The Miami Beach Convention Center
Eight developers have responded to Miami Beach’s request for proposal for a new convention center, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The project calls for 6.2 million square feet of development that would include a convnetion center, a hotel, outdoor public spaces, parking, restaurants, entertainment, retail and residences on the 52-acre site. [more]
Pordes Residential Sales & Marketing has opened a commercial division, Pordes Commercial. “Launching the commercial division was an easy decision,” said Michael Internoscia, vice president of sales at Pordes. According to Internoscia, the company has completed five commercial transactions in the last year, before opening the new division, including the $125 million sale of 146 units at 2700 North Ocean Drive on Singer Island, which is now the Ritz-Carlton Residences. Pordes Residential was started by Mark Pordes in 2010 after 10 years as a vice president at Turnberry. As part of the opening, the firm will be brining on several new agents. — Alexander Britell [more]
The Soffers’ Turnberry Associates is facing foreclosure on Davie Commons, a 2 million-square-foot mixed-use center. The project, which is located on just over 150 acres of cow pasture, has been controversial in the towns of both Davie and nearby Weston. It was approved after a Turnberry affiliate paid $11 million for the site in 2007. A number of local residents were opposed to the development. KeyBank filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Davie Commons Holdings July 5, along with Jeffrey and Jacquelyn Soffer, concerning a $19.1 million mortgage. [SFBJ]
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Lenders have taken back the Town Suare mall and offices in Las Vegas from the Soffer family. The Soffers owed $500 million on the 1.2 million-square-foot site. The Soffers’ Turnberry Associates, which is led by Jeffrey Soffer, is known in Las Vegas as a developer of luxury condos — it previously filed bankruptcy on the unfinished Fontainebleau hotel-casino. The current manager at the site is Forest City Enterprises, which owns the Galleria at Sunset mall in Nevada. According to Forest City’s Jeff Linton, it is not seeking to buy the property. [SFBJ]
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Dubai World and Turnberry Ltd. may retain control of the Fontainebleau Miami, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Holders of the $620 million construction loan on the property could soon approve a proposal that would inject $100 million into the hotel. According to the terms of the deal, the new equity would come from Dubai World and Turnberry, and the loan would be extended until 2016. Turnberry’s Jeffrey Soffer began a $500 million renovation of the hotel in 2005, but lost the Las Vegas Fontainebleau earlier this year in bankruptcy proceedings. [WSJ]
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Court documents show the bankrupt Fontainebleau Las Vegas may need
another $1.5 billion to finish the project, leaving the hotel resort in
staggering amounts of debt. That may make it impossible for developer
Turnberry, led by Miami real estate scion Jeff Soffer, to keep control
of the project. A senior banker said the project had been insolvent
since March, before it filed for bankruptcy protection. [more]
Jeff Soffer took the reins of his family development when he cut the
ribbon on the renovated Fontainebleau Hotel last year in Miami Beach.
Now the heir to the Turnberry company that stands for the family name
in South Florida faces difficulties in Nevada, as it attempts to extend
the Fontainebleau Hotel brand to Las Vegas. That $3 billion venture has gone
poorly and company lawyers continue to scramble to convince skeptics
that the faltering project won’t imperil the health of the $7 billion
Florida real estate empire. [more]
