 2.3M SF Sawgrass Mills outlet mall, the largest single-story outlet mall in the country, according to Business Insider. The Simon Property Group-owned mall opened in 1990 and added an upscale expansion called The Colonnade Outlets at Sawgrass Mills in 2006. It was renovated in 2019, when the mall was seeing more than 30 million visits per year, the Miami Herald reported.
Sunrise has drawn significant interest from developers and investors in recent years. In October, Miami-based Circle Capital Partners paid $22.2M to purchase the 144-unit Heron Landing apartment complex. In February 2022, builder Luxcom secured a $41M loan to construct a 235-unit market-rate rental project in the neighborhood.
Avison Young’s Fay, David Duckworth, John Crotty, Keith O’Donnell and Brian de la Fé will work with Arden Karson of Karson & Co. to market the Metropica venture.
