Fortune, Château score $100M financing boost for St. Regis Sunny Isles

Edgardo Defortuna’s Fortune International Group and Manuel Grosskopf’s Château Group secured a financing boost for their under-construction St. Regis Residences in Sunny Isles Beach. 

Bank OZK increased the $119 million loan it provided in 2020 by $100 million, for a total of $219 million, property records show. Edgardo Defortuna, founder and CEO of Brickell-based Fortune referred to it as a “land construction loan.”

The St. Regis is a planned two-tower, 350-unit luxury condo development on the oceanfront at 18801 Collins Avenue. Sales of the south tower launched in 2022 and the 62-story, 180-unit building is now 80 percent presold, Defortuna said. Sales of the 62-story, 170-unit north tower launched in February. The estimated sellout for both buildings is $3 billion. 

Pricing for condos in the north tower ranges from $4.5 million to $15 million, with units from 1,800 square feet to 5,500 square feet. 

Miami-based Arquitectonica, led by Bernardo Fort-Brescia, designed both buildings, with São Paulo-based Patricia Anastassiadis handling interiors and Fort Lauderdale-based EDSA leading landscape design. The project will have a fitness center, sports courts, three ocean-facing pools, residents lounges and more. 

The project has been in the works for more than a decade. Fortune and Château spent $113 million to buy out nearly 350 individual condo owners at the former La Playa de Varadero condo-hotel in 2014. The 4.7-acre site has 435 feet of ocean frontage.

The developers are working on finalizing the Guaranteed Maximum Price contract required to lock in a larger construction loan. The GMP sets the maximum construction pricing for a project; the contractor or subcontractors would absorb additional costs above those thresholds. 

Defortuna said he expects to secure the construction loan by August. The amount could range from $425 million to $450 million, depending on how much the developers have in buyers’ deposits. 

Bank OZK is the most active lender for condo projects in South Florida. The Little Rock, Arkansas-based bank recently provided a $328 million construction to Related Group and GTIS Partners for the Baccarat Residences tower in Brickell. It’s also funding the construction of Fortune and Oak Capital’s Ritz-Carlton Residences in Pompano Beach. 

The trend of branded residential developments has boomed in South Florida, with developers partnering with hospitality, luxury automotive and other designer brands that include the Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Bentley, Aston Martin and Major Food Group. Developers can typically charge more per square foot when they work with a major brand, and those arrangements stay in place for at least 10 years and typically much longer. 

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