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Witkoff, Monroe plan three 57-story towers on Miami Worldcenter site
Developers paid $94M for the land in July
Witkoff and Monroe Capital proposed a 3.4 million-square-foot, mixed-use addition to the Miami Worldcenter development downtown.
An affiliate of New York-based Witkoff and Chicago-based Monroe plans to build three towers on the 4.7-acre site at 700 North Miami Avenue. The buildings could each be up to 57 stories tall.
The duo bought the land for $94 million in July.
The proposal calls for 540,000 square feet of office, nearly 50,000 square feet of retail, about 2,500 parking spaces and nearly 2,200 residential units, according to a project application the developers submitted to Miami-Dade County.
The application shows the homes would be one- and two-bedroom units, but it does not specify whether they would be apartments or condos. The project’s land-use attorney declined comment.
The Kobi Karp-designed project would include a park on the south end of the property that abuts the railroad tracks where cargo trains travel to the port, according to the proposal.
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Although the property is in the city of Miami, Witkoff and Monroe are asking Miami-Dade for feedback on several code variances.
If approved, the project would mark a new chapter for the site formerly home to the Miami Arena, which hosted the Miami Heat and other teams until it was demolished in 2008.
Miami-based MDM Group, through its hospitality-focused MDM Hotel Group, had planned a 1,700 Marriott Marquis hotel and 600,000-square-foot expo center as part of the 27-acre Miami Worldcenter. It paid $45 million for the land in 2017.
When it sold the land to Witkoff and Monroe, MDM cited the pandemic’s toll on the convention and hospitality markets.
Witkoff, led by Chairman and CEO Steven Witkoff, and Monroe, led by Chairman and CEO Theodore Koenig, are also partnering on the makeover of the Shore Club in Miami Beach. According to an application filed with the city in November 2021, they plan a 17-story tower with 54 residences and a 17-key hotel in place of a 20-story building and two-story cabanas.
Last year, Witkoff also partnered with Ari Pearl on part of a Hallandale Beach mixed-use golf resort project. The second phase of the development includes 60 hotel suites, condo-hotel units, as well as the extension of the golf course and the addition of a golf practice facility, spa, ballroom and entertainment space, and a clubhouse.
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As millennials drive rental demand, Dallas and Houston rank 3rd and 4th nationally in build-to-rent construction
A total of 6,740 single-family rentals were built nationwide in 2021 alone; this year, cities are in race to meet demand for single-family rentals
As Millennials choose dogs over children and renting over buying, Texas developers hammer away to meet demand.
Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston rank third and fourth, respectively, in build-to-rent communities, according to Dallas Business Journal’s analysis of a new report from rental platform RentCafé. With a total of 4,290 houses in build-to-rent communities, Dallas-Fort Worth’s rental market ranks third behind the Phoenix area, with 6,420, and Columbus, Ohio, with 4,780.
The Houston area trails just behind Dallas-Fort Worth with 3,600 rental units, ranking fourth nationally. Houston proper tops its north Texas competitor in the number of single-family rentals within their respective city limits. Dallas proper has 1,270 single-family rentals while Houston boasts 1,620.
Central Texas has also seen a surge in this sector. San Antonio has 960 homes in build-to-rent communities and Austin has 760.
Build-to-rent communities, which are made up of single-family homes intended for renters instead of buyers, have become a hot trend in residential real estate as renters look for more space and privacy while waiting out the seller-dominated market.
The affordability of single-family rentals satisfies a niche for millennials and similar groups, said Larry Corson of Dallas-based Corson Cramer Development. Corson’s firm buys and develops land intended for single-family rentals and residential communities.
"It fills the gap between being in an apartment and being in a home," he said. "It’s certainly very attractive to people with pets. It’s attractive to people who are looking for a little bit more privacy."
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As a result, build-to-rent construction is exploding to meet demand. Searches for "homes for rent" on rentcafe.com tripled between 2020 and 2021.
A record number of single-family rental homes–6,740 nationally – were built in 2021, according to the RentCafé report. The momentum seems to be growing exponentially with plans for nearly 14,000 more this year.
The fast-growing demand is also driving up rental prices. Last year, Dallas-Fort Worth saw the sixth highest increase in rental prices in the nation– a whopping 14.1 percent, according to an analysis by CoreLogic cited by the Dallas Business Journal. As of September, the median rent for single-family homes in Dallas-Fort Worth was $1,909.
Leading this roaring rental market is Dallas-based Invitation Homes, which owns more than 80,000 single-family rentals across the country, making it the largest owner of rental homes nationally. The publicly-traded company has become a favorite of investors, but has also captured the attention of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) who accused the firm of hiking rents and driving up sales prices at the expense of first-time homebuyers earlier this month.
[Dallas Business Journal] – Maddy Sperling
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