Miami’s downtown skyline includes a 28-story landmark that’s been sitting empty for years, and Miami-Dade County is trying, for a second time, to find someone to buy it. The historic Miami-Dade County Courthouse at 73 W. Flagler Street, roughly 265,000 square feet across 28 floors, is back up for auction after an initial sale attempt fizzled out this summer.
The county listed the building through GovDeals, an online marketplace for government-owned assets, with bidding open from July 29 through August 28 and a minimum bid set at $35.41 million. The listing reportedly drew close to 50,000 views, plenty of interest on paper, but not a single qualifying bid came in by the deadline.
Rather than pull the building off the market, GovDeals is retooling its approach. Nick Carr, a vice president with the firm, has been overseeing adjustments to the sale process, and the company hosted an in-person open house at the courthouse on September 8 so prospective buyers could walk the space themselves. The bidding window has now been extended through September 18 at 5 p.m.
This isn’t the county’s first attempt to find a buyer for the aging tower. Earlier private talks with Miami-based developer GFO Acquisitions LLC fell apart before a deal was reached, leaving the courthouse’s future still very much up in the air.
For Miami’s business community, a sale of this size is worth watching. A 265,000-square-foot building in the heart of downtown could end up as office space, residential conversions, mixed use, or something else entirely, and whoever ultimately buys it will need architects, contractors, property managers, leasing agents, and plenty of other local vendors to bring it back to life. Redevelopment projects like this tend to ripple outward, creating opportunities well beyond the buyer itself.
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Source: Miami Today