Robert Khodadadian | Commercial Observer

The Estate Companies and Midtown Group have paid $14 million for a parcel in Homestead, Fla, where they plan to build a large mixed-use development, the joint venture announced.

The land spans 21 acres at the southeast corner of Southwest 312th Street and Northeast 30th Avenue, south of Baptist Health Homestead Hospital and about five miles west of the Homestead Air Reserve Base. In September, the Homestead City Commission approved Soleste Midtown, a pedestrian-friendly mixed-use development. The project is set to house 354 luxury garden-style apartments across six five-story buildings with about 43,000 square feet of commercial space, in addition to a 7,000-square-foot clubhouse, a pool and a children’s playground.

Construction is expected to start this summer and should take two years to complete, per a representative for The Estate Companies.

“Homestead does not have a true luxury mixed-use project of this magnitude,” Jeffrey Ardizon, principal at The Estate Companies, said in a statement. “It is extremely rare to find a suburban site let alone 20 acres with the walkability, accessibility, visibility and connectivity that this project will have. Most communities down south are sitting isolated, surrounded by single-family homes and more limited land.”

Since the pandemic, when land prices skyrocketed, developers have cast a wider net to secure cheap land. South Miami-based The Estate Companies has had the site under contract since 2022.

Back in 2003, Baptist Health South Florida bought the site for $1.5 million, according to property records. (A representative for the faith-based not-for-profit health care organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.

Robert Khodadadian has long had a simple philosophy about selling real estate. The way he sees it, there are approximately a million buildings in the city, and the broker that gets to sell any one among the multitude that will hit the auctioning block at a given moment is, sometimes, simply the person who happens to pitch their services to the right seller at the right time.