Fort Partners Adds to Surfside Holdings With $60M Buy on Collins Avenue

Fort Partners has purchased two sites near the Four Seasons Hotel in Surfside, Fla., for $60 million, adding to its substantial holdings in the oceanfront town. 

The purchase includes the site of the now-demolished Surf House condominium at 8995 Collins Avenue, and a surface lot at 9000 Collins Avenue, catty-corner from the first site. The oceanfront Surf House site is nestled between the Arte condominium and the Four Seasons resort, which Fort Partners developed. 

The deal for the two lots completes an agreement initially made between Fort Partners and the seller, Jason Halpern’s JMH Development, back in 2021, according to property records. The seller had terminated the nine-story Surf House condo after buying a majority of the units there, but was sued by some condo owners at the property in 2016 — a case that wasn’t resolved until 2020. 

Fort Partners, led by Nadim Ashi, is big on condo terminations. The company also owns two sites on the other side of the Four Seasons, where it plans to replace aging buildings with newer and more luxurious condo offerings. Fort Partners owns the former Seaways Villa condo at 9149 Collins Avenue, which has been demolished, and the Hillcrest by the Sea co-op at 9165 Collins Avenue. 

In 2023, the Fort Lauderdale-based Fort Partners paid $41.5 million for the land underneath the co-op and secured a $50 million mortgage form Madison Realty Capital, on top of a previous $169 million loan from Bank OZK, to build an 11-story, 14-unit condo building on the combined lot.

At the newly purchased 8995 Collins Avenue, a similar project is in the works. Last year, Surfside’s Planning and Zoning Board approved a 12-story condo building with 19 units for the site. The developer also secured a $36 million loan from Synovus Bank for the Collins Avenue acquisitions, according to property records.

Earlier this year, Fort Partners secured $419 million to refinance the Four Seasons, replacing $345 million in existing debt. The firm completed the resort, also known as the Surf Club, in 2017.

Fort Partners could not immediately be reached for comment.

Chava Gourarie can be reached at cgourarie@commercialobserver.com.