There was a good start to answering this burning question 3 years ago (here, in case you were interested), but because I cleaned up my google drive, not realizing the pictures there needed to exist to show up in this blog, it (and many earlier posts) got a little decimated.
So let's do a little "re-inventing of the wheel" and see who the big parcel owners are on WDH, and what we know of their plans.
Part 1: Here's a picture where Aventura Mall is recognizable on the right side, and Ives Dairy Road is the yellow line running along the top. The 2 vertical yellow lines are US1 and WDH, running parallel to each other, with the rail road tracks not visible, but sandwiched in between.
Next, as we move south, is the huge former trailer-park parcel that is now the site of "Gables Aventura" which was pretty thoroughly analyzed in my May 12, 2004 post. It consists of hundreds of rental apartments, which means hundreds of new car-driving residents moving in this year. There's much more info on the development than there was in 2004, and the best place to research is https://www.gables.com/communities/florida/aventura/gables-aventura/.
Next comes 19800 West Dixie Highway, a 122,068 sf parcel owned by “Eliahu Ben Shmuel Trust, and Daniel Mims Ben Shmuel Trust.” I covered this in an older post, but to repeat myself: The owner address is in Tennessee, but Eliahu Ben-Shmuel is a businessman in his 70s living in Golden Beach, who previously founded Swiss Watch International (a Florida-based company that “designs and makes timepieces worldwide,” including counterfeiting Seiko and Pulsar watches, according to this 2002 case). SWI was started by Eliahu (“Eli”) in 1995, but was later run by his 3 sons Izac (42), Lior (40) and Shlomi (36) [source], before being sold in late 2012. This parcel was purchased (together with the others described below) for $3.4M in December 2012.
19790 WDH was owned by March Property Acquisitions LLC when I wrote the posts in 2004, but now it's owned by "WD 19790 LLC", who bought it in February 2015 for $2.375M (which means it was flipped pretty quickly by March Properties who bought it in September 2013 for $1.25M). The the new owner has very big plans, as anyone would know who has seen the massive tower dominating the eastern horizon: "The Forum Aventura" (which like many "Aventura" buildings is NOT in Aventura). Tons of info in the sales brochure: http://x.lnimg.com/attachments/D2B0B69E-BC9F-43C7-BEF2-D69EBB7BEFFD.pdf (be sure to note all the hilarious references to Aventura, keeping in mind that the building is not in Aventura).
Next is 19770 owned, again, but the Ben-Shmuel trusts. This 54,014sf parcel was purchased (together with other parcels) for $3.4M in December 2012.
Then 19680, a 49,223 sf parcel also owned by the Ben-Shmuel trusts, and part of the $3.4M deal in December 2012.
19640 WDH is owned by "CK Prive Group 196 LLC", which bought it for $8.5M in 2016. It's a larger, rectangular 95,832sf parcel. Since this owner is behind the "Forum Aventura" building (see story at http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2016/09/08/office-condo-project-near-major-mall-breaks-ground.html), I believe that this and the parcels from 19640 up to 19790 are all combined to accommodate Forum Aventura.
And last up in Part 1 (which ends at 195th Street), is 19580 WDH, is the "L" shaped parcel Owned by Waterford I Associates LTD (2100 Hollywood Blvd), which itself is owned by CORNERSTONE WATERFORD, which is then owned by "JL Holding Corp (managed by Jorge Lopez), M3 Assets (Managed by Leon & Lisa Wolfe), and M.S. Mades Family Limited Partnership (Managed by a company managed by Mara Mades). Don't know any of these people, but they're all richer than me obviously, and the ownership web is very complex.
Oh yeah: that building surrounded by the "L" is the "U-Store It" building, purchased in 2011 for $13.5M.
Part 2: South of NE 195th
The "Miron" building at 19400 WDH: When I moved to the area at the turn of the century, I made a lot of runs to this nearby hardware store. I thought it would be a great place to put a brew-pub, but I'm too busy writing stupid blogs to start the next "Funky Buddha". Anyway, it was sold as part of a bankruptcy for $3.8M in 2013 to "194 W Dixie Holdings LLC" (another really original name), which is owned by Yonel Fellous and Nathan Cohen, described as "very successful real estate agents, selling super high-end condos in Miami" in an article you will find here. That same article describes a company called "MODANI" in the high-end furniture business, especially this excerpt: "Modani boasts 10 showrooms in the United States and Canada. They have plans to open 15 more over the next two years. Modani’s latest opening—in Aventura, Florida—is a sprawling 60,000-square-foot space. The state-of-the-art showroom incorporates cutting-edge technology that enables buyers to digitally insert furniture into 3D models of their spaces."
South of the bend in the road is the fenced up mess at 19301: 117,544 square feet of who knows-what owned by "19301 West Dixie Storage LLC" (in other words, someone is parking on the land waiting for things to turn it around and make them rich).
South of that, on the right (east) side is the Telephone building owned by "So Bell Tel & Tel Co", which has been there so long, there's not even any sales data available.
And the last biggie (outlined in yellow in the picture above) is 2681 NE 191st Street (for some reason it has no WDH street address). This large 211,662sf parcel was bought in 2014 for $7.43M by "WD 2600 LLC", which is managed by Alberto, Jacobo and Shlomo Kamhazi.
Then the parcels get smaller and a little less interesting. There is a sad little park that is all the "green space" the area will likely ever see, and a post office that I hope stays open (not a zoo like the one in Hallandale or the one across from Lorenzo's market).
At the bottom of the picture, on the WEST side of WDH, there are 2 empty parcels. These are 18802, and 18820 WDH, which are newsworthy, because on May 10 there will be a public hearing at the Highlands Oak Park building to discuss a variance being sought for these parcels. From an HOA Board member:
On May 10th, there will be a Zoning Appeals Board meeting at the Highland Oaks Park Building where two development plans will be presented both asking for Non-Use Variances (for height increases). The current zoning laws allow for a maximum height of 6 stories and one proposed plan is requesting a variance to increase up to 9 and 12 stories and the other proposed plan is requesting a variance to 8 stories. The addresses for the proposed plans are 2681 NE 191 St. and 18802-18820 West Dixie Highway, respectively.
The 2 parcels are owned by "Aventura Square LLC", and are directly across the street from 18801, which is being developed as described in this recent post. I feel bad for the students at Ojus Elementary School (NW corner of WDH and Miami Gardens Drive): not only are they going to have a lot more trains passing by in the future, they're also in the vortex of a development hurricane that our unincorporated community has little power over.
The other big unanswered question: is a commuter rail station going to be possible given all this development, or are developers scrambling to construct massive high rises on every parcel, as a poison pill to protect against "eminent domain"? This is why this strip is in desperate need of community oversight, especially in the absence of any local government.
Attend zoning hearings!
