Daniel Lebensohn, Jeff Freedman and Eric Edidin.
Daniel Lebensohn, Gregory Freedman and Eric Edidin
Co-founder and co-CEO; co-founder and co-CEO; executive chairman at BH3
If you’re looking for a sort of Swiss Army knife in South Florida commercial real estate development, you can’t get much better than BH3 Management. Led by Daniel Lebensohn, Gregory Freedman and Eric Edidin, the vertically integrated firm has made waves in the credit space, opportunistic equity field and development landscape since its 2009 founding.
The firm primarily deploys credit, specializing in shoring up distressed debt in capital stacks. BH3 is fresh off raising its second fund for this very purpose. That fund carries a $350 million hard capitalization and has already made eight investments, with another three closing this year. But aside from its credit platform, BHS has highly evolved equity and development arms in-house that complement each other.
“Unlike many bridge lenders, we have a development team that’s working on our existing projects and future projects, but is also completely available to provide a brain trust of knowledge to network and provide solutions to the deal,” Lebensohn said. “The two really behave hand in hand and help one another grow. All the businesses have related themes in that sense and complementary elements.”
Nowhere has BH3’s versatile vertical structure been more apparent than in its huge deal to build Watson Harbour at Watson Island, right on Biscayne Bay near Downtown Miami. The firm partnered with Merrimac Ventures to invest and develop a 10.7-acre site that is expected to deliver 1.8 million square feet of hotel, condo, retail and public-use space in the year to come.
“It’s an iconic site, one of the best sites currently in Miami,” said Freedman. “It will change the skyline. You can see it virtually from anywhere. It will be a marquee deal for us and we’re super excited about it as we have a great partner with the city.”
