Harry Macklowe sold a development site he planned for a 770-unit multifamily complex for $20 million, marking a 37 percent discount from its purchase price three years ago.
The Pérez family’s Coconut Grove-based Related Group bought the 1.6-acre vacant site at 8609 Southwest 72nd Avenue in the Kendall neighborhood of unincorporated Miami-Dade County, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The sliver of land is east of Simon Property Group’s Dadeland Mall.
Macklowe, a real estate titan whose marquee projects include Manhattan’s 432 Park residential skyscraper and the 510 Madison office tower, is part of a group of elite developers with a colorful past in New York who zeroed in on South Florida in recent years. The tri-county region’s market boomed from late 2020 through 2022 due to an influx of out-of-state residents, creating unprecedented multifamily demand and prompting record rent hikes.
In 2022, Macklowe paid $31.9 million for the site and subsequently scored approval for a 770-unit project with a pair of 25-story towers, marking his first major South Florida investment and proposal. The plan was for the complex to have 12,200 square feet of commercial space, including an 8,800-square-foot restaurant.
Financial woes then hit amid elevated interest rates, skyrocketing insurance and retrenching capital markets. Last year, Fortress Investment Group filed a foreclosure action against Macklowe’s equity in the Kendall site and a 5 East 51st Street property in Midtown Manhattan.
Macklowe had borrowed $39.2 million in 2022 from Fortress for the Kendall site purchase, according to records.
About the same time as the foreclosure filing, Macklowe also listed the property on the market.
It’s unclear whether Macklowe kept a stake in the site and will partner with Related on a new project. Macklowe didn’t respond to a request for comment, and Related didn’t comment.
The Fortress mortgage was paid off with the recent site sale, records show, indicating that Fortress didn’t move forward with the previously planned Uniform Commercial Code foreclosure auction for the site.
Macklowe hasn’t stepped back from South Florida development. In North Bay Village, Macklowe and Related Group are partnering on a proposal for a pair of 43-story towers with 364 apartments, combined, on the bayfront site at 7946, 8000, 8010, and 8020 East Drive.
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