Swire Properties has sold some prime real estate in downtown Miami, where it once planned to build a nearly supertall office tower, to a local multifamily developer.
Melo Group purchased the 2.83-acre parcel at 700-799 Brickell Ave. for $211.5 million, according to a statement from Melo Group.
The deal has the potential to increase to $221.5 million, but additional details were not provided. Melo Group has not disclosed what it plans to do with the site. Melo Group did not provide additional details when reached for comment by CoStar News.
Swire Properties hired CBRE in January to sell the site after canceling plans to build a nearly 1,000-foot-tall office tower — what would've been Florida's tallest — because of disappointing preleasing figures. Swire Properties said it planned to use the proceeds from the sale of the land for its planned Residences at the Mandarin Oriental Miami, a two-tower branded condominium and hotel that recently hit $1 billion in sales less than a mile away on Brickell Key.
Swire Properties has been in the process of demolishing the two aging and long-vacant office buildings on the site it just sold to Melo Group.
The acquisition is centered in the densest part of Miami, the Brickell financial district, and next door to Brickell City Centre, an open-air mall and commercial center developed by Swire Properties in 2016. A new 55-story office tower at 830 Brickell sits across the street from the site, which is connected to the rest of the city by the Metromover, Miami’s downtown people mover.
“We have chosen this land in Miami’s urban core because we have witnessed its remarkable growth, continue to see its immense potential, and appreciate how vibrantly it has evolved into a cosmopolitan city,” said Carlos Melo, a principal at Melo Group, in the statement.
Melo Group is a well-known South Florida developer, and responsible for properties such as the under-construction dual-tower Aria Reserve, a 383-unit condominium in the city’s Edgewater neighborhood, as well as Downtown 5 and Downtown 6, a pair of apartment towers in downtown Miami. The group’s portfolio totals over 8,000 completed multifamily units, with another 3,500 units in various stages of development.
“Melo Group swiftly recognized the quality of the site and committed to an aggressive acquisition timeline,” said Robert Given, a vice chairman of CBRE, in the statement. "For a project of this scale and complexity, the buyers moved remarkably fast,” he added.
For the record
CBRE's Given, Troy Ballard, Brad Capas and James Quinn represented the seller.