Deering Real Estate Brokers Sale of $8.5 Million Parcel in West Brickell

The $8.35 million sale of a parcel in Miami’s Brickell Avenue area is seen by several industry insiders as a sign that values for prime land may be stabilizing.

On Monday, Coral Gables developer Alex Vadia acquired the 1.3-acre site on South Miami Avenue between Coral Way and Southwest 14th Street. Vadia confirmed the price but said the parcel’s size is wrong in public records. He said the property encompasses 56,090 square feet, which makes the deal worth about $149 per square foot.

Vadia declined further comment.

Irving Padron, president and CEO of Deering Cos., a business consulting and real estate advisory firm in Coconut Grove, brokered the deal. He declined to comment.

The seller was a partnership of DYL Group in Miami and a conglomerate based in Trinidad and Tobago. DYL had planned to build a condominium tower – Infinity II at Brickell – on that location, but the housing meltdown halted its plans.

The site was facing foreclosure at the time of the sale. DYL paid $19.4 7 million for the Infinity II site in 2005 and got a $12 million loan from now-defunct Corus Bank.

The property is adjacent to the 459-unit Infinity I at Brickell, which DYL completed in late 2008.

About 60 units have closed at Infinity I, according to Miami-Dade County property records.

The sale of the Infinity II site is the second land deal to close in the downtown Miami or the Brickell financial district within a month.

On Dec. 29, Miami-Dade College paid $5.47 million, or $191.9 a square foot, for a parcel on Northeast Third Street and Second Avenue, near its Wolfson campus.

Significant South Florida land sales have been rare since the financial markets collapsed in September 2008.