Metropica

The Trillist Cos. is planning a 264-unit condominium at Metropica, the $1 billion mixed-use project in Sunrise.

Trillist, a joint venture between Scott Leventhal and Joseph Kavana, expects to break ground early next year, according to the Sun Sentinel.

“We are pleased to be bringing a new standard in luxury urban living to one of the world’s great intersections of culture and commerce in South Florida,” Leventhal said in a prepared statement.

Last month, Sunrise commissioners unanimously approved a master plan and a request to rezone Metropica, located west of Sawgrass Mills.

The 4-million-square-foot development will be built in two phases. Plans call for 1,250 high-rise units, 485,000 square feet of commercial space and 150,000 square feet of office space, all on 28 acres. [Sun-Sentinel] – Christopher Cameron

Top stories yesterday on The Real Deal:
1. Surf Club developer scores $290M loan
2. Moishe Mana makes big downtown Miami purchase
3. 10,150 South Florida condos already “sold” during this boom

Samantha DeBianchi, Chad Carroll and Chris Leavitt

It’s Episode Lucky #7 and there’s no better time for The Real Deal to play DJ again and bust out another MDL Mixtape!

The Earth, Wind and Fire of the real estate industry — Chris, Samantha and Chad — are back making beautiful music together, or at least creating annoying earworms, while assisting clients in buying, selling and leasing.

So sit back, put your headphones on and get ready to dance.

Here’s our phat soundtrack to accompany the show and highlights of what we learned this go around:

1. You have to be mad cool to wear velvet in Miami: The show opens with Chad, who is meeting his client visiting Miami from Colombia to scoop up some properties. We soon learn that Dr. Steve is so cool he wears velvet — blue velvet — in Miami in daytime. Chad explains that his first project with Dr. Steve was for just $100K, but when the return yielded 45 percent, Dr. Steve wanted more. Now he has $20M to invest in several properties. Sartorial choices aside, we can tell we’re going to be in for an awesome ride with this one. Their first stop is 400 Sunny Isles, because Dr. Steve’s priorities are view and location, of which this has both. Sonja, the seller’s rep, has two duplex penthouses to offer, as well as a one-story property, all of which are on a man-made beach even though the real beach is just a block away. Dr. Steve wanted a beachfront property, but he is intrigued by the rooftop pool and potential views.

Mixtape Song 1: Blue Velvet, Lana del Rey:

2. Sellers at an open house are the equivalent of a fart in church: Chris is on Brickell Avenue, which is the financial hub (think NYC’s Wall Street) of South Florida. He is meeting with a FSBO (for-sale-by-owner) who has not been able to sell his two-story penthouse in the last 21 days. Decorated with a multitude of bedazzled mezuzahs, one would think that at the very least, the Lord is on their side. However, there seems to be a schism between husband and wife: Manolo wants to stay in the apartment, but his wife wants to move to a house with a yard. It soon becomes clear the reason the property is languishing on the market is that it is way overpriced at $1.57M. Chris holds an open house, even though he hates them, and decides to do a healthy yoga-themed one complete with juice and a woman to check attendees’ anti-oxidant levels. As we watch the instructors contort and downward dog, a Marilyn Monroe-lookalike attendee asks about Chinese dry wall and mold.

Mixtape Song 2: Yoga Girl, Fog and Smog featuring DJ Dave – Barney Kook

3. Audrey Hepburns are a dime a dozen: Sam is in Highland Beach, dressed like a five and dime Audrey Hepburn and meeting with two surfer boys eager to sell their late dad’s estate. At 6,300 square feet with a screening room, great views and a beachfront, it also has a window in the bedroom offering a fish-tank like look into the pool above it — hot bikini girls not included. While they had fun in this crazy bachelor pad for the last year, maintaining it is getting costly and they’d like to sell. Their father paid $4.5M in ’05 and put about $2M into it, so they are hoping to get $7.5M. Sam has learned her lesson on taking overpriced properties, however, and puts her foot down. While she can’t sell it for what they want, she suggests they rent it for $25,000 a month instead.

