The University of Miami expanded its real estate portfolio near its Allapattah medical school campus, picking up three commercial properties for a combined $68 million.
An affiliate of the Coral Gables-based university, led by President Joseph James Echevarria, bought a strip mall with medical offices at 1050 Northwest 14th Street for $28 million; an adjacent parking lot for $34 million; and a former bank building at 1000 Northwest 14th Street for $6 million, records and real estate database Vizzda show.
The assemblage is in the Miami Health District, which is anchored by the 153-acre UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center complex.
In 2020, an affiliate of Boston-based Taurus Investment Holdings, the seller of the strip mall and the bank building, paid $26 million and $4.5 million for the properties, respectively. An affiliate of Toronto-based Peakhill Equity Partners and Boston-based Congress Group, the parking lot seller, paid $15.2 million for it last year, records show.
Known as Shops at Civica, the strip mall was completed in 2015 on a nearly 1-acre site. Tenants include Dunkin’ and Quest Diagnostics. The vacant bank building was completed in 1976, records show.
Last year, Peakhill, Congress Group and Taurus filed a site plan application with the city of Miami to develop a 380-unit apartment project on the parking lot after abandoning plans for a medical office development. In 2020, the joint venture renovated Shops of Civica with 20,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor and 40,000 square feet of medical offices in the upper two floors.
University of Miami officials have not revealed any plans for the three-property assemblage.
In late June, the University of Miami dropped $40 million for a Macy’s furniture store in Pinecrest. The school may be planning to convert the building into medical offices, but university officials have not commented on any specific plans.
Last month, the school opened UHealth Doral Medical Center, a six-story medical office building at 8375 Northwest 53rd Terrace in Doral, within the Downtown Doral mixed-use complex. The medical center was built and is owned by Coral Gables-based Codina Partners, Downtown Doral’s master developer.