BD Hotels Secures Nora District Hotel Construction Loan

BD Hotels, led by New York boutique hotelier Richard Born, and its partners landed a $75 million construction loan for a hotel at downtown West Palm Beach’s Nora District.

BD, in partnership with Nora District master developers Place Projects, NDT Development and Wheelock Street Capital, landed the financing for the six-story, 201-key The Nora Hotel, according to the developers’ news release. New York-based Metropolitan Commercial Bank is the lender.

BD Hotels Secures Nora District Hotel Construction Loan — Wheelock Street Capital’s Merrick Kleeman (Wheelock Street Capital)

Steven Klein and Mark Fisher of JLL represented the borrowers.

The hotel marks BD’s first outside of New York, where the firm has an empire of independent hotels, including The Greenwich, The Bowery, The Mercer and Hotel Chelsea.

Miami-based Place Projects, West Palm-based NDT and Greenwich, Connecticut-based Wheelock are developing the 40-acre Nora District in north downtown West Palm. Place Projects is led by Joe Furst and NDT by Ned Grace. Wheelock is led by Merrick Kleeman and Jonathan Paul.

The $1 billion district spans between Palm Beach Lakes and Quadrille boulevards, and between Dixie Highway and the Florida East Coast Railway tracks. It has three main parts. The first phase, a repurposing of aging warehouses along North Railroad Avenue into 150,000 square feet of retail, showrooms and offices, is under construction. Place Projects, NDT and Wheelock scored $84 million in financing for the first phase in June. Completion is expected early next year, according to the release.

The two subsequent portions of Nora will be the development of high-rises in the north and south sections of Nora, and the preservation of single-family homes in the center of the district.

At The Nora Hotel, famed New York restaurant and Parisian-style brasserie Pastis preleased 13,300 square feet of ground-floor indoor and outdoor space. James Beard Award-winning restaurateur Stephen Starr’s Starr Restaurants owns Pastis. The hospitality firm also will partner on the hotel’s rooftop restaurant and lounge.

South Florida construction lending has flowed, despite elevated interest rates and other headwinds. Much of the financing has been for multifamily and luxury condo projects.

The recent deal shows the activity is rippling to the hotel market, which has experienced an uptick in investment sales and project proposals.

In Miami’s Brickell, North Development proposed last month a 43-story, 832-key hotel at 132, 142 and 152 Southwest Ninth Street. The development firm is a joint venture between Ricardo Dunin’s Oak Capital and Peruvian firm Edifica.

This month, the stalled Miami Beach Convention Center hotel picked up speed with the approval for a $75 million taxpayer infusion to help developers Terra and Turnberry deal with increased construction costs.
In recent purchases, Grupo Hotusa picked up the 71-room Art Deco hotel at 1400 Ocean Drive in Miami Beach for $19.7 million. Also, British billionaires Simon and David Reuben are seeking to buy a majority stake in the 395-key W South Beach at 2201 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach for more than $400 million.