Mixtape Song 3: Moon River, Audrey Hepburn

4. Papa don’t preach: Sam holds some private showings of the bachelor pad du jour while dressed like an extra from “Like a Virgin” in a white strapless dress and long pearls. She soon gets a bite from an Australian who won’t take a full-year lease but will pay $35K a month for six months. While the surfer boys initially balk, once Sam assures them she will put it on the sale market after the lease ends, they say alrighty. Later, we see her evolve into an older Madonna character, this time from “Papa Don’t Preach,” complete with baggie jeans and a bedazzled sweatshirt and Heidi braid. Her father tells her she needs to take some time off for herself and learn to delegate, but she laments that it is not possible because she doesn’t belong to a bigger firm. She decides she may have to check out some offers from other companies.

Mixtape Song 4: Like a Virgin, Madonna

Mixtape Song 5: Papa Don’t Preach, Madonna

5. Dr. Steve thinks bigger is better: Because Dr. Steve is amazing at making cash and investing but cannot possibly visualize what the view would be like from the 20th floor of his Sunny Isles Beach properties, Chad takes him in a helicopter a la the best “Bachelor” date ever. After seeing the unobstructed view, he decides to purchase the three penthouses at $6.6M total and still has $13.4M to invest elsewhere. Next up, Chad takes him all the way next door to another similar development, Park Towers, where they meet Regina, the sales director. Because all the apartments being offered seem too small, Chad asks Yosi, the developer, if they can buy the whole 25th floor, which is comprised of four units. Dr. Steve would like to perform an operation and transform the four units into two deluxe apartments in the sky. After haggling for about 10 minutes we will never get back, they get from $5.4M to $4.7M. We watch these things so you don’t have to. You can thank us by leaving us a comment below.

Mixtape Song 6: The Jefferson’s Theme Song

6. You can’t win them all: After Chris’ open house, he realizes the property is still priced too high. No amount of anti-oxidants can sell this place for the $1.495M the clients want. Once he convinces them to lower the price to $1.395M, the offers start pouring in. One is too low, but the second, for $1.3M all-cash, intrigues Manolo enough that after more convincing on Chris’ part, they all agree on $1.375M. Before you pop the Cristal, Bravo writes an afterword alerting us that even though it appeared they all agreed, the deal fell through and the unit is still on the market.

Mixtape Song 7: Disappointment, The Cranberries

7. If you like it, put a ring on it: Chad invites Meyer’s Jewelers over, along with Jen’s mom, in order to pick out an engagement ring. We see an assortment of rocks ranging from a 3-carat beauty worth $89K, to a 4.2-carat stunner worth $177K. No word on where Neil Lane is. Chad then charters a boat, pours out some champagne and gets on one knee. We are left with a faux-cliffhanger. No way she is saying no.

Mixtape Song 8: Single Ladies, Beyonce

East Coast Building rendering (inset: Alex Mantecon)

A new rooftop restaurant along the Miami River will feature an express elevator to separate it from the seven floors of self-storage below, Alex Mantecon, one of the project’s developers, told The Real Deal.

The one-stop elevator would enable restaurant patrons and employees to avoid box-toting renters of the 850 storage units planned for the East Coast Building, a nine-story structure at 123 Southwest North River Drive that broke ground last week. The developers are creating separate entrances on the north and south sides of the building for self-storage users and restaurant customers.

While it’s not every day that self-storage and fine dining come together in the same project, Mantecon said he and his development partner, Guillermo Vadell, are confident the unorthodox concept can capitalize on the burgeoning downtown Miami rental apartment and condo markets.

The mixed-use business model allows East Coast to rent its almost 100,000 square feet of storage for between $1.50 to $2.50 per square foot, “at or below market rates for the area,” according to Mantecon, a managing member of MV Real Estate Holdings.

“Doing a storage facility is smart,” CBRE vice chairman Robert Given told TRD. “Storage facilities are getting about the same amount of rent as you get for an apartment, and they don’t have to put in designer kitchens and bathrooms.”

Mantecon said he considered building condos on the site, but with zoning that allows a maximum of only 12 floors at the location, he realized the I-95 freeway would have blocked the majority of views. He also ruled out an office, building because of high vacancy rates for office space in the area.

