South Florida's land is constricted, so investors are busy assembling smaller properties with their eyes on growing it into bigger things. Recently CapasGroup Realty Advisors brokered the sale of five contiguous residential lots totaling 0.857 acres in the North End of West Palm Beach on behalf of two unrelated sellers. The properties were acquired by a private investor who has other land holdings in the area. "The site size was still small, but it had the critical mass necessary to stimulate developer interest," CapasGroup president Brad Capas tells us.

The properties have 290 feet of frontage along the west side of the 2100 and 2200 blocks of Ponce De Leon Avenue, in the Currie Corridor redevelopment district, but the individual sellers' holdings, only 0.29 and 0.567 acres, would be too small to appeal to developers. Besides persuading the sellers to act in concert, Brad adds, it was critical to demonstrate to prospective buyers that both sellers were on board with an assemblage sale, thereby minimizing risk.

In Downtown Miami, Canadian entrepreneur and real estate investor Danny Lavy just bought the diminutive Rick’s Building at 226 E Flagler St, a vintage from 1926. At only a little more than 8,100 SF, it nevertheless traded for about $552/SF and complements the Flagler Building (219 E Flagler) across the street, which Danny also recently bought.

Doris B. Suttin Realty president Doris Suttin tells us that Danny "sees the massive add-value potential for Flagler Street before it happens.” Doris repped Danny in the deal; Shai Ben-Ami and Mika Mattingly of Sterling Equity Commercial repped the seller, 226 E Flagler Corp.