This Week’s South Florida Deal Sheet: Pantzer Pays $139M For Doral Apartments
New York-based Pantzer Properties paid $139M for a garden-style apartment complex in Doral, according to deeds from property records platform Vizzda.
AMLI Residential sold the collection of eight four-story buildings spanning 352 units. Located on 14.5 acres at 11481 NW 41st St., the development was previously known as AMLI Doral, but Pantzer has rechristened it The Point at Lakeside.
The sale was financed with an $88M, five-year loan from JLL. Separate teams from the brokerage represented both sides in the transaction, with Maurice Habif, Simon Banke and Nick Lavin representing the seller and Jamie Leachman, Amit Kakar and Sean O’Brien representing Pantzer, according to a release.
Apartments at the development average 1,058 SF, according to a release. One- and two-bedroom units are listed on Apartments.com from $2,276 per month to $3,167 a month.
The project was originally built in 2013 by CC Homes, a partnership between Armando Codina and Jim Carr. AMLI paid $103M for the development in 2015, according to property records.
SALES
The 438K SF Fountains shopping center in Plantation traded for $70M, $2M less than its sale price in 2004, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
An affiliate of Ohio-based Site Centers sold the property at 801, 805 and 821 S. University Drive to Fountains SC LLC, an affiliate of Illinois-based shopping center owner Pine Tree. The buyer paid $160 per SF, a discount on its $72.5M sale price two decades ago and also below the $86M valuation it has from the Broward County Property Appraiser.
The Fountains’ main building was built in 1988 on 33.5 acres. Tenants include Kohl’s, Dick's Sporting Goods, Joann Fabrics, Marshalls and Total Wine & More.
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MSC Group paid $67M to buy the office portion of the Sawyer’s Walk mixed-use project in Overtown where the Swiss shipping and cruise firm is planning to open a headquarters for its North American cruise division, Commercial Observer reported.
The acquisition comes about six months after the firm announced it would occupy 130K SF at the project, which Coconut Grove-based developer Swerdlow Group is building.
The 3.4-acre project at 249 NW Sixth St. will include the Block 55 offices that MSC purchased, 578 residential units, 175K SF of retail space and 1,000 parking spaces. As of the beginning of the year, delivery was slated for this summer.
MSC Group, which has 30,000 staff in 155 countries and a fleet of 800 vessels, will house around 250 employees from MSC Cruises, MSC Cargo and Explora Journeys at the office. The firm is also expanding its operations at PortMiami to handle 36,000 passengers a day.
PEOPLE
Colliers hired Dustin Ballard as its new market leader for South Florida, the Canadian brokerage announced. Ballard joins as a managing director and will oversee all operations, recruitment, retention and business development for the firm's offices in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Miami.
Ballard has more than 15 years of experience in the public and private sectors and has worked in a variety of markets, including South Florida, Nashville, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.
Ballard was most recently the head of leasing at Miami-based Tricera Capital, a job he held since 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has also held roles as a vice president of office leasing at Related Cos. and leasing roles for seven years at Hudson Pacific Properties.
LEASES
A Latin American coworking firm will open a 25K SF location at the Panorama Tower, according to a release.
WorQ Coworking signed on to open its first U.S. location at the tower, which locked in a $420M refinancing four months ago. WorQ was represented by Ben Sarason at Cushman & Wakefield and Grant Gassman at Blanca Commercial Real Estate.
The deal comes a few weeks after the landlord, Florida East Coast Realty, announced that Action Black Fitness, a class-based gym chain founded in Colombia, signed a lease for an 8,500 SF location.
Jake Freeman at Colliers handles leasing at the 85-story tower at 1100 Brickell Bay Drive. Freeman is marketing a 52K SF contiguous space spanning the entire 17th floor and 19K SF on the 16th floor. It's the only vacant space listed on LoopNet and is priced at $65 per SF.
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Maman will open a 2K SF bakery on the ground floor of 2000 Biscayne Blvd. in Edgewater, according to a release. The New York-based café chain, slated to be filled with antique furniture imported from France, will serve breakfast and lunch seven days a week.
The location is planned to open next year and marks Maman's fifth Miami lease.
2000 Biscayne is a 36-story apartment tower designed by Kobi Karp and owned by Fort Lauderdale-based PTM Partners and New York-based Kushner Cos.
Maman was founded in 2014 by Benjamin Sormonte and Elisa Marshall. It started in New York, but the brand has more than 30 locations, including plans for a café at the base of the under-construction 830 Brickell.
Taryn Brandes and Emily Green at Brand Urban, in partnership with Michael Sullivan of Vertical Real Estate, represented Maman in the deal. The landlord was represented by Lyle Stern and Sam Singer at Vertical Real Estate.
THIS AND THAT
Miami-Dade County officials have abandoned plans to purchase Assurant’s 79-acre campus near Cutler Bay while approving the $182M purchase of a former Florida Power & Light headquarters in Fontainebleau, the Miami Herald reported.
County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s administration backed away from the plans for Assurant’s property at 11222 Quail Roost Drive as it prepares to present a 2025 budget proposal that is challenged by the end of federal pandemic aid that had been offsetting revenue gaps, according to the Herald.
The deal to buy the campus from Assurant, an insurance provider that is relocating to 78K SF at Waterford Business District, was originally part of a December proposal at the county commission that also included the $205M purchase of a 625K SF Fontainebleau campus at 9250 W. Flagler St.
The $205M price tag raised eyebrows for being above two appraised values, and the item was pulled from a December commission meeting. The county negotiated a $23M discount for the Fontainebleau property, and the commission approved it last week. At the same time, Levine Cava sent a letter to Assurant on June 18 telling the firm it was backing out of the deal for its campus.
An Assurant spokesperson told the Herald the company would be “re-opening the bidding process immediately” after breaking off negotiations with Miami-Dade County.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Sankesh Abbhi, the head of Abbhi Capital, is planning to build 176 apartments on a vacant block along Grand Avenue in the historically Black neighborhood west of Coconut Grove, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
The proposal for the 2.4-acre site at 3520-3574 Grand Ave. calls for a five-story building totaling 340K SF with 26K SF of commercial space and 348 parking spaces.
The Arquitectonica-designed mid-rise would be built as the first project on a collection of mostly vacant parcels spanning 12 acres. Coconut Grove approved a plan in 2011 for 349 apartments and 751K SF of commercial and office space.
On June 20, the building went before the Miami Urban Development Review Board, which recommended its approval on the condition that the developer chooses a brighter color for the awning.
Named Grove Village, each block of the proposed redevelopment was named for an island in the Bahamas. Abbhi’s project is set to rise on the Bimini Block.
Grove Bimini Nassau QOZB LLC, the entity controlled by Abbhi that proposed the project, paid $19M for the 14-parcel assemblage in April 2022, property records indicate.