Miami’s office vacancy rate was 15.5 percent at the end of the second quarter, according to CBRE. That was a 1.8 percent year-over-year-decline, but the market has a long way to go to reach the pre-recession low of about 7 percent.

So Mantecon’s team settled on the hybrid concept. The ninth-floor restaurant will feature river and downtown views, with 5,000 square feet of air-conditioned space and another 7,000 square feet of outdoor terraces. It will be comparable to Juvia on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, he said. Mantecon is on the hunt for a well-known chef or restaurateur to manage the eatery.

To give the exterior more pizzazz, a 30-by-70-foot mural will adorn the façade of East Coast. Students at the Honors College of Florida International University are producing the artwork.

Mantecon expects construction to be completed by June.

East Coast will be just a few blocks from Garcia’s Seafood Grille & Fish Market, a Miami institution. And it will be across the street from Melo Group’s Flagler on the River, a 32-story apartment building that is starting to rent its units.

“It will be very valuable” to the neighborhood, Melo Group principal Martin Melo said of East Coast.

Flagler on the River will also feature two restaurants within its two retail floors, where people can arrive in “their yachts and Ferraris,” Melo said. The restaurants are scheduled to open within the next six-to-eight months.

Dylan’s Candy Bar

Terranova Corp. and Acadia Realty Trust are about to set a Lincoln Road record by selling a six-property portfolio on the Miami Beach block for $342 million.

White Plains, N.Y.-based Acadia disclosed in its latest quarterly earnings conference call that it and Miami Beach-based Terranova have a deal in place to sell the portfolio to an undisclosed institutional investor. The companies assembled the parcels in two transactions totaling $191 million in February 2011 and December 2012. The sale would represent a $151 million – or 79 percent – profit, not including property carrying costs or income generated from the buildings.

Tenants at the properties include Dylan’s Candy Bar and Sushi Samba.

If the deal closes, it would be one of the most expensive commercial trades in South Florida history, according to the Miami Herald. The only commercial site to fetch a higher price was the $375 million sale of a 50 percent stake in Fontainebleau Miami Beach six years ago. [Miami Herald] — Eric Kalis

6041 Northeast Second Avenue

A five-property portfolio in the historic Lemon City district within Miami’s Little Haiti changed hands for $15 million.

The transaction included the 6.5-acre Magic City Trailer Park at 6001 Northeast Second Avenue and a mixed-use building at 6041 Northeast Second Avenue that dates back to 1902, according to Miami-Dade County records. Miami-based Magic City Properties LC is the seller. The county recorded the deal on Wednesday.

Magic City Properties I LLC acquired the portfolio, which also included three vacant properties totaling about one-half of an acre. The company is managed by Robert Zangrillo of Miami Beach. No financing was recorded.

One of the earliest settlements in Miami, Lemon City was discovered around 1870, according to the City of Miami. E.H. Harrington dubbed the neighborhood Lemon City because of the lemon trees that grew on his property. The historic district includes all properties along Northeast Second Avenue between 52nd and 71st streets. — Eric Kalis

41 Arvida Parkway (inset: Dora Puig and Irina Artemova

A pair of high-end Coral Gables homes recently sold for a combined $43 million, The Real Deal has learned.

In the most expensive of the two deals, a nine-bedroom mansion at 41 Arvida Parkway – within the exclusive Gables Estates neighborhood – traded for $25 million, according to broker Dora Puig, who arranged the sale. The transaction closed on July 27 but has not been recorded by Miami-Dade County.

Puig noted that the seller was British and the buyer French, but she declined to disclose the names of the individuals involved. County records show the 1.2-acre property was owned by ICB Properties of Miami. The Aventura-based company is managed by Marius Hernberg and Vincent Miclet.

The nearly 16,000-square-foot home was designed by architect Ramon Pacheco. It was constructed in 2010.

