Land-hungry developers
from around the globe are buying up sites in Miami-Dade County for tens of
millions of dollars per acre, spurring record sales.
Among the sky-high
prices: nearly $75 million paid for 2.4 acres in Brickell, $64 million for 7.4
acres in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District, and $75 million for 4.5
acres in downtown Miami.
International buyers
are dominating the local land grab scene. Take the $75 million sale in December
of a construction site in the Brickell submarket, an area where asking prices
are now 324 percent more than what the land sold for in 2009. The sale of 1430
South Miami Avenue, for $718 per square foot, was notable not just for its
price, but also because its buyers are Chinese — an affiliate of China City
Construction and New York–based American Da Tang Group.
Head north to Flagler
Street in downtown Miami, and you’ll likely run into a piece of land that
Moishe Mana, an Israeli investor, has purchased.
“What Moishe Mana has
done is probably the most notable,” Marcus & Millichap Land Group Director
Ryan Shaw said, referring to Mana’s $75 million assemblage of 4.5 acres in
downtown Miami.
“If you want anything
of size, you’re going to have to assemble properties, and I don’t think that’s
cost-effective at this point in the cycle,” Shaw said.
He added that if
asking prices in Greater Downtown Miami haven’t peaked, they will soon. “If
anyone buys anything now, they’re parking their money,” he said.
The sale of 3333
Biscayne Boulevard, a 36,883-square-foot lot, and the adjacent
6,250-square-foot plot at 332 Northeast 34th Street in Edgewater helped propel
neighborhood prices to $300 per square foot. Both properties sold for a total
of $12.5 million in September.
“The contributory
value of the existing improvements is minimal compared to the value of the
redevelopment potential of the land,” according to the Miami Downtown
Development Authority’s “Greater Downtown Miami Annual Residential Market Study
Update,” released in March.
Along the Biscayne
Corridor, including Edgewater, prices have increased a whopping 365 percent —
to $214 per square foot — versus the average 2009 sale price, according to data
from CoStar.
In Wynwood, prices
have increased 273 percent to an average of $306 per square foot. Nearby, in
the Arts & Entertainment District, a vacant 7.4-acre lot sold for $64
million in January, or $199 per square foot. The site, at the corner of
Northeast Second Avenue and 17th Street, is adjacent to a historic City of
Miami cemetery. Shaw said it marked a notable price point in an area that has
been undervalued.
According to the Miami
Downtown Development Authority, land prices in Wynwood haven’t reached downtown
Miami’s prices because of restrictive zoning for high-rise development.
Regardless, “there
have been several 2014 acquisitions within the Wynwood submarket that are tied
to expectations of a future change in zoning with a future plan to redevelop to
a more intense use,” the report said.
Despite the huge
uptick in prices, some submarkets are still struggling. In South Dade, prices
have decreased even further since the crash, from an average sale price of $22
per square foot to a current asking price of $17 per square foot.
Original Content Provided By The Real Deal
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