Developers Spend $103M To Assemble Oceanfront Miami Beach Development Site
Two South Florida real estate firms have assembled a significant plot of oceanfront land for an upcoming development.
13th Floor Investments and Opera Acquisitions paid $73M for a 46-unit oceanfront timeshare property at 3611 Collins Ave., adjacent to a condo building the group had previously acquired in Miami Beach.
The South Florida-based investment and development firms purchased the property from Westgate South Beach LLC, an affiliate of the Orlando-based timeshare firm Westgate Resorts. An entity formed by 13th Floor called MDEV6 LLC was the buyer.
The entity also recently acquired the adjacent All Seasons Condo Hotel at 3621 Collins Ave., creating a combined 1.25-acre site. The condo property closed in 2018 after an elevator fire injured three residents and led the city to shutter the building.
Opera first paid $6.5M for 24 condos at the 106-unit building in 2021 after a group of unit owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The remaining condos were acquired between April and November of 2022 for a combined cost of around $30M, Opera President Valerio Spinaci told The Real Deal.
Bank OZK provided a $51.9M mortgage that covers both properties as part of the latest purchase.
Opera Acquisitions and its affiliate, Opera Real Estate Investments, led the purchase of the two properties and brought in 13th Floor as a capital partner and developer on the project, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The partnership is exploring redevelopment options for the combined site and has yet to file site plans with city officials, Spinaci said.
The condo sellers were represented by Samuel Heskiel and Marilina Apfelbaum at Aventura-based Beachfront Realty. The timeshare owners were represented by Robert Webb, Jason Brady and Macy Munz at the national law firm BakerHostetler.
"This deal required the negotiation and assemblage of more than a hundred individual condo units as well as a property with thousands of timeshares," Spinaci, who also manages Opera Real Estate Investments, told the SFBJ.
13th Floor is an active developer in South Florida that recently announced plans to expand its business.
In February, the firm launched a $300M real estate fund that would target growth markets and opportunities to acquire distressed assets. Arnaud Karsenti, the firm’s managing principal, told TRD the fund would be primarily focused on assets in South Florida but would explore opportunities in the rest of the Southeast.
The developer also completed the first phase of a 7-acre, master-planned development next to the Douglas Road Metrorail station in March with Miami-based Adler Group. The project, dubbed Link at Douglas, sits on the border of Coral Gables and Coconut Grove and includes two residential towers with 733 apartments and more than 33K SF of retail.
13th Floor submitted a revised plan for the second and final phase of the project in May, significantly shrinking the planned development’s office space and revising down the total apartment count from 850 units to 815 units.
13th Floor also announced this month that it had partnered with Miami-based Key International to acquire the 4.2-acre site of a former Publix in Broward County’s Coral Springs. The partnership paid $8M for the vacant property and is planning to build 377 apartments, 11.5K SF of retail and a 629-space parking garage on the site.
UPDATE, JULY 5, 1:30 P.M. ET: The story has been updated to include the sellers' representatives for both properties.