In the other deal, a waterfront manse at 4 Tahiti Beach Island Road changed hands for $18 million on July 8. Two trusts controlled by Wendell and Leticia Pfeffer sold the 10-bedroom, more than 21,000-square-foot home, which was built in 2009. The 62,000-square-foot property last traded for about $5.8 million in January 2002.

The buyer was 4 Indian Creek LLC, which is managed by New York-based Ilya Bykov, according to state corporate records.

Irina Artemova of Puig’s Luxe Living Realty team arranged the sale.

The new owner has a famous neighbor, as free agent basketball star Ray Allen paid $11 million for a mansion at 5 Tahiti Beach Island Road last month.

Lil Wayne and the Museum of Contemporary Art

1. Contemporary Art museum to move from North Miami to Design District [Miami Herald]
2. Lil Wayne sued over delinquent private jet fees [South Florida Business Journal]
3. Miami to host series of EB-5 informational conferences [Miami Herald]
4. Greenacres commissioners approve residential project’s site plan [Palm Beach Post]
5. Oakland Park K-Mart to close, Wal-Mart coming [Sun-Sentinel] — Eric Kalis

Airport City rendering

Miami-Dade’s aviation director wants the county to scrap the long-discussed Airport City mixed-use development.

Mayor Carlos Gimenez sent county commissioners a memo relaying the recommendation from Aviation Director Emilio Gonzalez on Wednesday. Gimenez wrote that he is reviewing the suggestion but has not made a decision yet. He plans to meet with financial advisors for Miami International Airport and get input from a county committee that oversees transportation and aviation issues.

“My administration’s final decision will prioritize what’s best for the future positive growth of MIA and making sure it remains one of the world’s premier airports,” Gimenez wrote, as cited by the Miami Herald.

Last month, construction industry titan Odebrecht USA blasted the county for dragging its feet in approving the project. Odebrecht warned it might opt to sue the county if the development is abandoned.

Original Airport City plans included a business park with hotel and meeting facilities, office and retail space and restaurants on 33.5 acres. [Miami Herald] — Eric Kalis

A real estate class for new brokers

With South Florida housing reaching a pace not seen since 2007, would-be brokers are once again striving to make a career in real estate – despite the fierce competition.

“If you are aggressive, you can do extremely well,” Keith Grandy, who teaches classes at Gold Coast Schools of Real Estate in Doral.

In Florida, the number of applications for real estate licenses almost doubled from 23,863 in 2010 to 40,901 last year. And in California, the number of people taking the license exams also doubled since 2012.

The National Association of Realtors, which has more than a million real estate professionals among its members, added 42,000 agents to its ranks in 2013, the first increase in seven years, according to the Miami Herald.

“The income is going to be great and I’m going to have my own schedule,” said Katherine Sanchez, a 34-year-old nutritionist and a student in Grandy’s class. [Miami Herald] – Christopher Cameron

Via Lugano in Baynton Beach

A law initially intended to expedite the rebuilding of hurricane-damaged condos has condominium owners and developers battling in court over forced sales.

Many developers of recession era buildings are stuck with buildings composed of apartments they own and condos owned by individuals. That arrangement makes it difficult for the developers of some 163 building complexes across South Florida to make changes to common areas, roofs, and pools. 

And to combat the problem, some developers are using a 2007 amendment to terminate complexes’ condo statuses. But that means owners are facing major loses on the sale of their property.

“This is a nightmare,” Baynton Beach condo owner Ileana Paan told the Wall Street Journal. “It has emotionally debilitated me. I get so angry. How could I lose this place? It’s mine, for crying out loud.”

Paan and 12 other owners at Via Lugano, a 364-unit condo building, recently sued their building’s developer to stop the termination process.

Now, Florida lawmakers are considering changes to the law.

“I think something has to be done for the [condo owners] who must leave their property involuntarily but owe more than it is worth,” said George Moraitis Jr., a state representative from Fort Lauderdale. “But it’s hard when you start trying to mitigate the market.” [WSJ] – Christopher Cameron 

900 Lincoln Road,

The clothing retailer Bebe is moving down the street from its Lincoln Road location and will reopen in a newly renovated building by December.

