Aria Dev and Merrimac Buy Last Miami Worldcenter Site for Condo Project
By Julia Echikson November 30, 2022 5:20 pm
reprints
Miami Worldcenter, the 27-acre megadevelopment in Downtown Miami, is officially all booked.
Aria Development Group and Merrimac Ventures paid $17.5 million for the last available site, a 34,800-square-foot site between 600 NE First Avenue and 55 NW Sixth Street, just east of the Miami Central station, the joint venture announced.
Aria and Merrimac plan to build a condominium tower with over 600 units, called 600 Miami Worldcenter. Sales for the development launched earlier this month with prices starting at $400,000 for a studio unit, though it’s unclear when construction will get underway. A representative for the joint venture did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The seller of the NW Sixth Street property, the maritime labor union International Longshoremen’s Association, paid $225,000 for the site in 1973, according to property records — a reflection of the neighborhood’s transformation.
Miami Worldcenter is one the largest private development projects in the country, where a slew of high-profile developers, such as the Witkoff Group, Naftali Group and controversial former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann, among others, are erecting residential and mixed-use towers.
Miami Worldcenter’s master developers are L.A.-based CIM Group and developers Art Falcone and Nitin Motwani, who’s also a partner at Merrimac.
Just a block over from the 600 Miami Worldcenter project, Merrimac Ventures, in partnership with Related Group, is developing The Crosby, a 33-story condo tower.
Earlier this month, Aria Development Group, along with Kuwait Real Estate Company, nabbed an $81 million construction loan for a condo high-rise with 448 units, also in Downtown Miami. Both Merrimac and Aria’s individual condo projects have no restrictions on short-term leasing.
Colliers’ Mika Mattingly, Jack Lowell and Cecilia Estevez represented the buyer in the NW Sixth Street acquisition.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
Correction: The joint venture paid $17.5 million for the 34,800-square-foot assemblage, not $17.5 million for the 24,000-square-foot site between 33 and 55 NW Sixth Street as originally reported.
