Prestige lands $61M construction loan for Hialeah race track project

Prestige Companies is galloping ahead with plans for a multifamily project at Hialeah Park Racing & Casino, after securing $60.7 million in construction financing.

Centennial Bank provided the loan to an affiliate of Miami Lakes-based Prestige that is partnering with Hialeah Park President John Brunetti Jr. to develop Flamingo Village, a proposed 343-unit apartment complex with a Mater Academy charter school, records show. The project is slated for a 13.1-acre site in the 200-acre historic race track property at 100 East 32nd Street in Hialeah. 

The development firm recently broke ground and expects to complete Flamingo Village in the third quarter of next year, Prestige COO Alexander Ruiz said. Last year, the Prestige affiliate paid $13.7 million for the development site. The seller was an entity managed by Brunetti, whose family has owned the former horse racing site since 1977. The project entails three-story, low-rise buildings and some rental townhomes. 

Flamingo Village is the first phase of a major mixed-use redevelopment of Hialeah Park approved by the Hialeah City Council in 2021. The master plan includes hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, a supermarket, a bowling alley and an equestrian hospital. The storied Mediterranean-style race track building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, will remain intact. 

Hialeah Park is allowed to have slot machines, card games and pari-mutuel wagering on televised horse races, but live racing was discontinued in the early 2000s. 

Prestige, led by CEO Marty Caparros, has a robust development pipeline in Hialeah. In January, the firm and its partner, Florida Value Partners, obtained a $20.5 million construction loan for a multifamily project on the site of a former Salvation Army store at 7450 West Fourth Avenue. The development entails 100 rental townhouses and a three-story building with 12 apartments and 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. 

Prestige also built Las Vistas at Amelia, a 174-unit apartment complex, and The Amelia mixed-use district, a project with 30 rental units and two commercial units totaling 17,000 square feet, in Hialeah. Both projects are named after Amelia Earhart, who attempted to become the first woman pilot to fly across the globe, but disappeared in the Pacific Ocean in 1937. Earhart began her fateful journey in Hialeah.