Miami Worldcenter Project Gets New Pair Of Wings

The proposed Miami Worldcenter project north of downtown Miami is coming back to life.
The nearly 20-acre development site, which almost disintegrated during the foreclosure crisis, has a new investor. Los Angeles-based CIM Group became part owner of the nine-block site co-owned by Boca Raton-based Falcone Group and California-based Centurion Partners.
CIM is a real estate investment company that makes equity and debt investments in urban communities across the country. CIM owns the SLS Hotel at South Beach at 1701 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach.
Miami Worldcenter Associates, the joint venture between Falcone and Centurion, did not disclose the transaction’s value. But in February, Falcone and Centurion’s PWV Group 1 Holdings registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $40 million through an equity offering.
CIM executives declined to comment.
The new equity partner may help get the project off the ground. In 2008, the Miami approved plans to build nearly 11 million square feet of retail, hotel, convention, office, entertainment and residential space. When the economy crashed in late 2008, the plans were placed on hold. Eventually, Falcone lost some of the assembled parcels to foreclosure to turn around and have Centurion buy it back from the bank at a hefty discount.
Over the last year, Falcone sold close to $26 million worth of land within the development site to Centurion, according to Miami-Dade County property records.
Las Vegas Sands is one of the casino operators that is considering building a destination resort at the Miami Worldcenter site, if gambling is allowed in Florida. A LVS lobbyist this week said LVS had yet to put a Miami or Broward County site under contract. Nick Iarossi, a partner with Capitol City Consulting in Tallahassee, said his client LVS won’t make a decision to buy land in South Florida until enabling statutes for gambling are approved by the Legislature and signed into law.
Source:  DBR