Bebe has operated at 1029-1031 Lincoln Road for 14 years. It’s new address will be 900 Lincoln Road, where it has signed a long-term lease, according to the South Florida Business Journal.

Michael Comras, principal of Miami Beach real estate firm Comras Company, represented the tenant in the transaction.

“Bebe’s successful history on Lincoln Road, combined with its new prototype design and the magnificent renovation by the property’s owner, will combine to brighten up the corner of Jefferson Avenue,” Comras said in a news release. [SFBJ] – Christopher Cameron

Equestrian Village in Wellington

Kimberly Jacobs, wife of Boston Bruins hockey boss Charles Jacobs, has lost her battle against a 59-acre Equestrian Village.

Despite an emotional appeal about how the $80 million development transformed her home with noise, odors and lights, the village Planning, Zoning and Adjustments Board determined that the village had not erroneously interpreted its zoning rules.

“What is there now is completely not within the scale or character of what was intended,” Jacobs said. “We know that if things continue on like this, that this is just the beginning.”

But the commission found that zoning rules did not limit the entire Equestrian Village site at Pierson Road and South Shore Boulevard to 20,000 square feet of commercial space, as Jacobs had argued. The dressage arena itself is 80,000 square feet but it doesn’t fall under the cap because it has no walls, according to the Palm Beach Post. [Palm Beach Post] – Christopher Cameron

Top stories yesterday on The Real Deal:
1. New York developers take aim at Wynwood
2. $342M sale would be Lincoln Road record
3. Surf Club developer scores $290M loan

Area Code 55 (credit: Erik Bojnansky)

Another high-rise condo project is being proposed in North Miami Beach, a city located just west of Sunny Isles Beach and south of Aventura, The Real Deal has learned.

Biscayne Cove LLC, owned by Keystone Holdings principals Enrique Puig and Reinaldo Mouriz, applied for a zoning change to allow two 145-foot tall residential towers to be built just east of Biscayne Boulevard by Northeast 163rd Street on a 4.2-acre site where Area Code 55 Brazilian Steakhouse and the shuttered Miami Grill restaurant now stand.

Dubbed Riverwalk at North Miami Beach, the proposed project includes 295 units and a ground-floor restaurant. Riverwalk is also slated to be built next to a 4.4-acre site by the Oleta River, where a pair of developers hopes to build two 25-story towers, and less than a mile from Marina Palms, a 25-story twin condo tower project now under construction near Maule Lake.

Calls to Puig and Mouriz were not returned.

Biscayne Cove bought the land, which is presently zoned for commercial uses, from Brinker Florida for $8.3 million in August 2005. The city allowed residences to be built on the site back in 2006, but the permit lapsed when the developer failed to start construction within 18 months. The city approved the development again last year, but those plans were stalled by ABC Fine Wines and Liquors, which feared the project would obscure its store that’s located just south of Area Code 55.

Thanks to a new site plan, which allows traffic on Biscayne Boulevard to continue accessing the liquor store, ABC has dropped its objections to Riverwalk, according city planner Carlos Rivero.

The latest plans for Riverwalk at North Miami Beach will come before North Miami Beach’s Planning and Zoning Board on Monday.

Victoria Nursing and Rehabilitation Center (inset: Jim Dockerty)

The owner of Miami’s Victoria Nursing and Rehabilitation Center received a $29 million loan from Ocean Bank.

Victoria Nursing and Rehabilitation Center Inc. got a 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage for the 85,770-square-foot skilled nursing facility at 955 Northwest Third Street, according to Thursday’s written statement from HFF, which represented the borrower in the transaction. HFF did not disclose the interest rate.

The facility encompasses five floors within the eight-story Victoria Medical Center. The building was originally constructed in 1971 and underwent an extensive renovation in 2001. It includes 264 beds, 196 of which are private.

HFF managing director Jim Dockerty and senior real estate analyst Scott Wadler arranged the transaction on behalf of Victoria.

“The Victoria Nursing Center is a five-star, skilled nursing facility and the professional team at Ocean Bank provided a competitive priced and creative financing solution for our client,” Dockerty said. — Eric Kalis

James Batmasian

Palm Beach County commercial real estate owner James Batmasian was hit with another lawsuit, this time from a condo association that claims he improperly received free parking spaces from the City of Boca Raton.

