Miami Worldcenter district closes $74M bond sale for infrastructure improvements

Updated, 4:45 p.m., Feb. 28: The Miami Worldcenter Community Development District has issued private placement bonds that will fund $74 million of infrastructure upgrades to the 27-acre site. 

The bonds are backed by special assessments levied on the property owners within the district, which includes Worldcenter developers Nitin Motwani and the Falcone Group, Dan Kodsi and CIM Group. It does not include MDM Group, Motwani told The Real Deal.

Proceeds from the bonds will finance improvements to the nearby Metromover station, new landscaping, widened sidewalks, street lights, water and sewer, and electrical connectivity. The CDD board will oversee the infrastructure upgrades along with contractor CoastalTishman, engineer Kimley Horn and a district manager, Motwani said, comparing the infrastructure project to that of Midtown Miami. Work on the water and sewer lines and fiber optic cable over the past year has been funded by the Worldcenter developers. “The floated bonds will allow us continue our work,” Motwani told TRD. 

North Miami Beach-based FMSbonds Inc. is the underwriter of the $74.07 million in tax-exempt bonds, according to a press release. Greenberg Traurig served as bond counsel and Squire Patton Boggs served as underwriter’s counsel. Billing, Cochran, Lyles, Mauro & Ramsey, PA served as issuers’ counsel and Fishkind & Associates advised the CDD.

Overall, the mixed-use, master-planned community will include Paramount Miami Worldcenter, 450,000 square feet of high street retail, the Seventh Street Apartments, an additional 429-unit apartment building, and the 1,700-room Marriott Marquis Miami Worldcenter Hotel & Expo. Construction is vertical on Paramount and the Seventh Street Apartments, and Motwani said he expects both to open in the fall of next year. Retail tenants will move in around the same time and are expected to open in early 2019.

Kodsi, who is developing the condo component, paid about $26 million for the Paramount land late last year and is on the fifth floor of construction with plans to close a large loan soon. CIM paid $28 million for the Seventh Street Apartments land in May and closed an $89 million loan also in December to go vertical on construction. It’s currently on the fourth floor of 42 stories, Motwani said. Both apartment buildings will be a block away from All Aboard Florida’s MiamiCentral station.

According to a copy of the bond offering memorandum available on FMSbonds’ website, an affiliate of MWC Holdings is under contract to sell 4.71 acres to MDM Development for $44.5 million, of which $2 million has already been transferred. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of this year, as first reported by the Next Miami.

Zom affiliate ZF Development II LLC is also under contract to purchase 0.33 acres of land from Miami Worldcenter Associates, according to the document. The sales price under negotiation is $19.125 million and it’s expected to close by the third quarter of this year.

Worldcenter, along with MiamiCentral, will bring significant change to the Park West/Overtown neighborhood near downtown Miami. “The area of Park West has long been neglected,” Motwani said, “but we’re going to change it for the better.”