This Week’s South Florida Deal Sheet: Four Seasons Refinances For $410M

Two Four Seasons hotels in South Florida were refinanced for a total of $410M, The Real Deal reported. Fort Lauderdale-based Fort Partners secured the debt through a CMBS loan from Citi Real Estate Funding and German American Capital Corp., an affiliate of Deutsche Bank. 

The loan covers the Four Seasons Resort at The Surf Club, located at 9011 Collins Ave. in Surfside, and the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach at 2800 South Ocean Blvd. The four-year, interest-only loan with an 8.7% rate was arranged by Eastdil Secured. 

The refinancing will pay off a $310M loan from 2021 and includes around $57M in cash for the developer, according to DBRS Morningstar, which reported the transaction. Morningstar values the hotels at $450M but an appraisal contracted by the lender said they’re worth $800M, TRD reported. 

The Four Seasons in Surfside, which includes two 12-story condo towers and a 72-room hotel, was developed by Fort Partners in 2017. The 8-acre Palm Beach resort was purchased by Fort Partners in 2014. A $74M renovation of the property was completed in 2019, and Fort Partners recently invested $6M to upgrade ballrooms and meeting spaces. 

SALES

An entity controlled by Boston-based Longpoint Realty Partners paid $49M for an 182K SF shopping center on the corner of Southwest Eighth Street and Southwest 67th Avenue in West Miami, according to a release. Property records indicate the seller was Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. 

The strip mall, called Trail Plaza, was built in 1987 and was 99% leased at the time of the sale. It’s anchored by Fresco y Mas, the Hispanic grocery concept from Southeastern Grocer, with other tenants including Walgreens, Harbor Freight Tools and Party Depot. The 17-acre site includes six occupied outparcels. 

CBRE brokers Casey Rosen and Dennis Carson represented the seller. 

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Three warehouses spanning a combined 194K SF at Landmark Commerce Center in West Palm Beach traded for $43M, the South Florida Business Journal reported. Affiliates of Pennsylvania-based investment firm Alliance Partners HSP sold the warehouses, which were located at 1100, 1300 and 1500 North Mango Road. The buyer was AREPIV WPB I Industrial LLC, an affiliate of Philadelphia-based Arden Group. 

The transaction included a $24M mortgage from CIT Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Arden, which launched an industrial venture called Arden Logistics Parks in 2021, boosted the loan to $48M and added two Minnesota warehouses as collateral. 

The sale price equated to $222 SF and was an increase from the $34M that Alliance Partners paid for the properties in 2021.  

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Miami-based real estate investment firm Cam Group paid $19M for a Coral Gables property where it plans to develop medical offices, Commercial Observer reported. The seller was B&B Investments Management, a Coral Gables entity registered to Wilfred Braceras that assembled the small office building and a surface parking lot for $3M in 2001 and 2002. 

Granada Financial, the parent company of Florida-based Granada Insurance Co., provided a $13M acquisition loan for the sale. 

Cam Group filed a proposal last month to build a five-story, 89K SF medical office with 17K SF of ground-floor commercial space and 502 parking spaces on the site, South Florida Business Journal reported.

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Clara Homes has a 17K SF Wynwood development site at 2601 Northwest 6th Ave. under contract for $7.7M, according to a release. The seller is men’s clothing wholesaler Austin Burke, which occupies a warehouse on the site and will provide seller financing through a one-year sale-leaseback. 

Miami-based Clara plans to leverage Florida’s Live Local Act to achieve higher density for the site and plans to build a Kobi Karp-designed property with 152 apartments and ground-floor retail. The sale is expected to close by the end of the year. 

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

New York-based Naftali Group launched sales for a 67-story condo and apartment building at 106 Northeast Second Ave. in Miami Worldcenter, the developer announced. The Downtown Miami development will include 535 apartments on the lower floors and 259 condos starting on the 43rd floor, a spokesperson for Naftali Group said. 

Naftali, run by founder and CEO Miki Naftali, had originally submitted a proposal in April to build only condos on the 44K SF development site, which it acquired last year for $41M, Commercial Observer reported. 

The updated 700-foot tower was designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica with interiors by New York-based Rockwell Group. The condos, called JEM Private Residences, will range from studios to four bedrooms starting at around $540K, along with 10 penthouses. The condos and apartments are planned to have separate lobbies and amenities, with condo owners having access to a 50th-floor amenity and pool deck. 

It’s the first South Florida development for Naftali, which has projects in New York, Los Angeles and Singapore. OneWorld Properties is the exclusive sales and marketing brokerage for the condos. 

FINANCING

13th Floor Homes secured $14M in construction financing for a Delray Beach senior living community, according to a release. Investors led by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Toronto provided the funds to the homebuilding division of Miami-based 13th Floor Investments to build Solera at Avalon Trails. 

The 74-unit development at 14800 Cumberland Drive will have two- and three-bedroom single-story villas for rent to residents who are at least 55 years old. 13th Floor plans to break ground on the project later this year with the first units delivering in 2024.

The project is part of the 110-acre Avalon Trails development on the former site of the Marina Lakes Golf Course. 13th Floor purchased the site for $5.4M in 2018 with plans for a total of 524 residential units. CIBC provided a $22M loan for the first phase of the community’s construction in 2019, The Real Deal reported. 

LEASES

Cactus Club Cafe is coming to the Citigroup Center office tower in Downtown Miami, according to a release. The restaurant brand, which has 34 locations in Canada, signed a 10K SF lease at the 34-story tower for a restaurant and lounge with indoor and outdoor seating. 

The location is part of a U.S. expansion for Cactus Club and will be the restaurant group’s first Florida location. The 810K SF Citigroup Center is also undergoing a lobby renovation.

Taryn Brandes and Emily Green of Brand Urban, a Manhattan-based brokerage, represented Cactus Club as its national broker. They partnered with Michael Sullivan and Sam Singer of Miami-based brokerage Vertical on the deal. The landlord was represented by Vertical brokers Lyle Stern and Sara Wolfe.

New York-based Monarch Alternative Capital paid $300M to acquire a 90% stake in Citigroup Center in 2021, TRD reported at the time. Monarch said at the time of the acquisition that it would operate the property with the real estate investment firm Tourmaline Capital Partners. Boca Raton-based CP Group owns the remaining stake. 

PEOPLE

Newgard Development Group hired Javier Cuadros as senior vice president of development and Stephanie Adames as senior vice president of Marketing. 

Cuadros joins the Miami-based developer from Related Group, where he spent 10 years as a development executive. He was previously a project manager for Dacra Development, which is the owner of the Miami Design District, and a development manager for Spain-based Diursa Development Group.

Adames joins from Interval International, a timeshare business owned by Marriott Vacations Worldwide, where she was most recently the vice president of corporate marketing. She’s previously held roles at the technology firm Oracle Corp. and NBC.