830 Brickell office tower lands $565M perm loan, among South Florida’s biggest refinancings ever

The office tower 830 Brickell scored a $565 million loan from an Elliott Investment Management-backed lender, marking one of South Florida’s biggest refinancings ever. 

Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group and Cain International are developing the 57-story tower at 830 Brickell Plaza in Miami. The project, the first new standalone office tower in the Brickell Financial District in the past decade, is fully preleased after scoring some of South Florida’s biggest new-to-market firms over the past four years. 

Tyko Capital provided the permanent loan, which will pay off the $300 million construction financing OKO and Cain secured in 2019 from MSD Partners. It was South Florida’s biggest office construction loan that year. 

New York-based Tyko, a joint venture between founder and CEO Adi Chugh and a Florida-based hedge fund, is a commercial real estate private equity and private credit investment management firm that launched in August, according to an 830 Brickell news release announcing the new loan. 

Bloomberg identified Tyko’s Florida-based joint venture partner as Elliott Investment Management. The hedge fund led by Paul Singer moved its headquarters from Manhattan to West Palm Beach in 2020. 

Beatriz Azcuy of Sidley Austin represented the 830 Brickell developers in securing the permanent loan. 

Miami-based OKO and London-based Cain started building 830 Brickell in 2020. The tower was initially expected to be completed in 2022, but that was postponed several times. The developers now expect to finish the project this fall. 

830 Brickell became a top choice among companies expanding or moving to Miami during the pandemic rush on South Florida. Tenants, some of which already are building out their interior spaces, include Microsoft, Kirkland & Ellis, Marsh Insurance, Sidley Austin, CI Financial, Thoma Bravo, Santander Bank and A-CAP. 

Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel hedge fund preleased about 130,000 square feet at the tower, where the firm will have its temporary offices until its Brickell headquarters tower is completed. In 2022, Griffin moved his Citadel and Citadel Securities’ headquarters from Chicago to Brickell, where Griffin will develop a new permanent home for the companies in a mixed-use tower at  1201 Brickell Bay Drive, 1221 Brickell Avenue and 1250-1260 Brickell Bay Drive.

South Florida refinancings have flowed this year, bucking a national trend of slowed lending due to elevated interest rates and economic uncertainty. In the biggest deal this year, Trinity Real Estate Investments and Credit Suisse Asset Management landed a $575 million refinancing in May for the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood. That package consists of a $452 million first-lien mortgage from Citi Real Estate Funding and German American Capital, and a $123 million mezzanine debt from TD Miami Beach Mezz LLC and PPIB Credit Investments III.