Faena Residences Miami Lands $817 Million, Florida's Largest Construction Loan on Record
A record $817 million loan for twin Faena-branded towers on the Miami River, plus a $463 million deal in Sunny Isles, shows lenders are still betting big on presold South Florida luxury condos.
MIAMI — Florida just set a new record for construction lending, and it happened on the Miami River. The developers behind Faena Residences Miami have secured an $817 million construction loan for the project’s twin towers, the largest construction loan ever recorded in the state, Commercial Observer reported.
The lender is Tyko Capital, led by Adi Chugh. The borrowers are Edgardo Defortuna’s Fortune International Group and KAR Properties, which are developing the project together.
What’s Being Built
The site sits at 24 Southwest Fourth Street, facing the Miami River and across from Brickell City Centre. Plans call for two 68-story towers with 217 units each, on a 1.8-acre parcel designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, according to Commercial Observer. Construction is expected to wrap up in 2030.
It is also a first for the brand. Faena, the hospitality name founded by Alan Faena and billionaire Len Blavatnik in 2000, operates an oceanfront hotel and cultural spaces in Miami Beach as well as hotels in New York and Buenos Aires. Faena Residences Miami is its first condo development, the outlet reported.
Why Lenders Said Yes
The short answer is presales. The sponsors say the project has generated more than $500 million in sales so far, including a $30 million penthouse purchase. In South Florida’s condo market, developers typically need a deep stack of signed contracts and deposits before a lender will commit to vertical construction, and this project appears to have cleared that bar.
“The debt transaction demonstrates the depth of confidence in the project and the continued global appetite for best-in-class real estate in Miami,” Defortuna said in a statement quoted by Commercial Observer.
The new loan builds on earlier, much smaller financing. In 2023, Bank OZK provided a $38 million loan for marketing costs and site work on the Faena Residences, according to the same report.
The $817 million figure tops the previous Florida record, Stephen Ross’s $772 million construction loan for two Class A office buildings in West Palm Beach.
Same Developer, Another Big Check
The Faena deal capped a busy week for Fortune International. Days earlier, Fortune and the Grosskopf family’s Château Group secured a $463 million loan package for the St. Regis Residences in Sunny Isles Beach, The Real Deal reported, calling it one of the largest loans ever closed in that beachfront city.
New York-based Madison Realty Capital is providing that financing, which refinances existing debt on the two-tower project at 18801 Collins Avenue, including Bank OZK loans dating to 2020. Berkadia arranged the deal. According to The Real Deal, the project is 80% presold, the south tower is under vertical construction, and the north tower is next to break ground. The south tower will have 150 units and the north tower 170, with remaining units starting at $5.1 million.
The Real Deal also noted the St. Regis project is one of more than five dozen branded condo developments in South Florida, totaling nearly 15,000 units across the tri-county area.
The Bigger Picture
Put together, two loans totaling roughly $1.28 billion in a single week signal that big lenders still see South Florida’s high-end condo market as a safe place for capital, at least for projects with strong presales and well-known brands attached. Commercial Observer noted that lenders keep funding mammoth luxury condo loans despite higher interest rates, typically after strong presales.
That’s a different story from the one many small developers are living. Projects without a hotel brand or hundreds of millions in signed contracts face a much tougher path to financing. The gap between branded towers and everyone else is one of the defining features of Miami real estate right now.
What It Means for Local Business
A two-tower, 68-story build running through 2030 is a multi-year economic engine. It means steady work for general contractors, subcontractors, engineers, suppliers and the many small businesses that feed a construction site every day, from equipment rental to lunch counters near the river.
It also adds to the transformation of the Miami River’s south bank across from Brickell, an area where new residential density tends to bring new restaurants, retail and services. For entrepreneurs eyeing storefronts along the river and in nearby Brickell, the 434 condo units planned for these towers are worth watching.
The open questions are timing and absorption. Completion is four years out, and the South Florida condo pipeline is crowded with branded projects. For now, though, lenders have answered the biggest question for Faena Residences: the money is there.
Sources: Commercial Observer, The Real Deal.