South Florida briefs

Miami developer puts up artwork to secure $80M loan

Martin Margulies is so driven to wrap up his latest condominium project before Miami’s next real estate crash that he is doing something extraordinary — and extremely personal.

The 74-year-old developer is putting up pieces of his estimated $800 million art collection, including works by Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, as collateral for an $80 million loan from U.S. Trust to finance construction of Bellini Williams Island, a 24-story tower in Aventura, Fla., set to be completed in October.

Margulies opposes using cash deposits from buyers to pay for building costs, a model favored by many of his colleagues.

“The danger of that is … if [the developer] uses the money, and the construction costs escalate, he better have the money to cover those costs because the buyer is out there. We felt that by using our own money to build a building, that would encourage people to have confidence in us and the project,” Margulies told The Real Deal.

Versace mansion goes on auction block in September

The former villa of slain Italian fashion mogul Gianni Versace will go to bankruptcy auction on Sept. 17. Bidders will need to deposit $3 million into escrow and show proof of funds of $40 million, said listing broker Jill Eber, of the Coldwell Banker team The Jills. The 19,000-square-foot mansion, where serial killer Andrew Cunanan gunned down Versace in 1997, had been listed for $75 million; last year, the listing price stood at $125 million, a record for Miami.

The majority owner of the estate, now known as the Casa Casuarina, is telecom mogul Peter Loftin, who has battled foreclosure by the Nakash family, founders of Jordache jeans. The Nakashes bought a note from Loftin’s original lender that allowed them to pursue foreclosure.

University of Miami Life Sciences Park

Bio-tech park re-energizes blighted Miami area

Downtown Miami’s historically black Overtown neighborhood has a blossoming biomedical industry.

The University of Miami Life Science Technology Park sits on 68 acres, surrounded by hospitals, and has 250,000 square feet that house a mix of private medical companies and public research labs, including the school’s 80,000-square-foot tissue bank. The developer is Wexford Science and Technology, a biomedical realty company that has built several other medical parks across the country.

Latin American banks follow customers to South Florida

Latin American financial giants are expanding their Miami footprint to hang on to their wealthy clients, who keep parking their cash in South Florida real estate.

Brazil’s largest publicly traded bank is just one example: Banco Itaú is doubling its square footage at downtown’s Southeast Financial Center, the largest office tower in Florida.

In the last few years, hundreds of billions of dollars have left South America’s wealthier nations. Argentina, for instance, saw a $25 billion net outflow for 2011 and responded with controversial capital controls.

Chile’s third-largest bank, Banco de Crédito e Inversiones, is trying to hang onto cash by establishing operations in the U.S. for the first time. It purchased City National Bank from Spanish investors for $882.8 million.