The Webster, a fashion house that sells designer clothing and home furnishings, is looking to sell an even larger piece of merchandise.
The Miami Beach-based company is listing its headquarters for sale, asking $15.5 million to free up cash for an expansion, according to the listing brokers.
But the retailer will only sell if it can stay as a long-term tenant in a sale leaseback of the historic building at 1220 Collins Avenue, said Jared Robins of InHouse Commercial.
Robins, InHouse Commercial Sales’ Jordan Gimelstein, and Robin Zendell of Robin Zendell & Associates are co-listing the property, according to the offering package.
Gimelstein’s great uncle, the prominent late architect Henry Hohauser, designed the Art Deco building, he said.
It was built in 1937.
Developers and brothers Craig and Scott Robins owned the building between 1988 and 2006. Scott is Jared Robins’ father.
The brothers restored the property and converted it to a two-unit condo, where they once lived, with ground-floor commercial space, Jared Robins said.
It was formerly the Hotel Webster.
Today, the 15,600-square-foot building is divided into two floors of retail space and an office and gallery on the third floor. It sits on a 7,000-square-foot lot.
The Webster was founded by Laure Heriard Dubrueil in 2009 and now has locations, including in Bal Harbour, Houston, Costa Mesa, Toronto, Los Angeles, Montecito, Palm Beach and New York.
The company got its name from the Miami Beach building.
Nearby, distressed real estate investor ARC PE late last year paid just $5 million for a mixed-use building at 826 Collins Avenue, 40 percent less than the property’s purchase price a decade ago.
The Robins family are active investors and developers in Miami. The family patriarch, Jerry Robins, died last year at 86.
Craig Robins, founder and CEO of Dacra, is active in the Miami Design District, where he’s led the development of the neighborhood into a high-end retail and restaurant mecca.
In December, his Miami Design District Associates partnered with the Qatari firm Constellation Hotels Holding, developer Nadim Ashi’s Fort Partners and New York-based private equity firm Raycliff Capital to purchase more than 2.5 acres for about $165 million.
The developers plan a mixed-use project with a hotel.
Scott Robins, president and CEO of Miami Beach-based Scott Robins Companies, has projects in Miami Beach, Palm Beach and Miami.
He has partnered with former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine on developments, which more recently include an office and apartment project in Wynwood.