UPDATED, Oct. 20, 6:15 p.m.: Two New York-based development firms are teaming up to build a Class A office project in Miami Beach.
Sumaida + Khurana and Bizzi & Partners are planning a five-story building with 56,177 square feet at 944 5th Street and 411 Michigan Avenue in the city’s South of Fifth neighborhood, according to a press release. An entity managed by principals of both firms bought the two vacant lots for a combined $8.9 million in June, records show.
Sumaida + Khurana is led by Saif Sumaida and Amit Khurana. Bizzi & Partners is headed by CEO Davide Bizzi and Managing Director Alessandro Pallaoro.
(Sumaida + Khurana/Bizzi & Partners)
The joint venture tapped renowned Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza to design the building, and hired Miami-based Cube 3 as the project’s executive architect.
The South of Fifth office project would be Baeza’s first building in the Miami area, and his first commercial building in the U.S., according to the release. Over the last decade, developers have enlisted world-renowned architects like Renzo Piano, Bjarke Ingels, Rem Koolhaas and the late Zaha Hadid to design luxury condominiums in South Florida.
The proposed office building will be made of white concrete, glass, and marble, featuring high ceilings, open and flexible floorplans, private outdoor terraces and floor-to-ceiling windows. The building is planned to also have a fitness center, multiple food and beverage venues, a large atrium and a private rooftop with water views.
The two development firms are collaborating on a wide range of commercial buildings across the U.S., focusing on office projects, the release states.
Founded in 2000, Bizzi & Partners focuses on developing high-end commercial and residential properties in Europe, the U.S. and Brazil, according to the company’s websites. Bizzi developed Manhattan’s 565 Broome SoHo and co-developed Eighty Seven Park in Miami Beach.
Sumaida + Khurana, which developed condos at 152 Elizabeth Street and 611 West 56th Street in New York, and its affiliates are currently developing more than 300,000 square feet of ground-up residential projects in Manhattan, with a total projected sellout of about $700 million, according to the firm’s website.
Demand for office space is rising in Miami Beach. The city’s vacancy rate was 8.2 percent in the third quarter, compared to 10.7 percent for the overall Miami-Dade office market during the same period, according to Colliers. The average asking rent hit $51.57 a square foot compared to $44.59 for the overall Miami-Dade market in the third quarter.
Last month, Pebb Capital and Maxwelle Real Estate Group formed a joint venture with Miami Beach developer Russell Galbut to convert the shuttered Bancroft Hotel at 1501 Collins Avenue into a high-end office property. The partnership bought the site for $47 million from a Galbut-related entity. Galbut submitted plans for the conversion to the city of Miami Beach in April.
In August, an entity tied to Scarsdale, New York-based Greenacres Management bought a renovated office building at 1688 Meridian Avenue near Lincoln Road in Miami Beach for $49.5 million.