A North Miami Beach development site approved for a 1,217-unit mixed-use megaproject hit the market for roughly $26 million, after a previous contract fell through and led to lawsuits, The Real Deal has learned.
The nearly 3-acre site on the northeast corner of Northeast 163rd Street and Harriet Tubman Highway was home to North Miami Beach staple Laurenzo’s Italian Market, which closed in 2019 after nearly 70 years in business. Members of the Laurenzo family, through affiliates, are selling the four-lot property at 16385-16445 West Dixie Highway, and 2255 Northeast 164th Street.
The site is entitled for a massive 2.1 million-square-foot project with three 33-story towers with 1,217 units, combined, more than 23,000 square feet of retail and 1,622 parking spaces, according to Colliers marketing materials.
Mika Mattingly and Cecilia Estevez of Colliers are marketing the property.
“I don’t think someone is building that exact iteration today,” said Colliers’ Bradley Arendt, who also is marketing the site, referring to current headwinds for developers. “But someone can buy it at a pretty decent price, and when things turn around,” it can be developed.
“The entitlements are there for three years and I think they can be extended beyond that,” Arendt said.
The listing marks the latest chapter in a three-year saga surrounding the property.
In 2022, the Laurenzo family’s entities entered into an agreement with Triple Five Florida, an entity led by Isaac Kasztl of Miami-based Kastel Development, to sell the site for $30.5 million, with a closing scheduled for the summer of 2022, according court records and the purchase contract attached to legal filings.
Last year, the Laurenzo family’s affiliates sued Triple Five Florida LLC and May NMB LLC over the failed deal to sell the property, alleging the buyers failed to close by the final extended date in December 2023, despite 18 extensions and seven addendums to the contract.
May NMB is an entity that eventually joined Triple Five Florida as a co-buyer and is tied to Jack Klugmann’s Edison, New Jersey-based development firm Accurate, records show.
It’s unclear whether the buying entity Triple Five Florida is tied to the Ghermezian family’s Alberta, Canada-based Triple Five Group that’s known as a megamall developer. Triple Five representatives didn’t immediately confirm or deny any ties to the firm.
As the final closing date approached, the buyers had failed to pay a $100,000 fee required for their last extension option and tried to renegotiate the contract, including asking for seller financing at a 10 percent interest rate, the complaint says. In one of the addendums, the two sides agreed to lower the price to $28 million, according to court filings.
In their suit, the Laurenzos claim that they agreed with the would-be buyers not to market the site for sale during the extensions and negotiations, missing the “red-hot real estate market.” That’s likely referring to the pandemic-era boom when development site prices skyrocketed.
Attorneys for Triple Five Florida and May NMB declined to comment.
Triple Five Florida and May NMB countersued the Laurenzo family in November, claiming they didn’t meet the terms of the deal, including failing to provide a 40-year building recertification, vacate the property and provide executed closing documents such as a deed by the closing date. At one point, the Laurenzos indicated that they agreed to renegotiated contract terms, including the seller financing, but then claimed the would-be buyers were in default of the contract, according to the countersuit.
The two sides settled in April, giving the buyers one last chance to close the deal, and ordering the release to the Laurenzos of $1.1 million the would-be buyers had put in escrow. The deal still didn’t close. In June, a judge upheld the clause in the settlement that if the deal didn’t close, Triple Five Florida and May NMB are on the hook for a $2 million judgment in favor of the Laurenzos’ entities.
The Laurenzos are working to collect on the $2 million, said their attorney, Kyle Teal. They also sued closing agent Landmark Abstract Agency, and its president, Jacob Rekant, alleging they failed to turn over the $1.1 million in escrow, even though the agency was told to do so by both the seller and buyers. In part of its response, Landmark Abstract said it was not the escrow agent for the purchase of the site.
The site owners “have been going through a lot,” said their attorney Teal, of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. “It’s been a fight every step of the way,” he added.
Under the settlement, the development approvals Triple Five Florida and May NMB obtained from the city of North Miami Beach were re-assigned to the Laurenzos. The North Miami Beach commission approved Triple Five Florida and May NMB’s proposed megaproject last year.
“The most valuable thing about the case is land use entitlements which we were able to negotiate” for reassignment to the sellers,” Teal said. “I think that adds a lot of value to the property.”
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