FECI Secures $438M Loan Package to Recapitalize Brightline Properties
By Julia Echikson and Chava Gourarie August 6, 2021 3:01 pm
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Florida East Coast Industries (FECI) recapitalized a collection of properties near Brightline stations with loans totaling $438 million, property records show.
The company, which owns the Brightline train service, extended an existing senior loan from Morgan Stanley (MS) with an additional $122 million, according to the records.
Back in 2019, FECI first scored a loan from Morgan Stanley for $200 million. It renewed the loan last August, and upped that amount to $238 million in October, bringing the total to $360 million with the new funding.
In addition, the company secured $78 million, as a junior lien, from both Morgan Stanley and New York-based CanAm Capital Partners.
The seven properties sit across Broward and Miami-Dade counties. They include two parcels in Downtown Miami, where the firm was developing twin towers and later put them up for sale, as well as land by the Fort Lauderdale’s Brightline station at 110 NW 4th Avenue.
FECI’s parent company, New York-based Fortress Investment Group, has made real estate investments around its Brightline stations a major piece of its strategy. But, by putting its Miami sites on the market and selling one in Fort Lauderdale, the firm appears to have scaled its ambition to develop the land itself.
Last month, FECI sold two vacant parcels nearby in Broward County for a combined $37.2 million.
The Brightline rail line runs from Miami to West Palm Beach and is expanding to Orlando and Tampa. Construction of the track line up north is scheduled to end by 2022.
In the wake of the pandemic, the train service ceased operations in March 2020, and is expected to reopen by the end of the year.
FECI representatives could not be reached for comment.
