Oak Row Equities Scores $181M for Office and Apartment Tower in Edgewater

The mixed-use 2600 Biscayne Boulevard will include 400 apartments and 187,000 square feet of commercial space, primarily Class A office. Related Fund Management, the investment arm of Related Companies, came on board the project as an equity partner in July 2022, shortly after the project was announced. 

The Arquitectonica-designed tower is scheduled for completion in 2026, and will be one of the first of several office projects coming to a neighborhood rife with multifamily construction. Over 50 percent of the commercial space is pre-leased, according to the developer. 

The base of the tower will extend the full length of the parcel, and include 10 stories of office space above the ground-floor lobby, capped with an amenity floor and pool deck. The narrower multifamily portion will begin on the 13th floor, so every apartment will have views of nearby Biscayne Bay and the surrounding area. The wraparound amenity deck will divide the two portions visually, and the top floor will feature coworking spaces and a rooftop deck. 

Dustin Stolly and Jordan Roeschlaub of Newmark, along with their colleagues Chris Kramer and Daniel Matz, arranged the Bank OZK financing. The duo also secured the equity investment from Related for the development, which was projected to cost $325 million at the time. Oak Row declined to provide an updated project cost.

Oak Row Equities purchased the site, which spans a full city block — from Biscayne Boulevard to Northeast Second Avenue, between Northeast 26th Street and Northeast 26th Terrace — for $35 million from Fairholme Capital Management in 2022, according to property records. Bruce Berkowitz’s Fairholme had planned to build a museum specifically to hold two monumental pieces of art, but scrapped the idea in 2021, the Miami Herald reported. 

“Against a backdrop of uniquely challenging capital markets, we’re honored to close one of the most significant and sophisticated financings in Miami this year,” said Erik Rutter, who manages Oak Row Equities along with David Weitz. “2600 Biscayne will fundamentally change the Edgewater neighborhood and elevate the office and residential rental market in all of Miami.”

Bank OZK is one of the primary actors bankrolling South Florida’s development room. In the last several months, the Little Rock, Ark.-based bank has financed close to $1 billion worth of projects in the area, including $239 million for Ugo Colombo’s Grove Isle condo project and $259 million for a Ritz-Carlton-branded condo in Pompano Beach. The bank is active in other parts of Florida too, providing $215 million for another Ritz Carlton-branded project in Estero Bay, and $173 million for a Jacksonville-area development.