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Front Page » Top Stories » Florida Grand Opera Puts Doral Headquarters On Sale

Florida Grand Opera Puts Doral Headquarters On Sale

Written by on March 8, 2012
  • www.miamitodayepaper.com
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By Patricia Hoyos
The Florida Grand Opera has listed its 35,779-square-foot Doral headquarters for sale for $5.6 million, according to a listing posted by the Katsikos Group, which is leading the selling efforts.

The opera wanted to consolidate its operations and focus on putting together operas rather than handling real estate, said William Hill, member of the opera’s board of directors.

Robert Heuer, opera general director and CEO, told Miami Today in January that after years of planning to build a downtown headquarters on 46,000 square feet the opera owns at Northeast Second Avenue and 14th Street, the organization had decided to sell its downtown land and remain in its current Doral location, making no mention of plans to sell the Doral building as well.

Mr. Heuer could not be reached. A spokesperson said he is in the process of finalizing casting for the 2012-2013 season, his last before his May 2013 retirement.

"We own a building here that has our office, our rehearsal space," Mr. Heuer had said about the opera’s decision to stay at its Doral headquarters at 8390 NW 25th St. "It is everything that we were going to build."

The downtown property has not yet gone on the market, a spokeswoman for the opera said.

The opera purchased the land downtown, in the Omni area near the planned Genting mega-resort project, in 1995 with plans to make the opera’s home into a mixed-use project. Originally, architectural firm Rodriguez and Quiroga drew plans to build a residential tower atop the headquarters with a ground floor of retail and parking.

After the developer of that project backed out, there were talks of another developer stepping in to build a hotel in its place, but at that point the opera’s board decided to wait until it get funding for the $40 million project.

Mr. Hill said that the opera still doesn’t know where it will move its offices and rehearsal space once the Doral location is sold. Selling the headquarters can turn out to be a lengthy process, he said, giving the Florida Grand Opera sufficient time to figure it out.

The opera’s performances are staged at the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts and the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.

The Florida Grand Opera was formed in June 1994 by a merger of the Greater Miami Opera, founded in 1941, and The Opera Guild Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, founded in 1945.

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