UTEX draws $42.5M on Pembroke Pines and Coral Gables storage
Storage is the alternative asset still getting debt in South Florida, and the thesis is written in supply, not demand.
Affinius Capital and Axonic Capital have provided a $42.5 million refinancing to UTEX Storage Partners on two South Florida self-storage properties, one in Pembroke Pines and one in Coral Gables. In a quarter when South Florida office is trading at foreclosure and multifamily construction debt requires an existing lender relationship, storage is quietly still clearing.
Why it matters
The lender’s stated thesis is worth reading closely because it is a site-selection argument, not a demand argument. Affinius points to high-visibility locations serving premier residential areas with limited new self-storage supply. Storage economics are almost entirely a function of what gets built within a three-mile radius, and municipalities across Broward and Miami-Dade have spent the last several years zoning storage out of exactly the corridors where it performs.
That creates a durable moat for whoever already holds an entitled site, and it explains why a sponsor is expanding one of these assets rather than buying a new one. For a developer, the read is that the barrier in South Florida storage has shifted from capital to entitlement, and that existing approved square footage is worth more than the pro forma suggests.
The numbers
The Pembroke Pines property is four stories and 1,097 units. The Coral Gables property is expanding to 1,500 units from under 1,000, which is the value-creation piece of the deal. Together the collateral totals 2,597 units, putting the loan at roughly $16,400 of debt per unit.
Context from our own market data sharpens the demand side: South Florida rents rose 1.0% year over year to about $2,693 a month as of May 2026, while home values fell 2.9% to about $475,622. Flat rents and softening values are the conditions under which households stay put, downsize, or delay a move, all of which fill storage.
Daniel Hartnett of Greysteel brokered the financing. Tyler Figley, senior vice president at Affinius Capital, said both properties are “well positioned in high-visibility locations.”
What’s next
The Coral Gables expansion is the thing to watch. If it leases into the same constrained supply picture the lender underwrote, expect more South Florida storage sponsors to pursue expansion of held assets rather than acquisition. Track South Florida capital flows at the Miami hub.