Federal Realty Investment Trust, Comras Company and Grass River Property bought the 500,000-square-foot outdoor mall last year for $110 million, and the new owners are now looking to reposition the Mediterranean-style shopping center.
Zyscovich Architects is designing the redevelopment, which would add two apartment buildings with 400 units, a 200-room hotel and retail on the ground floor connecting both. The hotel and residential component would be on the north end of the mall closer to South Dixie Highway. Federal Realty and its partners’ plan involves knocking down parts of the mall, installing new storefronts along Red Road, improving landscaping and plazas, and installing public artwork, according to a press release.
At a retail panel last week, Grass River Principal Tom Roth and Michael Comras said the mall, a 10-acre site in downtown South Miami, would be very different than it is now. The owners have been in talks with the South Miami community over what the property could be turned into. A number of new retail-driven projects are in the works for South Miami, albeit on a smaller scale than Sunset Place.
Late last year, Federal Realty brought in pop-up tenants like Frontgate and added physical improvements to the mall. The same group of partners also purchased CocoWalk for $80 million in 2015, but have yet to announce redevelopment plans for the Coconut Grove shopping center.
Katherine Kallergis, The Real Deal
Read more here: therealdeal.com/miami/
