Robert Rivani’s Black Lion exited the Brickell submarket after selling a pair of commercial condos leased to fine dining restaurants for a combined $38.2 million.
Black Lion affiliates sold an 8,000-square-foot commercial unit with a 3,000-square-foot patio on the first floor of the SLS Lux Brickell condominium at 805 South Miami Avenue, and a 9,000-square-foot ground-floor space with a 4,600-square-foot patio at Dua Miami Hotel at 1300 South Miami Avenue, records show.
The SLS Luxe Brickell space is leased to Gekkõ, a Japanese steakhouse owned by musician Bad Bunny and Miami Beach-based hospitality mogul David Grutman. RosaNegra Miami, a high-end Mexican restaurant, leases the commercial space at Dua Hotel Miami.
Two separate entities managed by Fortune Christie’s International Real Estate’s Kevin Waissmann paid $19.1 million each for the commercial units. Waissmann told The Real Deal he represented the true buyer, whose identity he declined to disclose.
Fabio and Sebastian Faerman with FA Commercial represented Miami-based Black Lion. The brokers also represented Rivani’s firm when he purchased the commercial units for $13.5 million in 2021 and $10 million in 2023, respectively. Black Lion sold the properties for a combined gain of nearly $15 million.
After embarking on a commercial condo buying spree between 2021 and 2023, Black Lion has been selling off its restaurant portfolio for a profit. Rivani also moved his firm from Los Angeles to Miami during the height of the pandemic.
“This is exactly what I envisioned when I made my first move into the Miami market,” Rivani said in a statement. “Back when the world hit pause and restaurants were sitting empty during the pandemic, I doubled down because I knew Miami wasn’t just going to bounce back, it was going to boom.”
In January, his firm sold a two-story commercial building in Miami Beach leased to seafood restaurant Catch. El Paso, Texas-based River Oaks Properties paid $28 million for the property at 200 South Pointe Drive within the Continuum on South Beach condominium complex. Black Lion sold the building for $17 million above its purchase price of $11.5 million in 2023.
The same year, Black Lion sold a 6,500-square-foot ground-floor space in the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum condominium in downtown Miami for $7.9 million, representing a $1.5 million gain. A few months earlier, Rivani’s firm paid $6.3 million for the commercial unit.
Black Lion still owns Wynwood Jungle, a retail plaza in Miami’s Wynwood, as well as the ground-floor commercial space at One Ocean condominium in Miami Beach’s South Of Fifth neighborhood, and a commercial unit at the Paraiso Bay condominium in Miami’s Edgewater that is leased to restaurant Amara at Paraiso. The Paraiso space is on the market.
For the past year, Black Lion has been focused on a $50 million renovation of a six-story, office and retail building on Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road. The firm bought the building and a ground lease at 1691 Michigan Avenue for $63 million last year. The property is being renamed The Rivani and will feature a concierge, spa, meditation room, fitness center, salon, café, and a Japanese restaurant and speakeasy.
