CPA Firm to Anchor New Mixed-Use Project in Suburban Miami

A certified public accounting firm has agreed to lease nearly 65,000 square feet at a mixed-use development in Coconut Grove, Florida, the first new non-medical office space in that suburban Miami market in more than 20 years.

Kaufman Rossin will anchor the 94,606-square-foot Mary Street building at 3310 Mary St., bringing about 300 employees to the site when the project is complete next June, said Blain Heckaman, chief executive of Kaufman Rossin.

The lease gives Kaufman Rossin 10,000 square feet of additional space when it relocates from its current digs, two blocks away at 2699 S. Bayshore Dr., where it has operated since 1974.

“We have some parking challenges now that will be mostly, if not all, resolved in the new space,” Heckaman said. “New is a good thing.”

Heckaman added the opportunity to build out creative office space at Mary Street was another factor in the firm’s decision to move.

Terra Group, the developer of the project in partnership with Mayfair Advisors, will take the remaining 13,174 square feet of office space in the 4-Star building.

Aside from the offices, Mary Street will have 16,766 square feet of retail and a public parking garage. Signed retail tenants include Jaguar Therapeutic, OXXO Cleaners and the Elia restaurant.

Data from brokerage firm Jones Lang LaSalle shows that Coconut Grove’s Class A vacancy rate is 1.7 percent, the lowest of any market in Miami-Dade County. That vacancy figure doesn’t include office space under construction at Mary Street, CocoWalk and 27@Lincoln, which total a combined 250,000 square feet.

Randy Carballo, a vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle in Miami, said Coconut Grove has plenty of hotels, restaurants and other amenities found in popular office markets nearby, such as Coral Gables and Brickell Avenue.

But those areas dwarf Coconut Grove’s nearly 1 million-square-foot office market, according to Carballo (pictured).

“The Grove has the recipe for success, but it’s just always been a smaller market,” he said.

But that may soon change. Carballo said the likely success of projects under construction could lead to more offices being built or repurposed in Coconut Grove in the next few years.