Keystone Development + Investment has secured a $62 million loan to convert two office buildings near Dadeland Mall into residential apartments, marking an uncommon type of project in South Florida. The financing was provided by Arbor Realty Trust, based in Uniondale, New York, through an affiliate.
The conversion involves the seven-story building at 9400 South Dadeland Boulevard and the eight-story building at 9500 South Dadeland Boulevard, both located in unincorporated Miami-Dade County’s Dadeland area. Keystone plans to create a total of 212 apartments—121 units in the 145,400-square-foot building at 9400 South Dadeland Boulevard and 91 units in the 113,100-square-foot building at 9500 South Dadeland Boulevard. Both structures were originally built in the early 1980s.
According to Keystone’s filings with Miami-Dade County and statements from a company representative made to The Real Deal in May, construction is expected to be completed next year. A notice of construction commencement was filed five days after the loan closed.
This effort is part of Keystone’s broader Hyve project on its 8.3-acre site that currently includes an office complex and garages. After completing these conversions, Keystone intends to develop a new 25-story apartment tower with 219 units on the site of one existing garage.
While office-to-residential conversions have become more common in places like New York due to higher vacancy rates linked to hybrid work trends, such retrofits are rare in South Florida where demand for office space surged during the pandemic as new companies entered the market. However, some landlords are responding differently; instead of converting offices into residences, they are demolishing older buildings for new developments.
For example, after Ryder System moved out of its former headquarters at 11690 Northwest 105th Street following a shift toward hybrid work arrangements, Bridge Industrial acquired the property and plans to redevelop it into two warehouses totaling about 330,000 square feet. Ryder relocated its headquarters to a smaller location at 2333 Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables.
In Boca Raton, BH Group along with Pebb Enterprises and Related Group plan to replace an existing office structure on Office Depot’s campus with an eight-story apartment building containing approximately 500 units. Two other office buildings leased primarily by Office Depot will remain on site.
