Lissette Calderon is casting a wider net along the Miami River, purchasing a development site further west than most of her other projects on the waterway.
Calderon, through an affiliate, bought a 7.3-acre site at 2301 Northwest 33rd Avenue for $32.2 million from an entity tied to Chicago-based Oak Street Management, according to records. The buyer took out a $24.1 million loan from Hermitage Palmer Land, in the care of MMJI Equity Partners.
The site, which includes 25,000 square feet of buildings that were formerly a National Car Rental facility, is in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, east of Miami International Airport in the Grapeland Heights neighborhood.
It also is just northeast of Melreese Country Club, where a partnership that includes David Beckham plans a 25,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium and mixed-use development, collectively called Miami Freedom Park.
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Calderon did not provide details on her plans for the site, only writing in an emailed statement that the purchase is in line with plans to “expand into different markets and asset classes.”
The developer, one of Miami’s preeminent real estate figures, was among the pioneers pursuing projects near the Miami River a decade ago. In more recent years, Calderon has focused on building apartments in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood, which stretches north from the river.
Through her Neology Life Development Group, she scored a $57.5 million construction loan in August for a two-building, 237-unit Fourteen Residences project at 1470 Northwest 36th Street. /
It would be her third apartment project in Allapattah, where she also is developing the 14-story, 323-unit The Julia, slated to open next year. Last year, Calderon completed a 13-story, 192-unit No. 17 Residences in the neighborhood.
Although most development along the Miami River has remained along its eastern banks, investors have been noticing making a move west as of late.
In October, Andrew Korge’s Korgeous Development paid $6.5 million for the nearly 2-acre industrial-marine property at 3007 Northwest South River Drive, which it plans to redevelop.