In a “friendly settlement,” Miami-based developer the Related Group has deeded back two towers at Icon Brickell to a group of lenders led by HSBC. The company will return Tower 1 and Tower 2 to the lender group, and the buildings’ sales and marketing work will be managed by Related and Fortune International. Sales had rebounded recently at the 1,793-unit, three-tower site, especially after Related was able to secure approval to cut prices by 30 percent. Related will still own and operate the third tower, a 50-story building where the Viceroy Miami hotel is located. [Miami Herald via Sun Sentinel] [more]

The Related Group’s Jorge Perez has joined as a partner in a 400,000-square-foot condo and hotel project planned by the Ireland family. Perez has reportedly injected a significant amount of equity into the Ireland’s Inn in Fort Lauderdale, as a partner with Jack Ireland and his daughter Kathy Ireland-Mitchell. The elder Ireland had operated the Inn for years with his late wife. The plan was designed by Coral Gables-based Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates. The Inn had closed in 2007 after Hurricane Wilma, and then ran short on construction financing in 2008. The site is located on 450 feet of oceanfront east of the A1A. Fortune International’s Edgardo Defortuna is also a partner. [SFBJ] Comments

• Tweet

Jorge Perez’s crown jewel development, the three-tower Icon Brickell luxury condominium and hotel complex in Miami that has floundered financially amid South Florida’s market collapse, will be turned over to its lenders. Perez, head of prominent development firm the Related Group, is nearing the end of negotiations with a lending consortium led by HSBC Holdings and Bank of America, making the project perhaps the highest profile foreclosure in the area. Perez is angling to retain the job of managing the complex, but neither party offered more details. Ron Kriss, chairman of the distressed-property group at the Akerman Senterfitt law firm in Miami, said 2010 will have plenty of prominent and sizable foreclosures as developers and lenders struggle with the glut of 22,000 unoccupied condos in the city. [WSJ]

Related’s Jorge Perez and CityPlace South Tower

Developer the Related Group will turn over the 420-unit CityPlace South Tower in West Palm Beach to an investor group headed by lender Scotia Capital. Scotia, a unit of Bank of Nova Scotia, filed a foreclosure suit Wednesday, and Related worked out an agreement to give the group control over all unsold units, which is being termed a “friendly foreclosure.” Only 39 units closed in 2008 after buyers walked away from contracts. Related CEO and Chairman Jorge Perez said all construction debts had been paid. [Miami Herald] and [SFBJ] [more]