Canyon-Johnson, WSG Purchase Site To Develop Shopping Venue

A joint venture between Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund and WSG Development has purchased a site in Miami-Dade County’s Fontainbleau area for $22 million and plans to develop a shopping center.
Fontainbleau Lakes LLC, which is co-managed by Shoma Homes President Masoud Shojaee and Terra Group CEO Pedro A. Martin, sold the property, on the north side of West Flagler Street at Southwest 92nd Avenue, to CJUF III Flagler, which is part of Los Angeles-based Canyon-Johnson and Miami-based WSG Development.
About half of the property involved was previously slated for residential development. The sale allowed Martin and Shojaee to repay their mortgage. They previously sold another portion of the Fontainbleau Lakes property to Miami developer Related Group for an apartment project.
This deal is quite a reversal for WSG Development, which has lost projects in Miami Beach, Hollywood and West Palm Beach to Lehman Brothers in recent years over defaulted development loans. Just this month, Lehman Brothers filed a foreclosure lawsuit against WSG Development’s Golden Sands Canyon Ranch project.
Now the company is getting back into the development game – with the help of a high-powered private equity fund managed by NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Bobby Turner.
An online listing of the project, La Plaza at Flagler, says it is planned as 235,000 square feet on 31 acres. It is forecast for completion in August 2013, with rents offered at $35 a square foot. Wal-Mart is advertised as the anchor.
The listing broker, Rod Castan, of Miami-based Courtelis Co., could not immediately be reached for comment.
Canyon-Johnson has been active in the Miami-Dade retail market. Earlier this year, it acquired the Intracoastal Mall in North Miami Beach in a $59.8 million deed in lieu of foreclosure. It recently secured a $31.75 million mortgage on that property.
Source:  SFBJ

 

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