Lore Development Group plans a 402-unit apartment project on a portion of the closed Johnson & Wales University campus in North Miami, The Real Deal has learned.
Lore, a joint venture between Leste Group and Brazilian firm Opportunity Fundo de Investimento Imobiliário, wants to develop the Biscayne North Miami building on a 3.2-acre site on three lots east and west of Northeast 17th Avenue, between Northeast 126th and 127th streets, according to Jorge Rucas of Leste. Designed by Corwil Architects, the building will consist of studios and one-bedroom to three-bedroom apartments. All will be market-rate rentals.
The preliminary plan is for an eight-story building, Rucas said.
Construction is expected to start by the third quarter of next year, and completion is expected in 2028, he added.
The development site consists of parking lot parcels at 1660 Northeast 127th Street and 12600 Northeast 17th Avenue, as well as a vacant lot.
Brickell-based Lore paid $26 million for the property in June, securing a $13 million acquisition loan from Brickell-based Linkvest Capital, records show.
Chris Lentz of Cushman & Wakefield represented Lore in the financing.
The seller, Chicago-based Golub & Co., paid $10 million for the site in 2021, according to records. Golub had planned a 450-unit multifamily building, and Leste and Opportunity Fundo de Investimento Imobiliário were investors with Golub in the site and project.
The Lore JV, which was formed in 2023, now is the site’s owner and project developer after the recent purchase, Rucas said.
“We had a different LP [limited partners] and co-GP [general partners] structure,” he said. “There was another development and partners involved. [Now] instead of being just investors, we are now the developer.”
Leste, led by CEO Emmanuel Hermann and managing partner Stephan de Sabrit, is a global alternative investment manager focused on real estate, private equity and other business lines such as Brazilian agribusiness, according to its website. It lists offices in Miami’s Brickell, New York, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Rio de Janeiro-based Opportunity Fundo de Investimento Imobiliário, founded in 1994, is an independent asset manager, its website shows. Marcelo Naidich is the portfolio manager.
Lore’s pipeline of South Florida projects includes the 48-unit Lincoln Coconut Grove condo building at the intersection of Southwest 27th and Lincoln avenues and Darwin Street in Miami’s Coconut Grove.
It also plans the 505-unit Summit at Brickell multifamily tower on the half-acre site on the southeast corner of Southwest 10th Street and Southwest First Avenue in Miami’s financial district. The firm paid $35 million for the development site in 2023.
Lore is in the “last mile” of reviews and permitting needed before it starts construction of Summit at Brickell, Rucas said.
Johnson & Wales University, which trained South Florida’s hospitality workforce, closed its North Miami outpost in 2021. Miami-based Property Markets Group beat more than a dozen firms to scoop up the 25-acre campus, putting it under contract for $60 million in 2021. It then flipped portions of the campus to other developers.
The Pérez family’s Coconut Grove-based Related Group paid $13.6 million for a 3-acre site at JWU in 2022, where it’s developing the eight-story, 382-unit Manor Biscayne apartment building.
Also in 2022, North Miami-based Tate Capital bought the university’s former recreation center at 1600 Northeast 126th Street for $10.7 million, leasing it to the city of North Miami under a 15-year term.
Mater Academy Charter Schools paid $16.8 million for several JWU sites in 2022, opening a K-12 charter school in at least one of the buildings it purchased.
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