The former home of Johnny Rockets in Coconut Grove has traded hands for $23 million, more than double its last sale in 2013.
Ben Mandell of RKF
L3 Capital bought Grand Corner, a retail building sandwiched between CocoWalk and the Engle Building, in an off-market deal, broker Benjamin Mandell told The Real Deal. The deal breaks down to about $800 per square foot for the building and more than $1,000 for the land.
Mandell, an RKF managing director, represented the buyer, a Chicago-based real estate investment firm. L3 Capital plans to re-tenant the 28,731-square-foot building to bring it up to “today’s Coconut Grove” with tenants similar to Rag & Bone, Shinola and Warby Parker, Mandell told TRD. RKF will handle leasing.
Grove Corner LLC, a partnership led by Peter Gardner, sold the building after owning it for about three years. The partnership paid $10.5 million for the property in 2013. Current tenants, which are on short-term leases, include Smoothie King, New York Roma Pizza, Soles and Masa Taqueria, the latter of which is in the former Johnny Rockets space. The two-story building, built in 1925, sits on a 22,236-square-foot lot.
Grove Corner, at the corner of Grand Avenue, McFarlane Road and Main Highway, fronts CocoWalk to the north, an open-air shopping mall that sold to Federal Realty Investment Trust and local partners last year for $88 million. The new owners plan to redevelop the center and change the tenant mix.
And to the south is Bernardo Fort-Brescia’s Engle building, with tenants that now include Kit and Ace, Büro Group, Harry’s Pizzeria and Panther Coffee. Mandell called the building’s exposure “unparalleled from a retail perspective.”
The buyer, L3 Capital is active in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.
“They love to buy high street retail with a value-add component,” Mandell said.
In Miami, L3 owns two properties in the Design District, 3800 Northeast Miami Court and 3946 North Miami Avenue, which is bought for a combined $44.7 million over the past year.