Merrimac, Aria nab $95M construction loan for Miami Worldcenter short-term rental condo tower

Merrimac Ventures and Aria Development Group landed a $95 million construction loan for a short-term rental condo tower at Miami Worldcenter. 

The deal comes amid an uptick of construction financing in South Florida, as the tri-county region has defied the national slowdown resulting from elevated interest rates. 

The Motwani family’s Merrimac and Aria will develop the 32-story 600 Miami Worldcenter with 606 fully furnished condos at 600 Northeast First Avenue, according to the developers’ news release. Designed by Revuelta Architecture with unit interiors curated by The Design Agency, the building will have no restrictions on short-term rentals. 

Banco Inbursa, a subsidiary of Mexico City-based financial firm Inbursa, is the lender. 

600 Miami Worldcenter is fully pre-sold, the release says. Units will range from 407-square-foot studios to 830-square-foot two-bedroom condos, with prices starting in the $400,000s.

Peggy Olin’s OneWorld Properties led marketing and sales. Jordan Roeschlaub and Dustin Stolly were part of the Newmark team that represented the borrowers in the loan. 

Construction is expected to start soon, and completion is slated for 2026, according to the release. 

Fort Lauderdale-based Marrimac and Aria, which has offices in New York and Miami, paid $17.5 million for the 1.2-acre development site in 2022. 

Miami Worldcenter is a mixed-use complex spanning 10 city blocks at the intersection of the Park West and downtown Miami neighborhoods. The complex’s master developer is Miami Worldcenter Associates, led by managing partners Art Falcone and Nitin Motwani, in partnership with CIM Group. Although the master developer has sold off pieces of the 27-acre Miami Worldcenter to other builders over the years, Merrimac has partnered on some of the projects. 

The firm and the Pérez family’s Related Group are developing the 33-story, 450-unit The Crosby at 601 North Miami Avenue. The tower, which also has no short-term rental restrictions, is fully pre-sold. The developers scored a $94 million construction loan last year. 

Merrimac also is co-developing the second phase of Caoba, a 40-story, 420-unit apartment tower that will be adjacent to the completed Caoba rental building at 698 Northeast First Avenue. In 2022, Adam Neumann, former WeWork CEO whose new venture is multifamily firm Flow, bought stakes in the entities that own Caoba and the adjacent development site. 

Aside from Nitin Motwani, Merrimac is led by his brother, Dev Motwani. 

Aria, led by Joshua Benaim, David Arditi and Timothy Gordon, completed the 31-story, 231-unit Yotel condo and hotel at 227 Northeast Second Street in 2022. It also is developing the 40-story, 476-unit condo building at 501 Northeast First Avenue. Aria partnered on both downtown Miami projects, which are fully pre-sold and short-term rental friendly, with Kuwaiti firm AQARAT

In other recent construction loans, Related last month scored $100.4 million to build the eight-story, 382-apartment Manor Biscayne building at 1650 Northeast 124th Street on the closed Johnson & Wales University campus in North Miami.