The Palmetto Place at Mizner Park association filed the Palm Beach Circuit Court complaint against Batmasian earlier this week. It accuses Boca Raton of altering its development rules so Batmasian would get 100 free spaces in the 10-story Palmetto Place building to accommodate customers of his ground-floor commercial condos. The association wants Batmasian to pay for the parking spaces.

Palmetto Place also submitted e-mails from city staffers, who warned they did not want to come off as Batmasian’s “bitch” or his “wassertrager,” a German term that translates to water carrier, according to the Palm Beach Post. The attorney who represented Batmasian in the parking garage dispute claimed the association was illegally denying his client use of the spaces.

The city eventually sent the association violation notices over the parking space issue.

Batmasian is also dealing with pending lawsuits involving an employee and two independent contractors. The suits involve allegations of discrimination, fraud and harassment. [Palm Beach Post] — Eric Kalis

Peter Zalewski

Question: Broward County has more than 4,000 coastal units announced during this boom. How many units can Broward County developers realistically build until there is a glut? Also, when – if ever – will foreign buyers embrace Broward County?

Condo developers do not appear to have a lot of optimism about selling preconstruction units in the Broward County market despite its population accounting for nearly one-third of the 5.8 million residents living in the tri-county South Florida region, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

To date, developers have announced less than 50 new condo towers with fewer than 4,150 units on sites located east of I-95 in Broward County, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com.

(For disclosure purposes, my firm operates the website.)

By comparison, developers created more than 70 new condo towers with nearly 11,000 units in coastal Broward County during the last South Florida real estate boom.

During this latest condo boom, the new coastal projects in Broward County are slated to be developed in the markets of Hollywood-Hallandale Beach, with 19 towers and nearly 3,000 units; Fort Lauderdale, with 15 towers and less than 800 units; Pompano Beach, with 11 towers and less than 375 units; and Hillsboro Beach, with one project featuring 18 units.

Overall, Broward County accounts for less than 12 percent of all new condo units announced in South Florida during this latest boom that began in 2011.

Compare this to Miami-Dade County – which accounts for 45 percent of the South Florida population. Developers in Miami-Dade County have announced nearly 175 new condo towers with about 27,650 units on sites located east of I-95.

Miami-Dade County accounts for nearly 80 percent of the new condos announced for coastal South Florida.

Palm Beach County, which represents about 24 percent of the South Florida population, is slated to be home to about 35 new condo towers with nearly 3,000 units. Palm Beach County accounts for less than 9 percent of South Florida’s preconstruction condo units announced to date.

Broward County’s inability to attract its fair share of new condo developments has little to do with the income of its residents compared to other counties in South Florida.

The median household income for Broward County is more than $51,600, compared to less than $43,500 in Miami-Dade County, $52,800 in Palm Beach County and $47,300 for all of Florida.

Added to this, the homeownership rate of residents of Broward County – where prices and equity are on the rise – is more than 67 percent compared to 57 percent in Miami-Dade County, nearly 72 percent in Palm Beach County and 68 percent throughout the state.

It is also worth noting that Broward County’s poverty level is less than 14 percent, compared to more than 19 percent in Miami-Dade County, about 14 percent in Palm Beach County and nearly 16 percent in Florida.

Given the notable economic indicators compared to the rest of the tri-county region, an important factor that seems to be contributing to the limited scale of new condo development in Broward is the county’s inability to attract a large share of the foreign investors with cash who are buying up preconstruction units in South Florida.

Consider that less than 32 percent of the residents of Broward County were born in a foreign country, even though nearly 38 percent of the residents speak a language other than English at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

It is a similar situation in Palm Beach County, where new condo developments are also limited. Some 22 percent of the residents of Palm Beach County were born abroad and about 28 percent of the residents speak a language other than English at home.

Compare this with Miami-Dade County, where 51 percent of the residents were born outside the U.S. and 72 percent speak a language other than English at home.

