Beach Hospital Plans To Sell Miami Heart Institute Buildings

Written by Risa Polansky on April 5, 2007

By Risa Polansky
Mount Sinai Medical Center officials plan to sell the Miami Heart Institute complex to help pay for expansion of the hospital’s main campus, says CEO Steven Sonenreich.

"It’s an opportunity for us to decrease the operational expense and to monetize an asset that’s underutilized," he said.

The Miami Beach hospital bought the institute for $184 million in the late 1990s.

Most of its functions have been moved to the hospital’s main campus, 4300 Alton Rd., and officials plan to move all activities out of the institute complex.

Funds from a sale would be spend on a $150 million surgical tower, said Mr. Sonenreich, who declined to disclose an asking price.

Marketing of the four-building complex of more than 700,000 square feet will begin this spring. The hospital is seeking a non-health-care-related buyer, he said.

But the land is zoned for hospital use, said Bill Beckman, commercial associate with Colliers Abood Wood-Fay. "Potentially, the sale would be pending on that," he said. "If you can’t get the zoning change, it’s useless."

Zoning aside, one option would be to demolish the facility, which is near water in a residential area, and replace it with condos, Mr. Beckman said.

Another would be to convert the buildings to offices, he said, but area buildings lease for about $20 a square foot while office space farther south runs around $35.

To make a profit after a conversion to offices, lease rates would need to be about $40 a square foot but would "have limited access to the bigger tenants," he said.

"One of the challenges in that location is it’s so far removed from anything. Most offices on the beach like to have amenities nearby."

The building may see better use as a corporate headquarters, Mr. Beckman said, because "it’s built like a bunker and has its own parking garage."

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