Billionaire Schmidt-Backed Building Seeks Top Miami Beach Rents
Developers are preparing to construct the first new office property in the city’s South of Fifth district in more than 15 years.
The five-floor building in Miami Beach will feature office space with asking rents of $170 a square foot.
Credit: TECMA
A new Miami Beach office building backed by ex-Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt will seek some of the highest rents ever seen in that market to cater to the growing number of hedge funds and finance firms expanding in the region.
Developers Sumaida + Khurana and Bizzi & Partners are building The Fifth Miami Beach, a boutique office property with roughly 60,000 square feet (5,570 square meters) of rentable space, according to a statement Tuesday. Schmidt is a co-owner of the building, according to city filings. The developers and a representative for Schmidt declined to comment on his involvement.
Asking rents for the building are expected to reach $170 a square foot, according to Brian Gale, a vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, which is handling office leasing for the site. That’s more than double the average rate in Miami’s Brickell market of $74.33, according to research from Savills. Rents for The Fifth Miami Beach could even top the priciest office market in New York at Hudson Yards, where high-quality offices rent at an average of $133 a square foot, Savills data show.
It will be the first new office building in the region’s South of Fifth neighborhood, one of the most prestigious districts in Miami Beach, in more than 15 years.