Michael Simkins just bought a redeveloped 1930s building in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood for $3.58 million, records show. The seller was developer Alex Karakhanian.
Lion NW 17th Ave LLC, a Simkins-controlled entity, bought the roughly 27,000-square-foot building at 2247 Northwest 17th Avenue. Karakhanian paid $1.14 million for the 36,643-square-foot plot in 2014, and gut-renovated the building on it for McKenzie Construction and Craft, which operates its office and craft studio from the location and has a long-term lease on the space.
Jonathan Eismann and David Lombardi of Lombardi Properties brokered the deal, which closed Tuesday for just over $130 per square foot.
Simkins, president and CEO of Innovate Miami, is the developer behind a planned 10-acre technology district anchored by his proposed Innovation Tower in Park West, a neighborhood abutting Overtown.
Karakhanian is active in the MiMo neighborhood. He bought the Allapattah property as a long-term hold, but the shifting market, which is attracting tenants priced out of Wynwood, led him to change tack.
Earlier this month, the Rubell family purchased a warehouse in Allapatah at 1101 Northwest 23rd Street for $8.35 million
It “is a budding neighborhood,” Karakhanian told TRD. “It’s growing given the expansion of Wynwood.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Michelle Rubell, of the Rubell family, as Michael Simkins’ wife. She is his sister.