This Week’s South Florida Deal Sheet: Nick Jonas Plans Tequila Bar At Miami Worldcenter

Singer Nick Jonas and menswear designer John Varvatos are planning to open a 13K SF rooftop bar at Miami Worldcenter called Villa One Tequila Gardens, according to a release. 

The bar is set to open in 2025 atop 150 NE Eighth St., a mid-rise retail building known as the Jewel Box with 80K SF. The bar, designed by Mexico City-based KOM Studio, will serve over 150 tequila and mezcal options along with Baja-style Mexican food. 

A tequila sommelier will be available to patrons in a main dining room and a tequila tasting room and speakeasy will be operated by a yet-to-be-announced nightlife brand. 

It will be the fourth location for Villa One, which has a San Diego restaurant in operation, a planned location in Los Angeles and a pop-up restaurant in Las Vegas. 

Development of the 27-acre Miami Worldcenter is being led by master developers Art Falcone of Falcone Group and Nitin Motwani, managing partner of Merrimac Ventures, in partnership with Los Angeles-based CIM Group. The total property includes 300K SF of retail space that was 93% leased as of February, according to the release. 

LEASES

Corient, a wealth management firm and subsidiary of Toronto-based CI Financial Corp., leased an additional 18K SF at the under-construction 830 Brickell office tower, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

Formerly known as CI Private Wealth, Corient signed the 42nd-floor lease late last year, Avison Young principal Donna Abood told the SFBJ. The wealth management firm had previously leased space on the 48th and 49th floors in 2022, bringing its total footprint at the tower to just under 56K SF. 

Corient, which currently has its headquarters at One Biscayne Tower in Downtown Miami, plans to move into the property next year. 830 Brickell topped out in June 2022 and was slated to open its doors by the end of last year but remains under construction. 

Donna Abood, Joe Abood, Mark Robbins and Peyton Dowd at Avison Young represented Corient in the lease. A Cushman & Wakefield team of Brian Gale, Ryan Holtzman and Andrew Trench handle leasing at 830 Brickell, which is being developed by Cain International and OKO Group. 

CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

MG Developer and Baron Property Group proposed an 806-apartment development called Merric Parc that would span a full block between Shipping Avenue and Orange Street near Coconut Grove, The Real Deal reported.

Merric Park would include two 31-story towers, 17K SF of ground-floor commercial space and an 865-space parking garage. Coral Gables-based MG Developer and New York-based Baron filed a pre-application with Miami-Dade County in late January for the transit-oriented development near the Douglas Road Metrorail station. 

MG Developer acquired a portion of the 2-acre site in May for $19.5M and Baron paid $16M for the remaining lots four months later, TRD reported. The developers had originally planned a 450-unit apartment development on the site and secured $24M in debt for the project from New York-based S3 Capital. 

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New York-based Landau Properties broke ground on Indian Creek Residences & Yacht Club on the south shore of Miami’s Bay Harbour Islands, according to a release. 

The project, located at 9110 W. Bay Harbor Drive, includes nine condos with prices starting at $5.6M. The eight-story building was designed by Miami-based Kobi Karp with interior design from Zarifi Design. It includes six yacht slips and has condos ranging from three to five bedrooms, with the largest units spanning 5.6K SF.  

The property overlooks Indian Creek, an island enclave known as Billionaire Bunker that has attracted some of Miami’s wealthiest residents, including Jeff Bezos and Carl Ichan. 

Miami-based lender BridgeInvest provided a $29M loan in August to build the condos. Landau paid $8.5M for the site in September 2022, property records indicate. 

FINANCING

Barrington Bros., a family-owned developer based in Miami, secured $61M in construction takeout refinancing for The Kavista, a 282-apartment development in Miami’s El Portal neighborhood, according to a release. London-based Värde Partners provided the two-year, floating rate loan. 

The Kavista, located at 495 NE 83rd St., is slated to deliver this month with apartments ranging from one to three bedrooms across eight stories. Amenities include a pool deck, coworking lounge, theater and fitness center.  

Barrington Bros. was represented by a JLL capital markets debt advisory team led by brokers Melissa Rose and Michael DiCosimo and analyst Maddy McMillen. 

The debt likely replaces a $60M construction loan provided by Trez Capital in early 2022. The developer acquired the site in 2013 across two transactions totaling $1.2M, property records indicate. 

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Boynton Beach-based real estate lender Forman Capital provided a $12.7M construction loan for a 28-unit small-bay warehouse project next to the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 70K SF property is being built by E&M Warehouse II, a partnership between Robert Moss, the founder of the Fort Lauderdale-based construction firm Moss & Associates, and Paul Ergon, a Fort Lauderdale-based developer. 

The project, known as Racetrack Toy Collection, will be made up of two single-story buildings with bays ranging from 2K SF to 4K SF on the corner of SW 336th Street and SW 142nd Avenue. The units are for sale, with prices starting at $656K, and more than one-third have been sold, according to the release. The project includes 80 parking spaces and is expected to deliver in September. 

SALES

Fort Lauderdale-based ICS Real Estate paid a combined $15M to two sellers for a four-building portfolio of small-bay warehouses in Margate and Pompano Beach, according to a release and the South Florida Business Journal. 

An affiliate of Fort Lauderdale-based Infinity Properties USA sold two buildings totaling 28K SF at 5431-5441 NW 15th St. in Margate. Two Pompano Beach properties totaling 44K SF at 2003-2033 W. McNab Road were sold by Cooper Commerce Center LLC, a partnership between Infinity and Delray Beach-based Mindful Capital Group. 

The deal breaks down to about $205 per SF. 

Greg Miller, Scott O’Donnell, Dominic Montazemi, Mike Ciadella and Miguel Alcivar represented the buyer and sellers in the transactions. 

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Indigo Research and Health Center paid $11.7M for a two-story office building on 2 acres at 8181 NW 154th St. in Miami Lakes, Commercial Observer reported. The Hialeah-based clinical research firm plans to occupy part of the 60K SF building, Fortune Christie’s Real Estate broker Ricardo Du Pond told the publication. 

Du Pond represented the seller, Miami Lakes Plaza LLC. That entity lists the Miami office of law firm Holland & Knight as its address and its registered agent as Corporate Creations, which is itself a subsidiary of the Australian stock transfer company Computershare. The entity acquired the property for $6.4M in 2012, property records indicate. 

The buyer in the off-market transaction was represented by Michael Ambrose of Ambrose Commercial Realty Group. 

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Miami-based Trizel Commercial Real Estate sold a 45-unit apartment building at 3300 S. Dixie Highway in Coconut Grove for $11M, Commercial Observer reported. The six-story building on 0.7 acres called Casa Linda was acquired by Philip Rahimzadeh, the managing director of Los Angeles-based Core Development Group. 

Virgilio Fernandez at Colliers brokered the transaction and said it closed in five days as part of a 1031 tax exchange. He told Commercial Observer that Rahimzadeh, whose development firm specializes in repositioning aging buildings, plans to renovate the property and raise its rents.

The 54K SF building was built in 1972 and acquired by Trizel for $2M in 2001.