Cirrus Wins Downtown Miami Site Auction Redo for $95 Million

Cirrus Real Estate Partners won the do-over bankruptcy auction for a distressed downtown Miami development site, only this time it will pony up $18 million more than its previous winning bid.

New York-based Cirrus, the lender on the nearly 1-acre property at 340 Biscayne Boulevard, made the opening $77 million credit bid Wednesday and competed with an unknown bidder in $5 million increments, with Cirrus ultimately winning at $95 million, Bisnow reported.

Concierge Auctions held the second auction after Brazilian developer Gilberto Bomeny’s legal complaint got Cirrus’ initial win tossed. Gabriel Flores of One Commercial, a subsidiary of One Sotheby’s International Realty, listed the site.

The sale isn’t final until approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Laurel Isicoff in Miami, who is expected to take up the deal in a Feb. 11 hearing.

The outcome marks another chapter in the saga between Cirrus and the property owner, Bomeny, over the 10-story, 200-key Holiday Inn, which has approvals for an 82-story redevelopment.

Cirrus filed a Uniform Commercial Code foreclosure in 2024 against Bomeny’s entity, alleging it defaulted on a $70 million loan.

Bomeny paid $65 million in 2015 for the site and 1950-built hotel. The property was already approved for an Arquitectonica-designed tower with 374 condos, 120 hotel rooms, offices and retail, along with 500 parking spaces.

After the UCC foreclosure filing, Bomeny’s affiliate filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, leading to the first bankruptcy auction last month. Bidding had opened at $72 million. Cirrus, led by Joseph McDonnell, won with a $77 million credit bid.

But Bomeny’s ownership entity convinced the judge to order a do-over auction, alleging “constant changes and irregularities” in the auction process that barred bidders who would have ponied up more money for the site.

Cirrus disputed that in court filings, accusing Bomeny of being “unwilling to accept the auction’s outcome” and arguing that other potential bidders hadn’t registered for the auction and submitted a required $250,000 deposit.

The judge ordered the do-over auction this month.

Cirrus representatives and attorneys for Bomeny’s entities didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Bomeny was a development partner in the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum condo tower in downtown Miami and the Regalia Residences condo in Sunny Isles Beach.

The UCC foreclosure and subsequent bankruptcy auctions came as landlords are struggling with elevated interest rates that shot up following increases in 2022 and 2023. This increased loan obligations for property owners with floating-rate debt and no interest rate caps, and made refinancing maturing loans more expensive.

Although the Federal Reserve made several cuts to the benchmark rate in 2024 and last year, it kept rates steady this month.

South Florida owners also felt an additional sting from skyrocketing insurance premiums in recent years and increases in other expenses due to higher labor and materials costs.

Some multifamily development site owners who had planned to seize on South Florida’s rental boom of recent years instead put their properties on the for-sale market, either looking for project equity partners or scrapping projects altogether.

Other landlords lost their properties in foreclosure.

Also in downtown Miami, Raoul Thomas’ CGI Merchant lost its 129-key Gabriel Downtown Miami hotel in a UCC foreclosure to lender Madison Realty Capital in 2024 over a $60.4 million loan. The hotel is on the first 14 floors at the luxury Marquis condo tower at 1100 Biscayne Boulevard.