A $250M Student Tower Is for Sale Before It Is Built

Key Highlights

• Alta Development has listed SoMi Walk, 5959 SW 71st St. in South Miami, a 16-story, 173-unit, 675-bed student housing tower under construction near the University of Miami.
• Guidance is the mid-$200M range; a $250M sale implies roughly $1.45M per unit and about $370,000 per bed.
• The site sits in a federal Opportunity Zone; the program's investment window closes at the end of 2026, which is why the asset is being sold at construction stage rather than at delivery.
• The prior structure was demolished in June 2026; delivery is targeted for 2028.

The Signal

• This is a tax-calendar sale, not a market-timing sale. The buyer is paying for a 2028 building to capture a 2026 basis step-up.
• $370,000 a bed is a top-of-market number for a project two years from opening, in a submarket with limited purpose-built supply.
• The OZ sunset is going to produce more of these: developers selling entitled or in-construction projects to investors who need to deploy before Dec 31.

What is happening: a Miami developer is marketing an unfinished student tower with a price that would rank among the largest single-asset student housing trades in Florida, because the federal tax benefit attached to the site expires in 14 weeks.

Why the structure matters: an Opportunity Zone investor who closes in 2026 gets the full deferral and, after a 10-year hold, exclusion of gain on the asset. A close in 2027 gets none of it. The developer is monetizing that deadline rather than carrying construction risk to 2028.

Why the number matters: $370,000 a bed prices in University of Miami rents, a walkable location, and scarcity. It leaves little room for cost overruns, and the buyer inherits the construction contract, the schedule, and the lease-up.

The structural read: the 2026 OZ sunset is a forced-seller and forced-buyer event on both sides. Expect construction-stage listings across asset classes in Q4, priced to the tax benefit rather than to stabilized yield.

Caution: the price is asking guidance, not a contract. Per-unit and per-bed math is derived from the reported $250M figure.

Implications

• For student housing buyers: construction-stage assets with OZ eligibility will carry a premium through December; the premium disappears Jan 1.
• For developers holding OZ sites: the window to sell entitled or in-progress product to deadline-driven capital is now.
• For lenders: a buyer stepping into an active construction contract needs completion guarantees and a GC assignment, not just a purchase loan.

When the tax clock is louder than the construction clock, buildings get sold before they exist.