RKF and Ackman-Ziff arrange $139 million retail portfolio sale

RKF, in conjunction with The Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, has completed the $139 million sale of a 53,260 s/f primarily retail portfolio located in South Beach on behalf of the seller, South Beach Tristar Capital LLC. A joint venture consisting of Terranova Corp. and Acadia Realty Trust acquired the portfolio in an all-cash deal. The portfolio consists of properties located at 719-737, 801-821 and 826-838 Lincoln Rd. Miami's South Beach district. Current tenants in the fully-occupied portfolio include Aldo, Solstice, Score, Tiramesu, Spris, Fossil, Kiehl's, SOBE, Steve Madden and the new Dylan's Candy Bar, among others. Lincoln Rd. Mall is an open-air pedestrian esplanade stretching from Alton Road to Washington Avenue. It ranks among the leading retail corridors in the world and is Miami's top tourist destination, drawing tourists and residents alike, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The market has evolved over the past decade from smaller shops and boutiques of local retailers to significant flagships of high impact national and international retailers, including Apple, J.Crew, H&M, Forever 21, Madewell and many more. "When we acquired this portfolio in '98 we were considered pioneers, but we saw this as an emerging market and had the vision that Lincoln Rd. could become one of the great shopping streets in the country alongside Madison Avenue, Michigan Ave. and Rodeo Dr.," said David Edelstein, president of Tristar Capital. "The time has come to execute our disposition strategy and to deploy our assets into new emerging markets." Tristar originally acquired the portfolio for $15.75 million in 1998. At the time, the $295 per s/f purchase price was believed to be record-setting and a sign that Lincoln Road was on the cusp of a major evolution. Fifteen years later, the immediate area surrounding Lincoln Rd. is now marked for further transformation with new development and redevelopment projects slated along Lincoln Lane and Meridian Avenue, as well as the planned renovation and expansion of the Miami Beach Convention Center. "RKF and Ackman-Ziff played a major role in helping us exceed our expectations on the sale," added Edelstein. "They did a stellar job of exposing the portfolio to a large pool of investors and worked incredibly well in jointly executing the transaction along with our legal counsel, Olshan Frome Wolosky." With this latest transaction, RKF has worked on the sale of more than $270 million worth of Lincoln Road retail properties over the past six months. In July, RKF represented Vornado Realty Trust on their $132 million acquisition of 1100 Lincoln Road. Until this week, the 1100 Lincoln Road transaction represented the highest price paid for a Florida retail property in 2012. Ackman-Ziff's Miami team of five professionals is fully integrated with its New York headquarters, which completed over $4 billion of transactions in 2012.