The cultural affinity issue is critical in this current South Florida preconstruction condo market, as developers are reliant on buyers putting down 50 percent deposits instead of the 20 percent deposits collected during the last boom.

The 50 percent deposit, which is new to domestic buyers, is a common way of funding the construction of new condo towers overseas, especially in Latin America.

Domestic buyers are said to be apprehensive to commit to prepay half of the contracted purchase price for a preconstruction unit, as typically only 10 percent of the money is required to be kept in an escrow account.

As a result, foreign buyers are fueling the preconstruction condo boom in South Florida, while domestic buyers watch with amazement.

In attempt to attract domestic buyers to the announced preconstruction condo projects, some developers in Broward and Palm Beach counties are asking for deposits of only 30 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

The unanswered question going forward is whether foreign buyers of preconstruction condo units will begin to look north more seriously as presale prices rise in Miami-Dade County and preconstruction deposits fall in Broward County.

Thought Of The Week: Condo Construction Spigot Begins To Open?

Lenders are said to be preparing to open the spigot on condo construction financing in South Florida during the second half of 2014.

In what may prove to be the first sign of a more flexible market for condo construction financing, the Surf Club Four Seasons Private Residences in Surfside obtained a $290 million loan from Blackstone’s BREDS II Loan Holdings of New York to develop the five-building condo and hotel project with 285 units on Collins Avenue fronting the Atlantic Ocean.

The Surf Club’s newly obtained financing ranks as one of the highest construction loans obtained to date for a new condo tower in coastal South Florida, ahead of the $214 million loan for the Porsche Design Tower, $160 million for the Mansions At Acqualina, $140 million for Brickell City Centre and $105 million for Echo Aventura.

Oceana Bal Harbour has the largest condo construction loan to date at $332 million, edging out the $300 million loan for the Faena House project in Miami Beach.

Peter Zalewski is a real estate market consultant, non-practicing licensed real estate broker and columnist for The Real Deal who now answers reader questions about the South Florida real estate market in a weekly Friday column. Questions and comments can be sent to southfloridanews@therealdeal.com. The TRD editors will choose which submissions will be addressed.

James Fried and Jason Shapiro

The investment arm of Miami-based real estate merchant banking firm Aztec Group grabbed a stake in the Wal-Mart Supercenter-anchored Riverbend Marketplace project under construction in Fort Lauderdale.

Aztec’s Mayan Properties made a $5 million investment in the 190,000-square-foot development, according to a written statement from a company spokesperson. Wal-Mart is set to occupy 186,000 square feet at the 2400 West Broward Boulevard shopping center. Gatlin Development is building the $50 million Riverbend Marketplace in two phases.

Mayan Properties previously invested $3 million in Gatlin’s portfolio of three Jacksonville retail centers.

Aztec Group director of investments James Fried, director Sean Harrington and managing director Jason Shapiro arranged the Riverbend transaction.

“As South Florida’s appetite for new retail developments in both suburban and urban neighborhoods continues to intensify, we felt investing in the group-up development of Riverbend Marketplace was the right move,” Shapiro said. “Mayan’s approach to investing in high-caliber projects led by best-in-class sponsors has demonstrated a long track record of positive returns.” — Eric Kalis

Fannie Mae is ratcheting up its pursuit of deficiency judgment collections from hundreds of South Floridians this summer.

In June, a Texas-based debt collection firm filed about 110 lawsuits in Palm Beach County, more than 300 complaints in Broward County and nearly 200 in Miami-Dade County on behalf of Fannie Mae. A deficiency judgment involves the remaining balance on a borrower’s unpaid mortgage following a foreclosure sale. They were rarely sought by lenders until Fannie Mae’s recent actions.

A Florida law change that took effect in July 2013 shortened the period banks and mortgage firms can file for a deficiency judgment from five years to once year after a foreclosure sale is completed, according to the Palm Beach Post. That likely contributed to Fannie Mae’s urgency.

The newspaper spoke to several homeowner attorneys, who expressed surprise that Fannie Mae is getting so aggressive in going after the deficiency judgments. [Palm Beach Post] — Eric Kalis