After supersizing the development potential of a Sears site in Miami, Miami Heat minority owner Raanan Katz’s firm is listing the property for sale with an asking price of over $100 million, The Real Deal has learned.
RK Centers wants to sell the 8.1-acre property at 3655 Southwest 22nd Street that’s approved for a 1,050-unit Live Local Act project and 50,000 square feet of retail, according to CBRE, the seller’s brokerage.
Robert Given and Brad Capas of CBRE are marketing the property. They declined to comment on the asking price.
A source cited the target price as more than $100 million, and a second source specified it’s close to $120 million.
In June, RK Centers scored approval for the project from the Miami Urban Development Review Board. The development will consist of three eight-story buildings with 995 apartments and 55 rental townhouses.
The project subsequently obtained the necessary administrative approvals, according to Capas.
Since the Live Local Act was approved in 2023, developers have seized on the legislation with plans for new projects. The state law rewards developers who include below-market rentals with height and density bonuses, as well as property tax breaks. Under the law, at least 40 percent of apartments have to be designated for households earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income. Florida lawmakers tweaked Live Local last year and this year.
Some investors proposing Live Local projects are likely jumping on entitling the sites — with plans to flip the properties to reap gains due to the higher development capacity, experts have told The Real Deal.
“I don’t know if the timing was specifically preordained,” Capas said about RK’s listing. “Before [it] was unknown exactly what you can do, and the potential density was lower. … When they got the approvals, they made the decision to take it to market.”
The existing Sears building and adjacent auto building, completed in 1954, span 192,500 square feet, according to property records.
The listing comes amid a challenging time for developers due to elevated interest rates, higher construction material and labor costs, and skyrocketing insurance. The Trump administration’s tariffs also could increase costs for materials. South Florida is also dealing with a multifamily oversupply after record completions last year. This has slowed demand and lease-ups of new projects.
The “highest profile properties” in the market still are coveted, Capas said, adding that the Sears site is “by no means a commodity product.”
A buyer could wait out the market headwinds or tweak the development plans, Capas said. Apartment demand is expected to pick up next year.
“The reality is someone who buys it today won’t be breaking ground for another year or two years, maybe longer,” he said.
RK Centers, based in Sunny Isles Beach and Needham, Massachusetts, primarily invests in retail plazas.
Last month, the firm paid $16.4 million for the Publix-anchored Shoppes at Monarch Lakes at 14303 Miramar Parkway in Miramar. That came on the heels of its $15.2 million purchase of a City Furniture showroom at 11249 Pines Boulevard in Pembroke Pines.
In November, RK bought the Fountains of Miramar shopping center at 2905-3161 Southwest 160th Avenue in Miramar for $42.3 million.
Live Local projects proposed elsewhere include Group P6’s plan for a 21-story, 362-unit building at 2600 and 2630 Northeast 203rd Street in unincorporated Miami-Dade County’s Ojus neighborhood.
The Pérez family’s Related Group has several Live Local applications, including for a 1,038-unit complex in a pair of 21-story towers and a 12-story building at 800 Northwest 13th Avenue, 780 Northwest 13th Court and 1389 Northwest Seventh Street in Miami. The project would expand the existing 1,379-unit Haley Sofge public housing complex that’s on a portion of the site.
An entity led by Khashayar Khazai and Shane Shapiro of Sunny Isles Beach wants to build a 23-story, 166-unit tower at 521 and 531 Southwest Seventh Street in Miami’s Little Havana.
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