Starwood Lends NRI $135M on Thesis Coral Gables Apartments
Starwood Property Trust refinanced NRI's roughly 200-unit apartment building at Thesis Miami in Coral Gables with a $135M loan, about $650K per unit.
Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Property Trust just put $135 million behind Nolan Reynolds International’s apartment tower at Thesis Miami in Coral Gables, refinancing the construction loan on the roughly 200-unit building at 1340 South Dixie Highway. The loan works out to about $650,000 per unit and lands five days after Ramsfield Hospitality Finance put up a separate $42 million against the project’s 245-key Curio Collection by Hilton hotel next door, bringing the combined recapitalization of the mixed-use campus to $177 million.
Why it matters
NRI built Thesis Miami, known during construction as Paseo de la Riviera, as a bet that a University of Miami-adjacent stretch of South Dixie Highway could support Coral Gables rents in a purpose-built rental tower rather than condos. Locking in a $135 million takeout loan from a lender of Starwood’s size signals that bet has cleared underwriting, replacing construction debt with permanent-style financing now that the building has leased up. For developers eyeing similar sites along the corridor, where Terra’s Grove Central and 13th Floor’s Link at Douglas have already broken ground, the deal is a marker for what a stabilized, well-located rental asset can now carry in debt.
The numbers
The two buildings across from the University of Miami total nearly 900,000 square feet combined, with retail on the ground floor of each. The residential tower’s roughly 200 units, ranging from studios to three-bedrooms of 500 to 1,500 square feet, rent for $3,800 to $9,400 a month, according to Apartments.com. NRI has said the project’s total cost topped $225 million including land. Coral Gables asking rents hit $4,440 in May, up 9.1% year over year, per Yardi Matrix data compiled by Miami Finance Review, well above the roughly $3,000 average Colliers reported for the wider Coral Gables/South Miami submarket in the second quarter.
What’s next
Watch whether NRI, which sold its Gables Station project to Hines for $430 million in 2022 after developing it with 54 Madison Partners, moves toward a similar exit here now that the capital stack is reset, or holds Thesis Miami as a long-term rental play. For South Florida multifamily sponsors, the $650,000-per-unit basis is now a live comp for what a stabilized, transit-adjacent Coral Gables asset can support in permanent debt.