As they work to close their massive merger with Equity Residential, executives at AvalonBay Communities are continuing to feed their large apartment development pipeline.
In an off-market transaction, the Arlington, Virginia-based REIT acquired a full-city-block development site in downtown South Miami, totaling approximately 1.18 acres, from longtime owner Robins Plaza LLC, for a base purchase price of $22 million, according to a Cushman & Wakefield press release shared with Multifamily Dive.
With the site secured, AVB plans to begin its second project in South Miami: Avalon South Miami II. The 16-story mixed-use community will have 251 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units, approximately 17,713 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, a sixth-floor pool, a rooftop lounge and 394 parking spaces, per the release.
Cushman & Wakefield claims the $90,000-per-unit price is the highest ever paid for a South Miami development site. The parcel offers 300 feet of frontage on U.S. 1, as well as access to the South Miami Metrorail station, the University of Miami and the Shops at Sunset Place, per the release from the commercial real estate services firm.
“This was one of the last true full-block development opportunities in downtown South Miami, and it sits in exactly the kind of transit-oriented, walkable location institutional capital currently seeks,” said Cushman & Wakefield Managing Director Virgilio Fernandez, who represented AVB, in the release.
A historic corner building at 5900-5904 Sunset Drive was excluded from the sale and will be retained and renovated by the seller to become the new home of Deli Lane Café & Sunset Tavern.
South Miami II follows the Avalon South Miami development, which AVB started in the third quarter of 2023, according to an earnings release. That 290-unit property carried a $186 million price tag and an average monthly rental revenue per home of $4,535 at the time.
On AVB’s first-quarter earnings call in April, Chief Investment Officer Matthew Birenbaum said Avalon South Miami, along with projects in New Jersey, was driving a lot of the REIT’s development net operating income.
“There's plenty of supply in South Florida, but not in a location like South Miami where that community is over a brand-new Fresh Market on the South/East side of U.S. 1,” Birenbaum said. “And all the competition is in other neighborhoods that don't have the same walkability, that don't have the same schools.”
In their fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call, AVB executives said Southeast Florida was the strongest region in its expansion markets with revenue growth of roughly 1.5%.
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