MIAMI — Miami investment management company Leste Group and one of Brazil’s biggest real estate investors, Opportunity Fundo de Investimento Imobiliário, are teaming to build more than $1 billion of apartment buildings in Miami over five years offering up to 5,000 apartments.
Under the partnership LORE Development Group, the developers are moving ahead as Miami deals with a housing crisis caused by years of soaring prices and rents and a stubbornly tight supply of homes. Public officials and private investors have been working for months to get more homes built that can be sold or rented affordably by middle-class people.
LORE’s first development will be a 500-unit apartment building 1015 SW 1st Avenue in Brickell, the heart of the city’s financial district which has attracted several high-end residential development projects throughout the pandemic. The project will cost $500 million to build and will include space for stores on the ground floor. The location is near popular restaurants and shopping, as well as close to public transportation. Construction is expected to begin during the second half of next year and finish in 2027.
“We’re strong believers in mobility and public transportation,” Leste Group managing partner Stephan de Sabrit said. “Sitting right across the street is the Brickell Transit Center. The whole idea for mobility is about giving you options.”
The partnership intends to start developing three new apartment projects annually with an estimated 300 to 450 apartments in each building. In four years, the plan is to have 4,000 to 5,000 apartments ready to lease.
While the Brickell apartment complex will be a luxury building, de Sabrit is hopeful the partners can build apartments carrying less expensive leases targeting workers and those in need of more affordable housing. He noted North Miami, Aventura and Dadeland as places they are looking at potential building sites.
Originally based in Brazil, de Sabrit moved to South Florida in 2015 for business. Opportunity, one of the largest single-family home developers in Brazil, has invested in all of de Sabrit’s regional real estate ventures here. Given political and economic uncertainty in Brazil and Opportunity’s interest in growing a U.S. presence, Leste and Opportunity officials were enthusiastic about joining forces to push apartment development in Miami.
“With the disconnect with prices and rents, we feel like this is a good time for us to step in and amass a land bank,” de Sabrit said. “We want to step in and create a larger footprint in the region where we can build many apartment buildings.”
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