Aimco, a Denver-based real estate investment trust, avoided paying approximately $5.5 million in state and county taxes on its record $520 million sale of a development site in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. The deal did not involve the recording of a deed, which allowed Aimco to bypass about $3.12 million in Florida documentary stamp taxes and $2.34 million in Miami-Dade County surtax, according to calculations cited by the South Florida Business Journal.
Both taxes are typically levied on property sales and are mainly used to fund affordable housing programs. The seller is generally responsible for these payments. In this case, Aimco reportedly insisted on structuring the transaction without recording a deed.
Aimco has been divesting assets over the past year as it moves toward voluntary dissolution amid a cooling multifamily market. The company had listed its Brickell properties for about $650 million earlier in 2024.
In December, OKO Group, led by Vlad Doronin, and Oak Row Equities acquired two buildings from Aimco: the 32-story Brickell Bay Office Tower at 1001 Brickell Bay Drive and the adjacent 31-story Yacht Club Apartments at 1111 Brickell Bay Drive. Mariposa Real Estate partnered with them on the purchase.
The buyers secured a $464.5 million loan from Tyko Capital for the acquisition. Public records show that the entities used for borrowing were those previously owned by Aimco, but now with Oak Row’s Erik Rutter signing on behalf of the borrowers.
This structure indicates that Aimco transferred ownership through selling interests in limited liability companies rather than transferring deeds—a legal but infrequently used method for large transactions. This sale is noted as South Florida’s largest urban land site deal to close without recording a deed or paying associated transfer taxes.
OKO Group and Oak Row plan to build a hotel and branded condominiums as part of their first phase of redevelopment on the site, which currently consists of two income-producing properties but could eventually be developed into multiple supertall buildings totaling more than three million square feet.
