From left: Rockpoint’s Bill Walton and Keith Gelb, 911 Southwest First Avenue and RPT Realty’s Brian Harper (Rockpoint, Google Maps, RPT Realty)
RPT Realty picked up the Shops at Mary Brickell Village for $216 million, marking the latest major real estate deal in the Miami neighborhood.
New York-based RPT Realty, through an affiliate, bought the retail at 900 and 901 South Miami Avenue, as well as at 911 Southwest First Avenue, from an entity tied to Rockpoint, according to records.
The 200,000-square-foot shopping and dining district has a 29,000-square-foot Publix; a 38,000-square-foot LA Fitness; restaurants, including Balan’s, Novecento, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Shake Shack; Blue Martini and other venues; as well as stores and other businesses such as Blo Blow Dry Bar, AT&T and T-Mobile, according to Mary Brickell Village’s website. It has a roughly 800-space garage.
The deal excluded the residential portion at the complex.
Boston-based Rockpoint, led by co-founders Bill Walton and Keith Gelb, bought the mall in 2015 for $113.5 million from Montreal-based Ivanhoé Cambridge.
RPT Realty, a real estate investment trust, is an owner and operator of open-air shopping centers, with a portfolio spanning 57 properties and 12.4 million square feet, according to its website. Brian Harper is president and CEO.
RPT does not list any other Miami properties, although it owns five other retail centers across Broward and Palm Beach counties. They include the West Broward Shopping Center at 3809-3951 West Broward Boulevard in Plantation, the Coral Creek Shops at 6502-6588 North State Road 7 in Coconut Creek, the Mission Bay Plaza at 20401 South State Road 7 near Boca Raton, and The Crossroads at 1104 Royal Palm Beach Boulevard in Royal Palm Beach, property records show.
Its purchase in Brickell gives RPT a foothold in the booming neighborhood that has gained national recognition as a magnet for new-to-market firms, the most notable of which are Ken Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel and financial services firm Citadel Securities. In June, Griffin announced in a letter to staff that his companies are relocating their headquarters from Chicago without disclosing the location in Miami, although he said it would be along Brickell Bay
The neighborhood also nabbed two consecutive record deals this year. In April, the Hollo family sold a 2.5-acre development lot along Brickell Bay for $363 million to a mystery buyer, which Bloomberg tied to Griffin and his Citadel, citing anonymous sources.
Another mystery buying entity – led by Randall Davis, who also signed off on the buying entity for the Hollos’ lot – paid $286.5 million for the nearby office tower at 1221 Brickell Avenue. This was the biggest South Florida office deal since 2016 when Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega paid $516.6 million for the Southeast Financial Center in downtown Miami.
Brickell also is seeing robust construction activity. Vladislav Doronin’s OKO Group and Cain International are building the 55-story office tower 830 Brickell; and a venture between Swire and Stephen Ross’ Related Companies wants to build a 1,000-foot tall office tower at 700 Brickell Avenue and 799 Brickell Plaza as part of the mixed-use Brickell City Centre. If completed, it would be the state’s tallest commercial building.
Residential projects in Brickell, both proposed and underway, abound. Among them: Menesse International wants to build a 24-story, 350-unit apartment building at 143 Southwest Ninth Street, and Michael Stern’s JDS Development Group and Major Food Group plan the 90-story, 259-unit Major condo at 888 Brickell Avenue.
