Billionaire Jorge Mas, David Beckham and Ares Management nabbed a $450 million loan for a planned soccer stadium in Miami that is already under construction.
It marks the largest construction loan in South Florida so far this year.
The partnership developing the $1 billion Miami Freedom Park, a massive mixed-use project anchored by a new 25,000-seat home for Inter Miami futbol club, obtained the financing from JPMorgan Chase Bank, records show. The loan is secured by the planned stadium and surrounding entertainment, concessions and retail spaces on the 58-acre site at 1400 Northwest 37th Avenue. The joint venture is leasing the land from the city of Miami.
Designed by Coconut Grove-based Arquitectonica, Miami Freedom Park will also include a 750-room hotel, 400,000 square feet of offices geared to tech companies and 600,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space when fully built.
Inter Miami, the Major League Soccer franchise also owned by Mas, Beckham and Ares, broke ground on the project in 2023, and construction of the stadium began last year. Inter Miami is expected to begin playing in the new stadium next year. The team features prominent international soccer players, including Argentinian superstar Leonel Messi.
Under a 50-year lease agreement, Inter Miami currently plays in Fort Lauderdale at Chase Stadium, a 21,550-seat venue owned by the city of Fort Lauderdale.
However, construction has not gone smoothly for Mas, Beckham and Ares. In February, Indianapolis-based Hunt Construction Group sued development entity Miami Freedom Park LLC for allegedly failing to pay for $590,000 in preconstruction services.
Miami voters approved the $1 billion project in a 2018 citywide referendum. Four years later, the Miami City Commission approved a 99-year lease and a development agreement allowing Mas, Beckham and Ares to redevelop the city’s Melreese Golf Course into Miami Freedom Park. The same year, city commissioners approved rezoning the property to allow mixed commercial uses. The latest loan tops the $413 million construction loan that PMG secured earlier this week for its planned two-tower project in Miami’s Brickell, One Twenty Brickell Residences.