More Companies Eye Wynwood As Miami's Tech Hub Creds Grow
Wynwood is "without a doubt, the hottest submarket in the country,” said DWNTWN Realty Advisors managing principal Devlin Marinoff.
Wynwood Art District in Miami is known for its street art and as a hub for creatives, but with more technology and finance firms getting office space there, recent transactions have positioned the neighborhood as the focal point of the city’s increasing status as a technology hub.
That’s according to DWNTWN Realty Advisors managing principals Tony Arellano and Devlin Marinoff, who have more than $100 million in pending transactions in Wynwood. DWNTWN Realty Advisors is a commercial real estate brokerage in Miami. The company says it has participated in more than $350 million in investment and development sales in Wynwood over the last few years.
Wynwood is “without a doubt, the hottest submarket in the country,” said Marinoff.
Due to a shifting population and companies wanting to attract a better talent pool, Wynwood rose as the next hot submarket amidst the pandemic, Marinoff said. For technology and finance firms, Wynwood’s walkability compared to other neighborhoods and culture are what draws them to the area.
“It has the newer, more creative office product that some of these companies are looking to attract, and a certain type of worker enjoys. Your neighborhood coffee shop, your vibrant restaurant scene, the happy-hour scene—it sort of hits on all cylinders with respect to vibe and amenities,” said Arellano.
Major companies like Live Nation, Spotify and Atomic now have offices in Wynwood. Arellano said that when Founders Fund, a venture capital firm led by PayPal founder Peter Thiel, relocated their office to Wynwood, others started to follow suit.
“It sends an important message to the tech community. Wynwood, and Miami in general, have been described now as the ‘capital of capital’ and once Founders Fund signed, it was like the market decided where it wanted to office. That was the biggest thing—selling a market that didn’t have fundamentals for companies at that level, at that time. Now that it’s been accepted, we’ve now passed the test, and it’s sort of built into our fabric,” Arellano said.
Although they can’t announce which companies are coming yet, Arellano and Marinoff said that in six to eight months, there will be major game changers in Wynwood.
“The pandemic accelerated people reflecting on where they want to live, and companies realizing they don’t need to be in financial places in order to operate a business at a very high level. By providing their employees a better city to live in, they might get better talent and maybe even reduce their occupancy costs,” Arellano said.
Many of the tech and finance companies are coming from the Northeast and California. The number of out-of-market companies is on the rise by about 10%, said Arellano, but a majority of companies coming to Wynwood are local companies who decided to relocate. Arellano believes the neighborhood will see long-term growth as a result.
“Wynwood is still very much a neighborhood of little magnets—where a project is developed, and then a whole block lights up,” Arellano said.
From law firms to retail companies who are transitioning away from malls, Wynwood is a strong investment for business across sectors, both Arellano and Marinoff said.
“The leasing is very strong. It’s hitting on every cylinder. It’s the best investment in any submarket in the country right now. Hands down,” said Marinoff.
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