One Sotheby’s International Realty is seeking to establish a new headquarters in Coral Gables.
The brokerage firm submitted a proposal to the Coral Gables Development Review Board for a 31,420-square-foot mixed-use building at 1501 and 1505 Sunset Boulevard.
One Sunset LLC, a Florida entity managed by One Sotheby’s president Daniel de la Vega, proposes a six-story building with 20,300 square feet of office space, 8,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a rooftop recreational deck. The proposed project also includes 81 parking spaces spread over the second, third and fourth floors.
“Everyone drives through that area,” De La Vega said, noting that the area’s proximity to the affluent neighborhood of Coral Gables got him interested in the site. One Sotheby’s is currently headquartered at 3250 Mary Street in Coconut Grove.
The Coral Gables Review Board is scheduled to vote on the project on Friday.
De la Vega’s application estimates the project will cost $7 million. Coral Gables-based Hamed Rodriguez Architects is designing the building.
Real estate records show that de la Vega’s entity spent $4 million on the development site in 2021. For the record, the proposed project involves the demolition of two existing office buildings built in 1946 and 1947. At just 7,500 square feet, the buildings are a fraction of the size of the brokerage’s planned project.
When complete, the building will be home to One Sotheby’s headquarters and its Coral Gables branch. De la Vega said it was too early to tell whether One Sotheby’s would move out of the Coconut Grove office.
De La Vega said the brokerage will use only one floor of office space in the proposed building and lease the rest. “We did have to do some pre-lease work,” he said.
The company is already in talks with food and beverage operators to convert commercial spaces into high-end restaurants, de la Vega said. He added that the roof will be used for events such as happy hours with agents.
Sotheby’s has been in growth mode for the last year. In April, it acquired Podium Realty Group, a Miami-based brokerage specializing in Brazilian buyers. Last summer, the company expanded to Florida’s east coast by acquiring brokerages in Brevard County and Vero Beach.
