Centennial Bank Leads $95M Loan for Miami Apartments

Clearline Real Estate has secured $94.5 million of construction financing to build a transit-oriented multifamily tower in Miami, the developer announced Monday.

Centennial Bank provided a $68.5 million senior loan for Clearline’s 24-story Excel Miami project in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District south of the Wynwood neighborhood. Southern Realty Trust (SRT) also originated a $26 million subordinate loan on the 427-unit development slated for completion in 2026.

Jay Brito, senior vice president and senior commercial loan officer at Centennial Bank, said he was introduced to SRT by Clearline, and that conducting the deal with a mezzanine lender made sense given the higher interest rate environment. 

“There was not an expectation at that time that rates would go down, so as a senior lender we felt comfortable with a little less leverage, and that’s why the subordinate lender was brought in by the sponsor to make up for the difference,” Brito said. “We have worked pretty well on this deal and look forward to doing other deals with SRT.” 

Located at 1550 NE Miami Place near one of the city’s Metromover rail stations, Excel Miami will include 214,183 rentable square feet of apartments consisting of studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms along with 13 townhouse lofts on the ground floor. Community amenities will feature a pool, a yoga deck, a fitness center, coworking space, a film room and podcast suites. The property will also consist of a parking garage for 128 cars with spots also for scooters and bicycles. 

Brito said the project was attractive from a lending perspective due to the market demand for increased housing options in Miami amid population increases in recent years. He added that the nearby School Board Metromover Station will give tenants the ability to connect for free to other stations throughout Miami’s downtown and Briclell sections along with linking to the Metrorail system that has stops throughout Miami-Dade County. 

“This building offers Class A amenities and a luxury product at a much lower price point, which is something that’s really sorely needed down here,” said Brito, noting that half of the apartments will consist of small units. “There’s a lot of congestion in South Florida which continues to increase with the amount of people that are migrating in.”

Clearline Real Estate did not immediately return a request for comment.

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com