UPDATED, Sept. 20, 7:20 a.m.: The Magic City’s biggest condo builder is going small on its next project.
The Related Group is planning to build micro condos on a downtown Miami site it recently closed on, The Real Deal has learned. The Miami-based developer is planning to build a roughly 400-foot tower with about 350 units, Jon Paul Pérez, a vice president at the firm, said.
Related plans to develop the site as part of a joint venture with ROVR Development, led by Oscar Rodriguez and Ricardo Vadia. Both previously worked at Related.
Property records show Parcel C LLC, tied to Related, paid $8.8 million for the two lots at 225 and 233 North Miami Avenue, which total 15,000 square feet of land. The LLC also scored $3 million in seller financing.
Pérez, whose father Jorge Pérez is chairman and CEO of Related, said the project is in the planning stages. He expects to get site plan approval in about 45 days. Related has a deal with the Miami Parking Authority across the street to provide parking, Pérez said.
Units would have less than 700 square feet on average and range from about $250,000 to $500,000. The project would offer some sort of hotel or leaseback program, although Pérez said Related is still working out the details.
“The investor buying that [product] would like the ease of mind and make a decent return,” he added.
Rodriguez of ROVR said he believes the project will be successful given the price point and location.
The property is near Miami Dade College’s Wolfson campus, the C. Clyde Atkins U.S Courthouse and the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse.
Related was the first major developer to hit the brakes on new development this cycle when it canceled sales of a 290-unit, 60-story tower at 1440 Biscayne Boulevard, north of downtown Miami, in early 2017.
While the luxury condo market has been in a slump since then, new projects with lower price points and rental flexibility have been more successful. YotelPad, a 31-story tower with 231 condos and 222 Yotel “cabins,” or small hotel rooms, developed by Aria Development and AQARAT, sold out in a year, Pérez said. YotelPad owners will be able to participate in a leaseback program or rent their units out elsewhere without restrictions. The development, which is under construction at 227 Northeast Second Street, is about three blocks east of Related’s site.
Related previously sought to develop a mixed-use project at 520 Biscayne Boulevard in a public-private partnership with Miami Dade College, but the college ended the bidding in the competition in 2016 after the process became entangled in litigation.