Asana Partners paid $62.1 million for a shopping center anchored by Milam’s Markets and Walgreens near Coral Gables.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm bought the 92,100-square-foot Red Bird Center at 5761 Bird Road in unincorporated Miami-Dade County from Red Bird Associates, according to a news release from the seller’s broker. The 5.6-acre property is in the Coral Terrace neighborhood.
Danny Finkle and Jorge Portela led the JLL team that represented the seller.
Red Bird Associates is managed by Stephen Brandon of Miami-Dade-based The Brandon Company and Mark Morgan of Overland Park, Kansas-based MD Management, state corporate records show.
Red Bird Center is fully leased, the release says. Tenants include Ace Hardware, Space Coast Credit Union, Quest Diagnostics, AT&T, as well as an animal clinic, pizzeria and eye care office. The property includes an Orion Fuels gas station.
Brandon Company, led by President Jeff Brandon, is a commercial real estate development firm founded in 1974, its website says. MD Management, led by Morgan, is a family-owned real estate developer and manager, according to its website.
Asana –– led by Terry S. Brown, Sam E. Judd and Jason K. Tompkins –– has been investing in South Florida in recent years. In 2018, Asana bought a seven-building retail portfolio at 1787, 1919, 1928 Purdy Avenue; 1900, 1916, 1930 Bay Road; and 1935 West Avenue in Miami Beach’s Sunset Harbour neighborhood for $68.8 million from Scott Robins and Philip Levine.
Last year, Asana sold seven West Palm Beach warehouses repurposed into retail, restaurants and offices, collectively known as the Warehouse District, at 1300, 1400, 1500 and 1220-1250 Elizabeth Avenue and 1615 Clare Avenue for $19.5 million. Asana had bought the properties for $18.5 million in 2018 from Johnstone Capital Partners, which had repurposed the warehouses.
In Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village, Asana bought the retail properties at 723-737 Northeast Second Avenue and 900-924 North Flagler Drive for $18.3 million, as well as the office and industrial building at 707 Northeast Third Avenue for $10 million in 2022.
Asana declined to comment on whether it has a redevelopment plan for Red Bird Center.
South Florida’s retail market began to calm earlier this year amid higher interest rates and slower influx of out-of-staters. In the second quarter, vacancies increased in each of the three counties and the average asking rent dropped in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, according to a Colliers report.
Grocery-anchored shopping centers have remained resilient with continued investment sales. In June, Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group sold the Whole Foods-anchored Marketplace at the Outlets shopping center at 1821 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard in West Palm Beach for $133.2 million. Longpoint paid $34 million in July for the Presidente Supermarket-anchored Miramar Parkway Plaza at 3176 South University Drive in Miramar.
In other recent shopping center deals, JBL Asset Management bought Palm Square at 9941 Pines Boulevard in Pembroke Pines for $25 million.
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