Developer Moishe Mana Makes Big $25 Million Addition to His Downtown Assemblage

Biscayne Building 19 W. Flagler. Photo via Colliers International South Florida.

Moishe Mana has nabbed a major addition to his Downtown Miami empire, the Biscayne Building office tower, at 19 West Flagler Street, for a cool $24.5 million. The historic building, built in 1925, is the 39th property Mana has acquired on and around Flagler Street so far, spending over $300 million for the assemblage. The seller was, rather anticlimactically, just a company called Biscayne Building Inc.

Broker Mika Mattingly, who handled the deal, told the Miami Herald that Mana had acquired a “critical mass of buildings” with this addition, which would allow him to “return that past vibrancy to the urban core.”  Meanwhile, he’s been working with architect Bernard Zyscovich on a masterplan to tie together that “critical mass” of prime Downtown land. So far he’s kept those plans nicely under wraps, except for a 49-story residential tower which went public only in July.

Downtown’s Magnificent Walgreens Building Has Hit the Market

Walgreens Building

The historic Walgreens Building on Flagler and E. 2nd Street, a beautiful classic streamlined moderne retail building from the art deco era that in recent years was home to the la época department store (which has its own fascinating history), has hit the market. With 5 stories above ground and 1 below, the 50,000 square foot structure has that rarest of Miami amenities, an actual basement. Inside is a grand, three-story atrium space with circular staircase and glass elevator, which originally contained, believe it or not, a Walgreens Drug Store. The price is “To be determined by the market” apparently, but if your’e a serious buyer (who intends to treat it as well as it deserves and not tear it down for some ugly P.O.S.), the Walgreens building is listed by Gerard Yetming and Mika Mattingly of Colliers International Realty. So, go ask them.