Ex-Kushner Exec Jenny Bernell Pays $20M for Miami Dev Site
Clearline Real Estate’s Jenny Bernell with Block E at 1550 (Smith Aerials)
Jenny Bernell bought an Arts & Entertainment District property for $19.8 million, her third Miami multifamily development site purchase over the past year.
Bernell, through her Clearline Real Estate, acquired the almost 0.9-acre Block E property at 1550 Northeast Miami Place from the Kluger Family Trust, according to a news release from the seller’s broker.
Mika Mattingly and Cecilia Estevez of Colliers represented the Kluger Family Trust.
The property allows for a 427-unit project that could rise 24 stories by right under the current zoning, or reach 48 stories under a bonus height allotted through a city public benefits program, according to the offering memorandum. Similarly, a project could span 260,764 square feet, or
338,993 square feet with the bonus.
The site is in an Opportunity Zone, or government-designated area deemed in need of an economic boost. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 created the Opportunity Zone legislation to incentivize investors to put in their capital gains in these areas in exchange for deferment of taxes on these gains.
Bernell is CEO of Miami and New York-based Clearline, a company she founded in January 2021 after working for New York-based Kushner Companies for almost seven years, according to her LinkedIn. Her last position at Kushner was as EVP of development, which she held for more than four years.
Clearline focuses on Florida, New York, New Jersey and Tennessee and has 1,500 units in the development pipeline.
In Miami, Clearline bought the 1.4-acre assemblage 2000 North Miami Avenue and 2021 Northwest Miami Court in Wynwood for $19.1 million in April.
Clearline also is partnering with Hoboken, New Jersey-based Ironstate Development and Brookfield Properties in the Urby-branded apartment building planned for the former Art by God museum and store site in Wynwood between Northeast 26th and 27th streets, and on the east side of the Florida East Coast Railway. Clearline partnered in the $15.6 million site purchase last year.
The Arts & Entertainment District, between downtown Miami and Edgewater, is quickly redeveloping, due in part to its proximity to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science and the Metromover.
The site Clearline purchased is less than 500 feet from the School Board Metromover station.
The Melo family’s Melo Group has made hefty investments in the district, developing the Miami Plaza, Melody Tower, Square Station and Art Plaza apartment projects.
In December, the Melos put a just over 3-acre property under contract for $105 million, with preliminary plans for a four-tower residential and retail complex. The site is between Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast Second Avenue as well as between Northeast 17th Street and 17th Terrace.
Developers Dan Kodsi and Rafael Pecchio paid $8.9 million for the property at 1317 and 1345 North Miami Avenue, with plans for a 200-unit apartment tower.
