Jorge Pérez’s Related Group has put a portion of the former Johnson & Wales University in North Miami under contract, and is proposing to build a 382-unit apartment project.
Coconut Grove-based Related Group is seeking approval from the city of North Miami for the eight-story Manor Biscayne building with 9,335 square feet of ground-floor retail on 2.3 acres at 1650 Northeast 124th Street, according to documents attached to the North Miami City Council agenda.
The council is expected to vote on the project at its 7 p.m. meeting on Tuesday.
The unit breakdown at Manor Biscayne would be 27 studios, ranging from 600 square feet to 775 square feet; 138 one-bedroom apartments, ranging from 715 square feet to 775 square feet; 173 two‐bedroom apartments, ranging from 1,050 square feet to 1,290 square feet; and 44 three-bedroom apartments, ranging from 1,390 square feet to 1,500 square feet, according to the agenda documents. Of the 173 two-bedroom units, 16 will be townhouses.
The proposal also includes a 668-space garage, 36 on-street parking spaces, and a sheltered bus stop along Northeast 16th Avenue.
On Feb. 1, the North Miami Planning Commission voted 6-2 in favor of the development, also directing city staff members to explore options to provide additional on-street parking for nearby businesses, according to the agenda documents.
Johnson & Wales, a nonprofit tourism and hospitality school, closed its North Miami and Denver campuses after completing the 2022-21 academic year. Its campuses in Providence, Rhode Island, where the university is based, as well as in Charlotte, North Carolina, remain open.
Since closing, JWU has been selling its North Miami campus in pieces. In July, Yoram Izhak’s IMC Equity Group bought several campus properties for a combined $21 million.
That deal included the site Related Group wants to develop, which along with the shuttered college golf management center, traded for $12.3 million. An affiliate of Related is under contract for the site, according to a letter of intent filed to the city by an attorney for the entity.
At least one other buyer of portions of the campus has already flipped the real estate. In January, Property Markets Group sold the university’s recreation facility, the Wildcat Center, at 1600 Northeast 126th Street, for $10.7 million. Tate Capital bought it, and leased the building to the city of North Miami.
PMG originally bought six campus buildings for $2.5 million and flipped three of them for $10 million in October.
