Developing Miami Riverwalk

Agent Chris Deitz of Fite Shavell & Associates says the Great Recession helped him spearhead last month’s $97.5 million sale of more than 6½ acres in the Brickell neighborhood just east of I-95 in downtown Miami.
The new owners’ propose is to develop Miami Riverwalk, a mega-complex with four towers that, if built, will include residential units, a hotel, retail space and a marina on 700 feet along the Miami River.
The sale involved eight adjacent properties with 20 addresses, bought by investor brothers Joe and Meyer Chetrit of CG Florida Properties— an affiliate of powerhouse New York developer Chetrit Group — in partnership with Miami developer Ari Pearl.
Deitz credits the recent economic downturn, in part, for sparking the deal. When real estate sales slowed in Palm Beach two years ago, he said he cast his eye to Miami, where he had done other deals.
“In early 2012, the real estate on the island was still slow, and I heard that Miami was starting to take off again,” Deitz said. “I went down and started to scout areas where I could assemble property in close proximity of other upcoming developments. I proceeded to call over the next few months and secured a continuous assemblage of property.”
The site is bordered by the river, Southwest Seventh Street, and Southwest Second and Third avenues. With a mix of businesses and houses, the properties were owned by eight different entities. Only two of the properties were listed for sale.
Once the sellers were on board, Deitz partnered with broker Brian Webster of Webster’s International Realty in Palm Beach Gardens to find a buyer.
“As soon as Chris brought this deal to me, I knew it was a winner and had the makings of a $1 billion project,” Webster said in a statement released after the sale closed.
The deal came together quickly, Deitz said.
“We had all of the properties under contract within a week. It went very fast and it needed to, because if any other buyers caught wind of this, it would be gone within days,” he said.
The project is still in the early presentation stages. But, if it wins city approval, it’s expected to be developed in phases.
Deitz said he and Webster are working on another development and two more assemblages of property in downtown Miami and Miami Beach’s South Beach.
In Palm Beach, meanwhile, Deitz last month listed a quartet of still-to-be-built townhouses at 215 Brazilian Ave. — two at $6.25 million and the others at $6.75 million – for the project’s developers. Broker Steve Hall of Hall Real Estate was on the seller’s side when the deal for the land closed in May at $6 million.
*
Honchos at home – In Palm Beach, CEOs are as thick as the ficus hedges that border their lawns. But you won’t find the town listed on a new Top 10 list of U.S. communities that have the most CEOs in residence per capita.
That’s because the U.S. Census Bureau’s numbers used by The Wall Street Journal to compute the list doesn’t break out job statistics specifically for the town. Instead, the bureau lumps data from across Palm Beach County with similar information from Broward and Miami-Dade.
Taken as a whole, however, those counties were among five areas in the state that made the Top 10 list. South Florida — minus Monroe County — was ranked No. 7.
The list examined designated “metro statistical areas” with the highest percentage of residents in the local workforce who identified themselves as CEOs or legislators.
At the top was Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk in Connecticut. Boulder, Colo., took the second-place slot.
The Sebastian-Vero Beach area came in at No. 3, followed by Naples-Marco Island and Cape Coral-Fort Meyers. California’s Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura area ranked No. 6.
In the No. 8 and No. 9 positions were North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota and Barnstable Town, Mass. And at the bottom of the list was San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara in California.
None of the markets on the list had more than 2 percent of its population picking up a CEO paycheck, according to the Journal.
It wasn’t broken out in the story, but West Palm Beach had 565 residents identifying themselves as CEOs, according to the latest available census data. Compare that to Boca Raton, where there were a whopping 1,295. Delray Beach had 400, Jupiter had 455 and Wellington had 380.

By Darrell Hofheinz
Daily News Real Estate Writer
Palmbeachdailynews.com

Preconstruction for the River Landing development on the Miami River will begin in February. When completed, River Landing Shops and Residences will span 8.14 acres with 426,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 475 apartments and a riverfront park. Foundation work is expected to begin in April, according to a news release. “The Health District is the densest employment area in Miami with over 45,000 employees working around the clock in world class research institutions, hospitals, medical schools, science labs and the court system. Our intent is to provide employees, residents and tourists a desirable place to live and visit and a new place to shop and dine,” developer Andrew Hellinger, manager of River Landing Development, said in a statement. The $300-million project, located at 1400 Northwest North River Drive, will be complete from the summer of 2017 to the spring of 2018. — By Katherine Kallergis

Allan Filgueiras and his team in AF Realty can find you the house of your dreams and help you with the process.