Galbut family and Matis Cohen score $98M loan for North Beach project

Developers are planning 270-apartment mixed-use building with 12K sf of retail

From left: Matis Cohen and Marisa Galbit with 72nd and Park
From left: Matis Cohen and Marisa Galbit with 72nd and Park (Getty, Crescent Heights)

The Galbut family and Matis Cohen nabbed a $97.5 million construction loan for a Miami Beach mixed-use project featuring co-living apartments.

Miami-based Ocean Bank, representing a group of lenders, provided the financing for 72nd and Park, a planned 22-story building with 270 apartments, including 121 co-living units, and roughly 12,500 square feet of retail, records show. The co-living units will feature separate bedrooms with a shared living space.

An entity managed by Cohen and Marisa Galbut, president of Galbut family-owned GFO Investments, owns the 1.7-acre development site at 7125-7145 Carlyle Avenue, 7100-7144 Byron Avenue, and 527 71st Street in the city’s North Beach neighborhood. Marisa Galbut is the daughter of Miami Beach developer Russell Galbut.

The lender assumed a previous $6.9 million loan tied to the property and boosted it by nearly $91 million, records show. Fort Lauderdale-based Stiles, the general contractor, broke ground on the Arquitectonica-designed 72nd and Park in November, city records show.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

In 2019, the Miami Beach Design Review Board approved 72nd and Park, including two waivers allowing separate driveways for the parking and loading portions of the project, as well as an additional 20 feet to the 200-foot height limit.

The Cohen-Galbut entity assembled the development site between 2015 and 2019, paying a total of $17 million for nine parcels, records show. One of the properties has a two-story apartment building completed in 1961 that will be demolished.

72nd and Park is among a handful of projects to be built under the city’s North Beach Town Center zoning regulations that allow developers bonuses for large density projects in the neighborhood. For instance, owners of properties greater than 50,000 square feet that are north of 71st Street can request the 20-foot height increase. The regulations also allow increased density, co-living, micro-units and relaxed parking requirements.

Last year, the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board approved another mixed-use project by Cohen and Russell Galbut at 880 71st Street. The developers want to build a four-story building with 36 apartments and roughly 3,650 square feet of ground-floor retail.