Genting scores 5 offers, each over $1B for downtown Miami dev site
Bidders face a deadline of Thursday to submit timeline, details
Five bidders are willing to wager on a prime assemblage of waterfront land in downtown Miami, each offering more than $1 billion for the 15.5-acre site.
Malaysian gambling operator Genting Group secured nine offers for the property at 1431 North Bayshore Drive in downtown Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District. Five exceeded $1 billion, and those could advance to the next stage, said listing broker Michael Fay of Avison Young. A team led by Fay and his colleague, John Crotty, listed the assemblage in November.
The land, which includes the former Miami Herald headquarters, represents more than half of Genting’s holdings in the area. Genting acquired the ex-Herald’s 14.6-acre waterfront property for $236 million in 2011, at the time a record for Miami-Dade County land sales. The Herald building was torn down in 2015 and the site has been leased out for events that include the Art Miami and Context fairs. Genting will keep the Hilton Miami Downtown hotel and Omni Center north of the properties.
A $1 billion-plus sale of the property would mark a record for land sales in Florida, and possibly in the U.S. The property includes more than 800 feet of waterfront on Biscayne Bay, according to a press release.
The site is zoned T6-36b-O, which allows for up to 60 stories of development, 500 residential units per acre or about 7,800 units, and nearly 21 million square feet in total of development, the release states.