Craig Wagener Sells Doral Retail Center to Tomas Smolarz

An investor from north Florida sold the fully leased Shoppes at Doral for $15.1 million.

Gerig Holdings, led by Craig Wagener of Middleburg, Fla., sold the 16,500-square-foot property at 10425 Northwest 41st Street, according to a news release from the seller’s broker.

Sources said the buyer is Doral Shops LLC, which state corporate records show is led by Tomas Maliar Smolarz, a Latin American investor who lists a Dania Beach post office address.

Drew Kristol and Kirk Olson, both of Marcus & Millichap, represented the seller. Aaron Mizrahi of Universal USA Realty represented the buyer.

In 2001, Wagener bought the plaza in Doral for $3.9 million from the joint venture that developed it, according to a deed and a Marcus & Millichap release. Antonio Fraga’s Asheville, North Carolina-based FIRC Group and Demar Capital Investments, a now defunct entity led by Albert Stanton III and Steve Logan, completed the shopping center in 1999 on 1.3 acres, records show.

Tenants include hair salon Sports Clips, Fuegos Del Sur restaurant, Verizon and Pan Pa Ya bakery. The shopping center also is adjacent to a Winn-Dixie.

Across South Florida, grocery-anchored plazas have caught investors’ eyes. Shoppes at Doral likely is reaping the benefits from foot traffic at the nearby grocery store.

The retail market in general has recovered from a downturn experienced during the brief 2020 shutdown. Throughout the tri-county region, rents rose by $3 per square foot or more in the third quarter, year-over-year, and vacancies continued to drop.

Among recent sales of grocery-anchored shopping centers, PGIM Real Estate paid $61.5 million last month for the Publix-anchored Monarch Town Center at 12503-12681 Miramar Parkway in Miramar.

Also last month, Miami Heat minority owner Ranaan Katz’s RK Centers bought the Aldi-anchored shopping plaza at 10790 Biscayne Boulevard and 1290 Northeast 108th Street near North Miami for $38 million.

Contact Lidia Dinkova