Developer David Martin’s record $1.2 billion takeover of Genting Group’s downtown Miami portfolio has been called off, real deal Learned.
Martin and his company Terra lead Smart City Miami, an investment group that was awarded a contract to acquire 15.5 acres in Miami’s downtown arts and entertainment district. The property is north of the Kaseya Arena and near the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.
The deal marks the most expensive urban land sale in Florida and one of the most expensive in the country. News of Terra’s contract in late April provided rocket fuel for the market in uncertain times, brokers and lawyers said. It creates momentum for other deals and boosts investor confidence in the local market.
Genting may renegotiate with one of four other bidders that have offered more than $1 billion, but capital markets remain challenging and new buyers may struggle to raise funds for such a large deal. Lenders continued to pull money as business sales fell sharply due to rising interest rates and knock-on effects of bank failures earlier this year.
The land at 1431 North Bayshore Drive was listed in November by the Avison Young team led by Michael Fay and John Crotty. The brokers are also involved in another high-profile land sale: the site of the Surfside apartment collapse, which sold for $120 million a year ago.
Terra-led Smart City seeks to extend and revise the terms of the deal for the Genting portfolio, according to a joint statement from Smart City and Genting.
Smart City said it had “chosen to end the current bid” but remained interested in the site, suggesting it may bid again.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based gambling operator Genting plans to retain properties north of the Downtown Miami Hilton and Omni Center. The land it sold to Terra’s SmartCity accounts for more than half of Genting’s holdings in the area.
It includes the former 14.6-acre waterfront headquarters of the Miami Herald, which Genting bought for $236 million in 2011, a record for a Miami-Dade County land sale at the time. The Herald building was demolished in 2015, and the space has been leased for events such as Art Miami and Context Expo.
Terra has been active in South Florida, where there are dozens of new projects. The company also has a contract to buy Castle Beach Club, an aging condo building in Miami Beach, for $500 million. Related Group and 13th Floor Investments had planned to buy the owners for the same amount, but pulled out of the deal in October.
