Jugofresh owner Matthew Sherman has sold the Biscayne Boulevard site in MiMo that he had planned to redevelop for a new shop, The Real Deal has learned.
Sherman sold the building, at 7501 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami on Thursday, for $1.4 million, to local developer Alexander Karakhanian, Lyle Chariff, president of Chariff Realty Group told TRD.
“Back to the drawing board,” said Chariff, whose firm brokered the sale and will handle leasing for the site.
Sherman had bought the site in June 2013 for $960,000, and reaped a $440,000 profit on its sale.
He said via email that he may end up leasing back the space once it is redeveloped. It had been his “dream to have a healthy drive-through” along the Biscayne corridor, he said.
“Due to the growth of my main business I just did not have bandwidth to execute the project the boulevard deserves. This project involves a lot of time and effort for planning and construction,” he wrote. “I called my friend Lyle Chariff and asked him to find a buyer with vision. He did and I am excited to maybe collaborate with Alex Karakhanian, who is the new buyer and an expert in neighborhood developments. We are now talking about the future possibility of becoming his tenant and help activate a neighborhood that I believe in.”
Chariff is part of a partnership that owns the building at 7521 Biscayne Boulevard, next door to the planned jugofresh site. Karakhanian, who heads AKORP Development, owns the property on the corner, at 7541 Biscayne Boulevard.
“We didn’t want something that wasn’t within the best interests of the block acquiring it, and we had instructions from Matt Sherman to respect that,” Chariff told TRD.
The building Sherman sold is 1,754 square feet and sits on a 12,800-square-foot lot, according to Miami-Dade property records.
The MiMo District is undergoing a resurgence, with a wave of redevelopment that is spreading between the 27 blocks on Biscayne Boulevard, from 50th Street to 77th Street, that encompass the district. Among the properties near Sherman’s site are the Vagabond Hotel, which Avra Jain redeveloped; John Kunkel’s new 50 Eggs headquarters; and a new Büro Group co-working space.
Meanwhile, Jugoresh has been on an expansion track and on Saturday will open a pop-up restaurant at its South Pointe location. The company currently has seven locations in South Florida: North Miami Beach, Sunset Harbour, South Pointe, Wynwood, South Miami, Coral Gables and inside the Whole Foods in downtown Miami.
Sherman is also planning to launch a 2,000 square-foot vegan restaurant and market in Sunset Harbour in Miami Beach within the next several months, developer Scott Robins, president of Scott Robbins Companies has told TRD.