Ram scores $81M construction loan for 353-unit apartment complex near Zoo Miami

Ram Realty Advisors scored an $80.6 million construction loan for a 353-unit multifamily complex near Zoo Miami. 

The Palm Beach Gardens-based development firm is building the apartments on a 12.4-acre site it owns immediately south of Walmart Supercenter at 15601 Southwest 127th Avenue in unincorporated south Miami-Dade County, according to records. U.S. Bank, as administrative agent for a group of financiers, issued the loan. 

The apartment complex is the latest phase of Ram’s 80-acre development north of Zoo Miami. Completed portions include Walmart and the 408-unit Cortland South Kendall apartment complex. In 2021, multifamily investment firm Cortland bought Cortland South Kendall and an adjacent apartment development site for a combined $174.3 million. 

Ram bought the 353-unit apartment complex development site in 2021 from the University of Miami for $10.5 million. 

The entire mixed-use project previously was the subject of heated litigation initiated by environmental groups that decried the development’s potential impacts on a pine rockland habitat on the site. 

After Ram bought the majority of the 80-acre tract in 2014, environmentalists sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other governmental agencies over signing off on an allegedly incomplete conservation plan. While a judge initially sided with conservationists and ordered a halt to the land clearing, the order was later lifted and the case settled confidentially in 2018. 

Ram countered the claims its project would damage pine rockland, saying at the time of the suit that it developed a plan to conserve the habitat. 

Led by Casey Cummings, Ram develops, buys and renovates multifamily, retail and mixed-use real estate, according to its website. Its portfolio includes 12,000 apartments, and the firm has invested more than $5 billion of capital raised in its discretionary funds. 

Ram’s recent projects include a proposal to redevelop the Biscayne Breeze Mobile Home Park at 11380 Biscayne Boulevard near North Miami, and adjacent properties at 11320 and 11340 Biscayne Boulevard, with 400 apartments and retail.  

The latest construction loan comes amid expensive borrowing costs that followed the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes since the spring of last year. Records do not show Ram’s loan’s interest rate or whether it’s floating or fixed. 

Other South Florida development firms also have scored construction financing recently. Last month, Estate Companies scored a $70.8 million construction loan for the planned 12-story Soleste Hollywood Village North with 300 apartments and eight live-work units at 2001 Van Buren Street. 

Also, Meyers Accesso, a joint venture between South Florida developers Meyers Group and Accesso Partners, nabbed $46.1 million in construction financing for a two-building complex with 200 apartments at Boutwell Road and North 10th Street in Lake Worth Beach.