Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann's residential development company has bought nearly 16 acres in the quiet Miami village of El Portal, in a move that could pave the way for a mixed-use development with thousands of residential units.
Neumann’s Flow purchased Biscayne 85, the site of the former Little Farm Trailer Park at 8500 Biscayne Blvd., for $70.5 million in a court-ordered sale handled by Avison Young. The sale price was double the $35 million stalking-horse bid placed by Melo Group in October, Avison Young said in a statement.
The property was placed under a court-appointed receiver in 2021 alongside a dilapidated tower at 7880 Biscayne Blvd. following a lawsuit from investors alleging fraud from the previous owner. The tower at 7880 Biscayne Blvd. was sold last year and is slated for redevelopment into a 355-unit apartment complex.
Flow's winning bid for the 8500 Biscayne Blvd. site is expected to "result in the recovery of a substantial amount" of losses for the victims of the alleged fraud, said Michael Fay, principal and chairman of Avison Young’s U.S. capital markets group executive committee, in the statement.
The land is one of the last large development sites in Miami, according to the statement. Situated along the Biscayne Boulevard corridor about five miles north of downtown Miami and Flow's existing South Florida properties at Miami Worldcenter, Flow Miami and Flow House, the vacant land is a part of the Village of El Portal and sits directly east of the Florida East Coast Railway.
"Large plots of land are hard to come by" in the area, said Juan Arias, CoStar's director of market analytics for South Florida. In the past 10 years, "there have only been a handful of land deals" larger than 10 acres east of Interstate 95 in Miami, Arias said. The deal falls toward "the high end of pricing, at around $4.4 million per acre" in an area that is "already pretty densified."
Neumann launched Flow in 2022 with a $350 million investment from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Flow owns and develops multifamily properties "designed to connect you with yourself, your neighbors, and the natural world," according to Flow's website. Neumann said at the end of last year that the company is focusing on “doubling down” and growing in regions where it has established its footprint.
Flow's latest acquisition may hint at a potential expansion in Miami. According to Avison Young, the land at 8500 Biscayne Blvd. is zoned for “liberal” mixed-use development and can accommodate more than 2,300 multifamily units. A developer can build nearly 3 million square feet of rentable space, with residential, retail, office, hospitality and specialty real estate allowed on the site, Avison Young said.
For the record
Avison Young’s Fay, John Crotty, David Duckworth and Brian de la Fé completed the sale on behalf of court-appointed receiver Michael Goldberg of Akerman LLP.