The "South Florida Business Journal" reports that Lev Leviev plans to sell an income-producing property in Florida, one of the areas worst hit by the real estate collapse. The paper adds that the buyer is developer Tibor Hollo, the chairman and president of Florida East Coast Realty Inc. The sale follows a number of property sales by Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL; Pink Sheets:AFIVY), which he controls, with more sales in the offing.
Leviev and Shaya Boymelgreen purchased a three-acre lot occupied by two office buildings at 1101 Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami in 2005 for $74 million through their joint venture Leviev Boymelgreen, which was subsequently dissolved in a well-publicized acrimonious break-up in November 2007, when the properties were divided. The property had building rights for a 74-storey mixed-use skyscraper that would include 25,000 square meters of office space, 2,800 square meters of commercial space, and 650 apartments. At the time, Africa-Israel estimated revenue from the project at about $500 million.
Following the dissolution of the partnership, Africa-Israel took over full ownership of the property. However, as a result of the subsequent deterioration in the Miami real estate market, the occupancy rate at the company's current 40,100 square meters of property space fell from 55% at the end of 2007 to 46% at the end of 2008. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, housing prices in Florida have nearly halved from their 2006 peak.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 18, 2009
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