A $500 million Life Time-branded mixed-use project along U.S. 1 in Coral Gables was completed, with tenant Trader Joe’s expected to open in October.
Life Time and developer Nolan Reynolds International delivered the 1.2-million-square-foot, 14-story project at 237 South Dixie Highway. It marks one of a number of mixed-use developments with apartments that are in the pipeline for that stretch of U.S. 1.
Life Time Coral Gables has 495 luxury apartments, an 80,000-square-foot athletic resort, a 25,000-square-foot coworking space, and ground floor retail space. Chanhassen, Minnesota-based Life Time is leasing the shared workspace portion and the athletic resort from the developer, and has a management contract for the residential component.
Asking rents for the apartments run from $2,500 for a studio to $6,500 for a three-bedroom unit and up to $8,500 for a penthouse, according to a spokesperson. It is about 40 percent leased, with 292 units still available. Preleasing started last year.
Rental rates have bounced back from the pandemic. Asking rents in Miami rose nearly 11 percent in July compared with the same period last year, up to an average of nearly $1,800 a month, according to a report from RealPage. Institutional sales of multifamily properties have also increased in recent months.
Units at Life Time Coral Gables range in size from 436-square-foot studios to 1,539-square-foot three-bedroom apartments to 2,252-square-foot penthouses.
Trader Joe’s and the Argentinian restaurant Graziano’s, from chef Niven Patel, are expected to open at a later date. Sources told The Real Deal that Trader Joe’s will open in mid-October.
The developer, then called NP International, bought the 4.3-acre site from Jeff Berkowitz in 2016 for about $60 million. Berkowitz planned a big box retail project on the property called Gables Station.
Life Time has other South Florida locations in the works. The company is developing locations in Palm Beach Gardens and The Falls, and operates athletic resorts in Boca Raton and Tampa.
Life Time’s CEO Bahram Akradi acquired a waterfront residential lot in Broward County more than two years ago, but recently sold the property for nearly $4 million more, property records show.