Michael Dell (left), Byron Trott (top) and Jason Kollander.
Michael Dell, Byron Trott and Jason Kollander
Chairman of the advisory board; chairman, co-CEO and co-CIO; partner and head of real estate credit at BDT & MSD
BDT & MSD Partners has become a formidable player in South Florida’s commercial real estate industry, both on the lending and the equity sides.
The firm, formed from a 2023 merger of Byron Trott’s BDT & Company merchant bank and Michael Dell’s MSD Partners investment firm, has continued to fund major projects across South Florida with marquee developers at times when other institutions have stepped back in the face of elevated interest rates.
“We have good relationships with developers, and we’ve been able to build on that,” Jason Kollander said.
Take Stephen Ross in West Palm Beach. After providing the construction debt for One Flagler, the developer’s newest office tower in West Palm Beach, the merchant bank in August refinanced the 25-story building to the tune of $340 million.
In Palm Beach, it also provided the debt for OKO Group and Cain International to begin work on the first new condo on the uber-wealthy island town in about two decades, after first supplying the acquisition loan.
Farther south in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, it funneled the construction debt for Witkoff Group’s luxury condo and hotel development within the Shell Bay country club as well as a mixed-use boutique project in Miami’s coveted Coconut Grove neighborhood.
The bank doesn’t just lend — it also owns some notable properties in South Florida, including the historic Boca Raton resort, which it acquired for $875 million in 2019. Last year, the investor refinanced the 1,047-room asset with $1.15 billion from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
Since the acquisition, the firm has spent just under $390 million to renovate the 165-acre property, with plans to invest another $91 million in the next two years. The changes have boosted to historic highs the property’s average daily rate and revenue per available room, up by 121 and 94 percent, respectively, from pre-pandemic 2019 levels.
More is in store. Just last month, Boca Raton’s Planning and Zoning Board approved plans to add an eight-story condo building onto the resort. This month, the firm purchased two Four Seasons properties, one at Walt Disney World in Orlando and the other in Jackson Hole, Wyo., for a combined $1.1 billion.
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