Adi Chugh.
Adi Chugh
Founder and CEO at Tyko Capital
With South Florida being one of the nation’s most competitive real estate markets, it’s impressive just to make a few waves. On the other hand there’s Tyko Capital, which appeared on the scene less than 20 months ago but quickly became one of the most prolific lenders the region has ever seen, backing some of the biggest projects with groundbreaking levels of financing.
By big, we’re talking 830 Brickell big. We’re talking multiple loans of more than half a billion dollars, with borrowers like Related Group and Oko Group. In short, Tyko Capital, a venture between Adi Chugh and hedge fund firm Elliott Investment Management, went from unknown to unmissable in the blink of an eye.
“We started in the advisory business as an unknown commodity 14 years back,” Chugh said in December when he received the award for Top Financier of the Year on the non-bank side at Commercial Observer’s second annual Breakthrough Awards Breakfast. “And I got up one day and said, ‘We’re done with this business. We’re pivoting.’ And everybody said, ‘We are with you.’ Not one employee left. In 15 months, we’ve been able to deploy more than $5 billion.”
The list of loans from the past year is astounding.
Last summer, Tyko provided $565 million to refinance 830 Brickell, Miami’s first new stand-alone office tower in over a decade, where space rents for well above $100 a square foot. The project by OKO and Cain International famously attracted Ken Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel, tech giant Microsoft, and law firm Sidley Austin. (Tao Group is opening a restaurant and private club there.)
In September, Tyko provided $527 million for Related Group’s 50-story
St. Regis-branded condo tower, also in Brickell. In November, Tyko agreed to another construction loan for another high-end Related Group project with $424 million for an oceanfront project in Bal Harbour with 56 condos.
In December, Tyko made more friends with more big names after lending $285 million for the construction of Terra and One Thousand Group’s Major Food Group-branded condo project. That 56-story project will house 70 units in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood.
When your dizziness subsides, you can take a look at what Tyko’s been up to in New York City, but we’ll leave that for another day.
