Westpine bets on Brickell rentals for first project

Westpine Partners, a newly formed development firm targeting top U.S. markets, picked Miami’s Brickell for its first project.

Westpine wants to build a 43-story tower with 328 apartments at 160 and 180 Southwest Ninth Street, according to an application filed to Miami-Dade County last week. Plans call for the Behar Font & Partners-designed high-rise to include nearly 1,200 square feet of ground-floor retail, about 14,000 square feet of open space and 357 parking spots.

The submittal seeks a pre-application meeting, which is usually requested to solicit county staff’s feedback on a project prior to an official filing.

The proposal marks a pivot from the previous plan for the site announced two months ago, as well as a change of development firm.

In October, Colliers said it brokered a $15 million purchase of the site by Henry Pino’s Miami-based Alta Development. The plan called for a 38-story building with 320 apartments, sources said.

But the deeds for the pair of adjacent lots show an affiliate of Westpine Partners as the buyer. Records show the purchase price as almost $12 million, but a Westpine representative disputed this, saying the price was $15 million.

Westpine was formed a year ago to focus on ground-up development of multifamily, industrial and mixed-use projects, the firm’s representative said. The Brickell development is the firm’s first, with Pino’s Alta staying on as a development consultant on the project, the representative said.

Timothy Haskin is Westpine’s CEO and managing partner, according to his LinkedIn profile, which also lists him as president of Peninsula Real Estate and former senior managing director at AECOM Capital. Westpine lists a New York address.

Its bet on Brickell comes amid a residential development flurry in the neighborhood. Menesse International, a venture among two Mexican firms and their local partner, also filed a proposal last week for a 39-story, 400-unit apartment tower at 143 Southwest Ninth Street.

Others making a move on the neighborhood include Yamal Yidios, whose Ytech firm plans The Residences at 1428 Brickell. The 70-story, 189-condo tower is planned to have 80,000 square feet of amenities, partially powered by solar energy.

Read more

South Florida

Here’s the pipeline of resi projects in Miami’s Brickell