Greg Newman.
Greg Newman
Senior managing director at Bank OZK
Demand for construction lending in South Florida remained high in 2023 — even in the face of higher interest rates — and Bank OZK was well positioned to capitalize.
The Little Rock, Ark.-based bank, which has made a name for itself nationally in the construction lending space, executed around the same volume in South Florida last year as it did in 2022 despite market headwinds driven by Federal Reserve policy.
“We have an appetite for new business in South Florida as long as it meets our underwriting standards and we’re comfortable with who’s going to execute the plan,” Greg Newman said.
Bank OZK’s 2023 South Florida volume was roughly evenly split between mixed-use and condo projects, Newman added.
One of Bank OZK’s signature South Florida deals in 2023 closed late in the year: a $220 million construction loan for the first phase of FATVillage, an 835,000-square-foot, master-planned, mixed-use development in Fort Lauderdale from Hines and Urban Street Development. The first phase of the project will include 601 apartments, 180,000 square feet of office and 70,000 square feet of multipurpose retail.
Another late 2023 loan that Bank OZK executed involved providing $259 million of construction financing to Fortune International Group and Oak Capital for the joint venture’s Ritz-Carlton-branded condo development in Pompano Beach, Fla. The project will include a complex totaling 205 units with towers reaching 14 and 32 stories. Early last year, too, Bank OZK originated a $242 million construction loan to build a hotel and condo development called Aman Miami Beach sponsored by OKO Group’s Vlad Doronin and Len Blavatnik.
South Florida’s commercial real estate climate has changed considerably since Newman closed his first loan in 1989 for a Downtown Miami project, long before the region transformed into a global market.
“If you looked at the skyline in 1989 in an aerial photo and look at it today, it has grown like you wouldn’t believe,” Newman said. “Wynwood was just a dream then, and it has changed dramatically over that time period.”
