Old Spanish Village

A one-acre vacant lot in Coral Gables sold for $24 million, the Daily Business Review reported, as developers in South Florida scramble for fast-diminishing opportunities to build.

Veteran South Florida developer W. Allen Morris’ Ponce de Leon Financial Towers LLC sold the mixed-use development site at 2801 Ponce de Leon Blvd. to 2901 Ponce LLC, a Miami-based company managed by Jose Antonio Perez, according to state corporate records cited by the Review. [more]

The site of the former Old Spanish Village has been sold for $30.55 million, according to Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, which had been marketing the site on behalf of seller FirstBank Puerto Rico. The buyer was Agave Holdings, a privately-owned firm. The price for the 5.8-acre mixed-use development was a 49 percent discount from its $60.1 million mortgage. Bilzin Sumberg represented FirstBank, while fellow law firm Holland & Knight represented the seller. [SFBJ]
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The troubled Old Spanish Village project in Coral Gables was seized by lender FirstBank Puerto Rico after the bank won its $83 million foreclosure action against the project. The site’s developers, Ponce Circle, had a $60.1 million mortgage on the property, which is located on 5.8 acres at Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Palmero Avenue. It was originally planned as a $400 million development with 195 townhouses and an office tower, although the tower is not part of the foreclosure. [SFBJ]
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The developers of Coral Gables’ Old Spanish Village project have lost an $83.1 million foreclosure judgment to lender FirstBank Puerto Rico, sending most of the project to an online auction scheduled for May 2. Ponce Circle Developers, Mas Tec’s Jose Mas and Sachez Group’s Rafael Sanchez had envisioned the site as a $400 million development with 195 townhouses and a 206,000-square-foot office tower. The office tower is complete and was not part of the foreclosure case, but Cushman & Wakefield has been marketing the rest to potential buyers. The developers are also facing foreclosure at a 7,205-square-foot office building that they had intended to redevelop as part of the complex. [SFBJ]

Jorge Mas, president and CEO of Coral Gables-based MasTec, whose
father, Jorge Mas Canosa, founded the Cuban-American National
Foundation, has been named as a defendant in a foreclosure on the Old
Spanish Village project on Ponce De Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables.
Also named in the action is Rafael Sanchez, who founded the Miami Grand
Prix, built the Homestead Motorsports Complex, and is the head of the
Sanchez Group. Plaintiff FirstBank Puerto Rico is looking to seize the
project, on which construction began in 2007 but remains mostly
unfinished. [SFBJ] Comments

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