Habitat Group is moving forward with the construction of a large condo and hotel project in Brickell after scoring a $24 million loan.
Habitat secured the construction loan from Miami-based Ocean Bank to build Smart Brickell’s Tower 1 at 239 Southwest 9th Street in Miami’s West Brickell neighborhood. The tower will have 50 hotel rooms and 50 condos and is planned for completion in 2021.
Smart Brickell is a three-building condo and hotel project that will offer owners the ability to rent their units out 50 times a year. In all, the project will have nearly 300 units and about 12,000 square feet of commercial space for a cafe, restaurant and retail. Tower 2 is expected to break ground in early 2020.
Santiago Vanegas, CEO and president of Habitat Group, said Smart Brickell Tower 1 is already sold out, while Smart Brickell Tower 2 is about 80 percent sold.
Miami-based Cervera Real Estate is handling sales for Smart Brickell. Hernando Carrillo is the architect. Condo prices range from $300,000 to $600,000.
Habitat Group is focusing on West Brickell. The company recently paid $6.1 million for a site at 1200 Southwest Second Avenue where it’s planning to build Brickell 12, a 96-key hotel project. The company’s other projects include the Brickell Lux and Millux Hotel, according to its website.
With just over $4 billion in assets, Ocean Bank is an active construction lender in South Florida. Last year, the community bank provided an $85 million construction for Melo Group’s Art Plaza Apartment. This comes at a time when many banks in South Florida are backing away from construction lending due to heightened regulatory scrutiny.