Greg Mirmelli with the Collins Avenue property (Getty)
Miami Beach investor Greg Mirmelli purchased a retail property on Collins Avenue that he eventually hopes to redevelop into a high-end residential project, The Real Deal has learned.
Mirmelli said he paid about $6.5 million for the building at 600 Collins Avenue in South Beach. The acquisition follows his sale of 800 Collins Avenue in November for $6.2 million.
The 600 Collins Avenue deal includes the corner property at 215 Sixth Street and the adjacent building at 604 Collins Avenue. Marcus & Millichap’s Drew Kristol and Kirk Olson brokered the deal.
Property records show an affiliate of Optimum Asset Management USA, led by Managing Director Matthew Barry, sold the parcels to Mirmelli. Optimum developed the nearby Celino South Beach hotel complex on Ocean Drive, which it sold last year to a hotel fund that counts Alex Rodriguez among its inventors.
Optimum paid about $12.9 million for both parcels in 2014, about double what Mirmelli recently paid.
Kristol of Marcus & Millichap said Optimum planned to redevelop the Collins Avenue retail property but “the market just never met the demand for that type of development.”
In late December, the former Señor Frog’s property at 1450 Collins Avenue sold for $10 million.
“We’ve gone through a period where there’s literally been little to no transaction volume between Fifth and Ninth Streets, but it picked up [recently],” Kristol added. “People are starting to move on from these properties. Investors are ready to transact on the street. You need sellers willing to sell.”
Mirmelli said he plans to keep the 600 Collins Avenue building’s current tenants, which include Simon’s Sportswear and a women’s clothing store. He eventually plans to work with the city of Miami Beach to develop high-end residential on the 0.3-acre property. It has about 100 feet of frontage on Collins Avenue and is near the recently completed Goodtime Hotel on Washington Avenue and Sixth Street.
Last year, he flipped 800 Collins Avenue for $1.7 million more than he paid in a period of about seven months. Mirmelli had planned a mansion-hotel concept for the Art Deco building, previously home to a Banana Republic.
Mirmelli also recently acquired a waterfront property next to The Standard hotel in Miami Beach for $5.3 million.
