Doronin and Blavatnik Score $243M Loan For Aman Development in Miami Beach
By Julia Echikson January 10, 2023 6:32 pm
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Billionaires Vlad Doronin and Len Blavatnik scored a $242.4 million construction loan to transform a historic, oceanfront hotel in Miami Beach into an Aman-branded condo and hotel property, property records show.
The partnership, between Doronin’s Oko Group and Blavatnik’s Access Industries, is redeveloping the Versailles Hotel, a 14-story Art Deco building constructed in 1940, by adding 56 hotel rooms and 22 condo units, all of which have been pre-sold, according to the developers.
The lender, Bank OZK (OZK), upped an existing $34.8 million loan from 2020, adding an additional $242.4 million, bringing the project’s total financing to $277.2 million, according to mortgage documents. Newmark’s Dustin Stolly and Jordan Roeschlaub arranged the debt.
Construction is already underway and is expected to be completed in 2024.
Back in 2013, Blavatnik, who was born in Ukraine made his fortune in aluminum, paid $100 million for the Roy France-designed hotel, which sits on a 1.7-acre site at 3425 Collins Avenue, facing the Atlantic Ocean, just north of the Faena condo-hotel complex.
“When you combine Aman’s global appeal, our location directly on the sand in the Faena District, the strength of our partners, and our record-setting residential sellout, it is clear why today’s rocky credit markets had the confidence to finance this project,” Jonah Sonnenborn, head of Access Real Estate, said in a statement.
Doronin, a prominent Miami-based developer who bought the Aman hotel chain in 2014, is bringing the brand, known for its ultra-luxury, secluded resorts, into cities. Earlier this year, he reopened New York’s historic Crown Building as an Aman-branded condo and hotel property, where the cheapest nightly stay costs $3,200, making it the city’s most expensive hotel.
For Miami Beach, the Aman project marks the latest historic redevelopment project underway. Also along Collins Avenue, developers Michael Shvo and Steven Whitkoff are revamping The Raleigh and The Shore Club, though both have yet to secure construction financing.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
