Downtown Miami Site Sells For $21M To Opportunity Zone Fund Planning First Project

Malaysian gaming giant Genting Group has sold one of its Miami holdings to an opportunity zone fund sponsored by a pair of South Florida attorneys.

SF QOZ Fund I LLC, led by David Cohen and Liam Krahe, bought 35K SF of vacant land in Downtown Miami from Genting Group subsidiary Genting Americas Inc. for $21M, it announced Wednesday.

“We’ve been scoping this area out for quite some time,” Cohen said. “We were fortunate to be able to execute on this off-market opportunity, to be able to bring this to our investors and give them the opportunity to invest, whether they're eligible for the opportunity zone benefits or not.”

The fund plans to develop luxury multifamily housing with workforce units by leveraging the Live Local Act, Cohen and Krahe told Bisnow in an interview. They have tapped Chicago-based McCaffery Interests as a development partner along with Grandview Development Co.

Opportunity zones, created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, are federally designated census tracts where investors can receive tax breaks for funding long-term real estate or business developments in underserved communities.

Cohen and Krahe, also attorneys at the Cohen Property Law Group where they focus on real estate transactions, launched their QOZ fund last year.

While they declined to disclose the size of the fund, they said their investors include opportunity zone and non-opportunity zone investors, including NFL players, an NBA coach and other high net worth individuals.

SF QOZ Fund I purchased six parcels spanning nearly an acre — 1525 and 1515 NE Miami Place, 75 NE 15th St., and 1516, 1512 and 1502 NE First Ave. — through its subsidiary A&E District Holding Co. LLC. It would the first ground-up development for the fund, which tapped Kobi Karp as architect.

SF QOZ Fund I leveraged an acquisition loan from Miami-based Rock Lending as well as a "significant amount of capital" from the fund for the acquisition, Krahe said. They plan to deploy additional capital alongside institutional equity and debt for the construction phase, which they hope will begin April 2026.

Cohen and Krahe are aiming to secure approval from the Urban Development Review Board this summer. It is eligible for parking reductions and potential for expedited entitlements, site plan review and permitting, Krahe said.

“The goal is to get this off the ground as soon as possible,” he said.

The acquisition stands out among a slowdown in opportunity zone fundraising as the program nears its sunset in 2026.

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, who was tapped to oversee opportunity zone implementation during President Trump’s first term in 2017, has been an advocate for the extension of the program in recent months.

Those prayers were answered in the House-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill" budget package, but not the way many expected.

The legislation would end the current zones in 2026 and create new ones on Jan. 1, 2027. This create a potential gap for investments and development for the rest of 2025 and all of 2026.

“It feels very much like that was rushed from a legislation standpoint,” Krahe said.

Krahe and Cohen believe that the Senate will revise or replace the House language with something more comprehensive. But for now, they're content that it was added in the first place.

“There was no guarantee that they would include it in any extension bill,” Krahe said. “So, the fact that the House did include it and it was passed through is a huge win for anybody that's involved with opportunity zone projects.”

While the future of opportunity zones remains up in the air, the broader commercial real estate market has also been grappling with macroeconomic uncertainty driven in part by shifting tariff policies.

Since Trump’s initial “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, policies have been removed and reinstated almost daily. On Wednesday, the Trump administration implemented 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum, sparking new worries and investor fears of slower construction.

But Krahe and Cohen are unfazed by the whiplash tariff uncertainty that has tripped up even the largest South Florida developers. The duo said that by the time they begin construction in 2026, they think the pricing shock will taper off.

“There's a new thing every year,” Krahe said. “Last year was natural disasters, hurricanes and increasing insurance costs, now it's tariffs. It all kind of works its way through the system, and eventually prices stabilize and you find a way to capitalize the project.”