Lissette Calderon scores $24M construction loan for Allapattah apartments

Allapattah 17 will be a 192-unit apartment building

Allapattah 17 and Lissette Calderon
Allapattah 17 and Lissette Calderon

Developer Lissette Calderon scored a $24.4 million construction loan for a planned 192-unit apartment building in Allapattah.

Calderon’s Neology Development Group is using the loan to build Allapattah 17, at 1569-1652 Northwest 17th Avenue. Calderon secured the loan from MidCap Financial, a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management, according to a release.

The 14-story building will have studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

Charles Foschini, Chris Apone, Lourdes Carranza-Alvarez and Shannon Wilson of Berkadia’s Miami office arranged the loan on behalf of Neology Development Group. The loan is non-recourse, 3-year, floating rate loan with one 12-month extension option.

In July 2017, Calderon’s entity paid $1.7 million for the Allapattah property that was home to a laundromat, records show.

Calderon is also planning another mixed-use development in Allapattah, 16 Allapattah, with 323 apartments and a 336-space parking structure at 1625 Northwest 20th Street. The 12-story project will also include 13,133 square feet of retail and 6,947 square feet of office.

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In previous interviews, Calderon told The Real Deal that her goal is to create a rental portfolio in emerging neighborhoods of Miami and other cities. Last September, Neology Life paid $61 million for the former River Oaks Tower & Marina at 1951 Northwest South River Drive, marking Calderon’s return to the Miami River where she developed her first condominium projects in the early 2000s.

Neology Life renovated and rebranded the 21-story, 199-unit building into Pier 19 Residences & Marina, also adding a private 10-slip marina, three large cabanas for residents’ use, and creating all new common areas.

Investors and developers continue to target Allapattah, an industrial neighborhood west of Wynwood and east of Miami International Airport.

Among them, Moishe Mana has been assembling land on the eastern edge of Allapattah, just west of his Wynwood holdings.

And Robert Wennett has hired starchitect Bjarke Ingels to design plans for a residential, office, retail and hotel project in Allapattah that will rise between Northwest 21st and 22nd streets, and between Northwest 13th and 12th avenues.