Miami Beach Macy’s Location Under Contract With Potential New Owners

The site of the Miami Beach Macy’s is currently under contract for sale with commercial brokerage Marcus & Millichap overseeing the process. Official sale documents are still in the works, so as of yet the identity of the buyer is unknown as is the purchase price. The land, located at 1675 Meridian Ave., currently holds the two-story square building with 50,000 square feet of usable space for the buyer. The buyer will have the option of expanding the area of operations to as much as 137,000 square feet given the size of the plot.

Scott Sandelin, of the brokerage firm, confirmed they were under contract. If the contingency period is waived the deal could move into closing within a few months.

Macy’s signed the lease on the land in 1951. They have another 33 years before the current lease runs out. Sandelin noted a lot of these leases were signed many decades ago. The terms are nearly all surprisingly low for the areas they are in; the owners did not take into account the long-term changes in regards to dollar values for the city and a continually increasing and expanding of the economy. Macy’s, in this instance, is paying a relatively low net rent on the property on this nearly 70-year old deal.

Macy’s downtown location on Flagler Street will be closing down shortly as part of a larger nationwide move by Macy’s to cut a lot of the chain’s department stores. The Miami Beach location, however, will remain open at least for the time being according to Macy’s Southern Media Relations.

Marcus & Millichap leveraged their extensive database of institutional investors and high net-worth individuals to find a buyer for the sight. The database includes over 15,000 entities which can be mined for potential buyers for the site. Additionally, active networking on the part of the firm helped get news of the site’s for sale status to the right people. The firm looked for the right kind of investor who had a grasp on the actual value of the land in this deal.

The land is currently zoned as 50,000 feet of CD-3 space which has the potential to be something completely different after Macy’s lease expires. The area is right across from the Convention Center, offering the possibility of a hotel, parking, retail, or some other mixed-use option.

There were several offers made for the land from various investors with different long-term plans for the space. While the plot is under contract, Marcus & Millichap is still accepting backup offers in case the current deal should fall through. The competing offers already in are still being held and would compete for the land should something go amiss with the deal.