It’s all about massive scale in Downtown Miami. Royal Palm Companies (RPC) scored one of South Florida’s largest construction loans this year for a tower inside one of the country’s biggest mega-developments.
New York-based Silverstein Capital Partners loaned $340 million to build Legacy Hotel & Residences, a 50-story mixed-use building in Miami Worldcenter.
The loan marks Silverstein Capital Partners’ first financing deal in South Florida. The New York-based firm’s development arm, Silverstein Properties, is best known for its role in redeveloping the World Trade Center complex after 9/11.
“Silverstein Capital Partners brings the development know-how that no other lender could bring us,” Daniel Kodsi, CEO of RPC, said in a statement. “Silverstein’s projects transform neighborhoods.”
Located at 1010 NE 2nd Avenue, Legacy sits inside the 27-acre Miami Worldcenter, a $4 billion mixed-use development project designed to revitalize 10 blocks of the city’s downtown. In terms of size, it comes second only to the Hudson Yards complex in Manhattan. Other developers, such Hines and Witkoff, are also developing projects at Miami Worldcenter.
The Legacy building will hold 310 apartments, as well as a 219-room hotel run by hospitality behemoth Accor, ground-floor retail and an enclosed seven-story rooftop atrium. The residential portion has already sold out for a combined $160 million, according to RPC.
Earlier this year, a joint venture between the developer and health care provider Adventist Health signed a 120,000-square-foot lease to open a $100 million wellness and medical center.
With construction already underway since August, the development is expected to be completed in 2024.
“As lenders and investors look for opportunities to direct capital to Miami and South Florida, developments with strong sponsors, significant pre-sales, and desirable locations will continue to be in high demand,” Martin Schwartz, a lawyer at Bilzin Sumberg, who represented the developer, said in a statement. Bilzin Sumberg’s Anthony de Yurre also worked on behalf of RPC.
This year only a handful of projects in South Florida have nabbed construction loans north of $300 million.
Last month, another New York firm, Madison Realty Capital, loaned $310 million for The Chetrit Group’s long-planned 6.2-acre development in nearby Brickell. In March, Galbut Family Office Investments and David Martin’s Terra scored a $345 million loan from the Blackstone Group and Apollo Global Management to build a Miami Beach residential tower.
Terra is facing civil litigation over allegations that the construction of its Eighty Seven Park in Surfside, Fla., contributed to the deadly collapse of the high-rise Champlain Towers South next door last June.