Miami-based Ocean Bank made a $43 million loan to finance construction of a shopping center in Miami Gardens with a group of tenants including Miami-Dade County’s first Wawa convenience store.
North Miami-based IMC Equity Group secured the loan through an affiliate to finance is construction of Gardens Promenade, expected to open in August 2018.
IMC will build the 251,489-square-foot shopping center on a 32.8-acre site at 18000 Northwest 27 Avenue. The project’s cost is $60 million.
Carlos Segrera, director of acquisitions and finance at IMC, told the South Florida Business Journal the center is 80 percent leased.
Signed tenants other than Wawa include Advance Auto Parts, Boston Market, Burlington Coat Factory, CitiTrends, DD’s Discounts, Dollar Tree, Five Below, Marshalls, McDonalds, Ross Dress for Less, Shoe Carnival and Taco Bell.
The Pennsylvania-based Wawa chain plans to open four locations in Miami-Dade. The location at Gardens Promenade will be the first in Miami-Dade to enter the construction phase of development.
Hawkins Construction is the general contractor of the Miami Gardens shopping center project. In the project’s second phase, IMC will build a 120,000-square-foot facility for self storage.
Ralph Gonzalez-Jacobo, executive vice president of Ocean Bank, told the Business Journal that the financing for IMC is typical of the bank’s loans to developers, citing IMC’s substantial investment in Gardens Promenade and an “excellent loan-to-value ratio.” [South Florida Business Journal] – Mike Seemuth