Brooklyn Developer Snaps Up 181 Acres In Largest Land Deal Of The Year

A Brooklyn developer has purchased 181 acres in northern Miami-Dade County in a move likely to spur a residential development considered a “dream” just a few years ago.
The Mazel Group LLC, a company tied to developer Yehuda Backer, paid $19.1 million for the unincorporated site of the former California Golf Club. The transaction involves six noncontiguous lots west of I-95 and southeast of the Broward County line and Northeast Second Avenue, where a residential community exists around the shuttered 18-hole golf course. The sale involves over 180 acres although as much as 30 acres is manmade lakes.
The property is zoned to allow the development of 702 housing units, with up to six homes per acre. A 2013 agreement with Miami-Dade County states any developer building homes on the property must leave 61 percent as open space. Any development also must include plans for a community park with baseball diamonds and soccer fields, dog runs, pavilions and rest areas.
The sale is a windfall for Venezuelan entrepreneur Liliane Stransky, who purchased the property from Boston-based Capital Crossing for $800,000 in 2010. Capital Crossing took over the property in 2004 after the previous owner defaulted on a $2.3 million loan. The financier let the golf club fall into disrepair after it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
Stransky, who immigrated from Venezuela in 2000 and runs a 10-acre horse farm in Wellington, purchased the land and pushed forward with plans to develop an equestrian-themed residential community. Plans required the approval of over 75 of the area’s current residents under a covenant signed by the original developer in 1974 prohibiting residential development on the golf course property. As Stransky was starting to collect signatures in support of what she called her “dream” in 2011, the Miami Herald noted area neighbors were increasingly in opposition to the idea. That pushback does not seemed to have swayed county commissioners, who approved lifting the restrictive covenant and backed most of Stransky’s plan last June.
It is unclear if that concept will remain intact under Backer.
 
Source:  DBR