Thor Equities sells Wynwood dev site for $28M 

Thor Equities sold a Wynwood site that was previously approved for a mixed-use hotel development for $28 million to a mystery buyer. 

An affiliate of Thor, led by Chairman Joe Sitt, unloaded the 0.7-acre assemblage at 2724 Northwest Second Avenue, 208 Northwest 28th Street and 229, 235 and 245 Northwest 27th Street in Miami, according to Vizzda. 

The buyer traces to National Safe Harbor Exchanges, a Phoenix-based company that handles 1031 exchanges on behalf of clients, according to records and Vizzda. James Beck, a principal for National, and a Thor spokesperson told The Real Deal that the buyer requested anonymity. 

The buyer immediately leased the entire site to an entity managed by Los Angeles law firm Abram Roy, records show. 

A portion of the site was part of a larger assemblage that Thor acquired for $41.5 million in 2015. A year earlier, the New York-based developer also paid $1.9 million for a vacant lot at 2724 Northwest Second Avenue. 

Last year, Thor listed the vacant lot and four adjoining parcels with an asking price of $32 million. The site has city of Miami approval for an eight-story hotel with 211 rooms, 19,705 square feet of retail and a 12,106-square-foot rooftop terrace.

Devlin Marinoff and Tony Arellano with Dwntwn Realty Advisors had marketed the five-property portfolio, but the listing expired prior to the sale, the two brokers told TRD. 

“We knew something was going on,” Marinoff said. “But [Thor] wouldn’t give us any details.”

The buyer paid $912 per square foot, which is “outrageous for land right now,” Marinoff added. 

In the second half of last year, land prices hit $19.3 million per acre, or roughly $445 per square foot, a 51 percent drop compared to the first half of 2022, according to Real Capital Analytics data provided by Colliers. 

The assemblage Thor sold is also adjacent to another development site acquired by a 1031 exchange buyer last month. New York-based Gamma Real Estate sold the properties at 2825 Northwest Second Avenue, 169 and 179 Northwest 28th Street, and 166 and 172 Northwest 29th Street for $26 million. 

British co-living company The Collective had previously scored city of Miami approval to build a 12-story mixed-use project with 180 co-living residential units, 70 lodging rooms and 9,500 square feet of ground-floor retail on the site. But the development never materialized, and Gamma filed a UCC foreclosure against The Collective last year. Gamma bought the property through a credit bid.