A boutique New York brokerage planted a flag in Wynwood, betting Miami and South Florida as a whole are poised for a second, even bigger wave of out-of-state in-migration, The Real Deal has learned.
Modern Spaces, led by Eric Benaim and based in Long Island City, opened an office this month at the Wyncatcher I building at 2143 Northwest First Avenue, according to the brokerage’s news release and Benaim.
It leased less than 1,000 square feet for five agents, with plans to expand and bring its headcount to about 25 people by year’s end, Benaim said.
It marks Modern Spaces’ first office outside New York and New Jersey. Benaim started the firm nearly 18 years ago, with Modern Spaces closing more than $10 billion in deals since then, according to the firm.
The brokerage’s primary business is new development, working with developers across project aspects, including selecting architects, general contractors, finishes and potentially brands, as well as pre-selling or pre-leasing spaces. It focuses on residential sales and leasing, with commercial real estate deals comprising about 5 percent of its business, Benaim said.
Modern Spaces’ Chrissy Smaragdas, who moved to South Florida about a year ago, opened the Wynwood office, and all four other agents are local hires, Benaim said.
Among Modern Spaces’ first Miami assignments is pre-leasing Brooklyn-based Heritage Equity Partners’ planned 300-unit apartment project at 2140 Northeast Second Avenue in Miami’s Edgewater.
Benaim, who has frequently traveled to Miami in recent years, also has invested here.
He paid $23.5 million in 2024 for three retail and office buildings at 2324–2328 North Miami Avenue and 38 Northwest 24th Street in Wynwood. Last year, he also bought the Wynwood lot at 25 Northwest 23rd Street for $1.4 million.
Modern Spaces’ Miami expansion comes as the real estate industry is abuzz over whether a second wave of in-migration by out-of-state residents and businesses is in store for South Florida.
Fueling the excitement is AI giant Palantir Technologies’s headquarters move from Denver to an Aventura co-working space, and Mark Zuckerberg and his wife following other billionaires’ moves to South Florida.
Some brokers doubt the latest in-migration will top the pandemic-era influx to South Florida. Benaim isn’t one of them.
“I think there’s going to be a bigger wave. I think much bigger actually,” said Benaim. “A lot of companies are coming from California and more from New York. … I do see Miami as the new Silicon Valley.”
Some of the in-migration now could be fueled by more favorable political winds in Florida. In Colorado, Palantir faced protests over its work using AI to aid Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations, and a state law slated to take effect this June imposes stricter regulation on data mining and predictive tools. The legislation didn’t target Palantir directly.
California is weighing a wealth tax on billionaires.
In the meantime, Florida legislators took the first step in entirely eliminating non-school property taxes for primary homes. The proposal still needs approval from the Senate and then heads to the ballot in November, where it requires 60 percent of voter approval.
“If that happens,” Benaim said, “that’s huge.”
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