Cruise Company To Occupy 130K SF in Miami’s Overtown
By Jeff Ostrowski January 18, 2024 5:46 pm
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A cruise company is taking nearly 130,000 square feet of space in a new development in Miami’s urban core.
MSC Group, a Swiss maritime company, said it will occupy the space at Block 55 at Sawyer’s Walk, a mixed-use development under construction at 249 Northwest Sixth Street in the city’s Overtown section, near downtown. The office will accommodate 250 employees of MSC Cargo, MSC Cruises and Explora Journeys.
MSC Cargo has been in Miami for 25 years, and it’s expanding its cruise operations. MSC Cruises is building a new cruise terminal at PortMiami. That four-story building is designed to handle 36,000 passengers a day and three ships at a time.
“Miami has been a pivotal part of our growth story in the U.S., and we are proud of our strong history of driving the local economy,” Fabio Santucci, president and CEO of MSC USA, said in a statement.
Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) represented MSC. Developed by the Swerdlow Group, Block 55 at Sawyer’s Walk is a 1.4 million-square-foot project near Brightline‘s MiamiCentral station. Target, Aldi, Ross Dress for Less and Burlington are among the retail tenants that have signed leases there.
“The anticipated delivery of our mixed-use development will serve as an economic catalyst for Overtown, with the creation of over 1,000 quality jobs, the opening of a new full-service supermarket and mix of national retail stores that will serve the immediate community and surrounding neighborhoods,” Michael Swerdlow, managing partner of Swerdlow Group, said in a statement.
In an atypical arrangement, MSC bought rather than leased the office space, Swerdlow said. He already had structured the building as a condo.
“It’s very unusual, but MSC wanted to own it,” Swerdlow told Commercial Observer. “I would have preferred to lease it, frankly, but they wanted to buy it.”
Swerdlow declined to specify a precise purchase price, but both he and MSC said the company is investing $100 million in the space, including acquisition and buildout.
“Their cruise line is growing by leaps and bounds,” Swerdlow said.
MSC Group was approved for the county’s Relocation and Expansion Incentives Program and Targeted Jobs Incentive Fund, a Miami-Dade Beacon Council spokesperson said. The amount of the subsidy wasn’t immediately available.
The Targeted Jobs Incentive Fund provides a tax refund of 80 percent of the amount of countywide ad valorem property taxes generated by the project for 10 years. The Relocation and Expansion Incentives Program offers a tax credit of $1,000 per job created.
Meanwhile, the Miami office market is bucking a national trend. On Sunday, the CBS News program “60 Minutes“ aired a piece about the rising vacancies in New York City as workers are slow to return to offices. But in Miami-Dade County, the office vacancy rate was a modest 14.9 percent as of the third quarter of 2023, according to Avison Young. And rental rates in trophy towers have topped $100 a square foot.
Jeff Ostrowski can be reached at jostrowski@commercialobserver.com.
