Nonprofit bond deal funds Toll Brothers' $169M FIU housing exit

Toll Brothers has exited its stake in a stabilized student housing tower near Florida International University through a nonprofit bond deal that puts the university on a no-cost path to owning the building outright. The Real Deal reported October 16 that Toll Brothers, alongside Global City Development and RER Ventures, sold Lapis, a 293-unit, 1,086-bed property in Sweetwater, to a nonprofit buyer for $168.5 million. Holland & Knight, which advised Global City Development on the transaction, confirmed the deal closed October 8 and was financed with $193.85 million in tax-exempt and taxable bonds issued by the Public Finance Authority.

Why it matters

The structure lets a developer cash out of a stabilized, income-producing asset while handing a university a built-in acquisition path that needs no upfront capital. The buyer, AHPC Lapis LLC, is a single-purpose borrower whose sole member is the Affordable Housing Preservation Corporation, a Florida 501(c)(3). That nonprofit wrapper is what allows the bonds to carry tax-exempt status, a financing tool increasingly used to move purpose-built student housing off developer balance sheets and toward eventual campus ownership, without FIU itself borrowing or appropriating funds.

The numbers

The Public Finance Authority issued the debt in three series, 2026A-1, 2026A-2 and 2026B, totaling $193.85 million against a $168.5 million purchase price. Lapis opened in 2023 with 293 units and about 1,086 beds, plus parking and ground-floor commercial space, and has run above 96 percent occupancy since. The seller, 7th Terrace Property Owner LLC, was the joint venture vehicle for Toll Brothers, Global City Development and RER Ventures. The original construction was backed by a $103.4 million Ocean Bank loan and $30 million in private equity from CanAm Capital Partners, financing the developers are now unwinding through this sale.

What’s next

Per Holland & Knight’s account of the deal terms, FIU or its designee gains the right to take ownership of Lapis at no cost once the bond debt is retired, effectively pre-funding a future campus housing asset through bondholders rather than tuition or state capital. Watch whether the Affordable Housing Preservation Corporation and similar nonprofit sponsors chase comparable acquisitions at other South Florida campuses, where developer-built student housing near public universities is now a recurring target for this kind of bond-financed, eventual-ownership structure.