Real estate broker and investor Aaron Butler bought a vacant Lincoln Road site, with plans for a new building where hospitality group Noble 33 is expected to open its Mēdüzā Mediterranïa restaurant.
Butler, who heads Miami Beach-based commercial property firm Avenue Real Estate Partners, paid $8.4 million for the quarter-acre lot at 500 Lincoln Road, which has approvals for the development of a two-story, 20,000-square-foot project with a rooftop terrace, designed by Miami-based Touzet Studio Architecture & Interior Design, according to Butler’s news release.
Butler, through his purchasing affiliate, borrowed $7.5 million in seller financing, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The seller is the Miami Beach Community Church, which is housed in its two-story, 20,800-square-foot building at 1620 Drexel Avenue, adjacent to Butler’s land.
The purchasing entity, 500 Lincoln Road Property Holding, is affiliated with another limited liability company, Lincoln Rd Partners, which lists as its authorized representatives Butler, as well as Noble 33 co-founder and CEO Michael Tanha, and Nashville and Los Angeles-based attorney Jason Brooks, according to county and state corporate records.
Butler said that he is the buyer and Noble 33 will lease the second level and rooftop at the planned building for Mēdüzā Mediterranïa. Brooks is an attorney who worked on the purchase deal, according to Butler. A retailer will lease the ground floor, he said.
Construction is expected to start this summer, according to Butler’s news release. Todd Tragash of STA Architectural Group is the project’s architect of record.
Led by Tanha and co-founder and chairman Tosh Berman, Noble 33’s restaurants include Casa Madera, Toca Madera, Sparrow Italia, 1587 Prime and Mēdüzā Mediterranïa with outposts across the U.S. and London.
Although Mexican restaurant Casa Madera opened in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District during Art Basel week in 2024, it closed abruptly last summer. Noble 33’s Sparrow Italia is a hotspot in Wynwood, and a Toca Madera outpost in Brickell reportedly is in the works.
In January, Berman, Tanha and Noble 33-related entities were sued in federal court in Arizona by investors who claim they put more than $2 million into the hospitality group but their funds were misappropriated toward payments for luxury cars, real estate and flights for OnlyFans models to restaurant openings, the Miami New Times reported.
An attorney for the defendants called the lawsuit claims “ridiculous,” in a statement to the publication, adding they were levied by “a single small investor.”
The Lincoln Road purchase comes as a group of brokers and investors are banking on a comeback for Miami Beach’s pedestrian promenade, which fell on harder times in the past half-decade, falling victim to its elevated rents, the pandemic and the rise of competing dining and entertainment districts in Miami.
Butler is among those banking on Lincoln Road, saying recent leasing and investment momentum shows a “renaissance is underway.”
Japanese casual apparel retailer and design company Uniqlo has leased space on Lincoln Road, while Miami Beach-based Comras Company, led by Michael Comras, paid $140 million in November for 11 storefronts, with plans for a major renovation.
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