Bankrupt Miami Site With Potential For 82-Story Tower Hits Auction Block
A fully entitled redevelopment site on Biscayne Boulevard is seeking buyers for a second time after its owners filed for bankruptcy last year.
Concierge Auctions is marketing the 0.9-acre site at 340 Biscayne Blvd., which is occupied by the Holiday Inn Port of Miami-Downtown, seeking $175M.
The site's zoning allows for an 82-story project and is already approved for a project designed by Arquitectonica called Regalia on the Bay with 374 residential units, 120 hotel rooms, commercial and office space, and 500 parking spaces.
The property's owner, 340 Biscayne Owner LLC, has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida since December, after lender Cirrus Real Estate Funding initiated a foreclosure lawsuit and sought to take over the property.
There is no minimum bid for the site, but Cirrus plans to submit a credit bid of $101.5M, according to a judge's order on Friday approving the auction with Concierge. Bidding is scheduled to open online on Dec. 3 with a live auction set for Dec. 17 in New York City, according to a release.
“Our global database will attract a wide variety of bidders on auction day who understand the unlimited potential and desirability of this coveted area,” Concierge Auctions CEO and co-founder Chad Roffers said in a statement.
Concierge is marketing the site in partnership with One Commercial, an arm of One Sotheby’s International Realty.
The new listing is the latest twist in a complicated saga for the site and its owners, entities managed by Brazilian investor and developer Gilberto Bomeny.
Bomeny bought the hotel, built in 1950, for $65M in 2015 and a year later sold a partial interest to Kawa Capital Management for $42.5M in a sale-leaseback deal, according to public records.
But Kawa, which didn't respond to a request for comment, pulled out of the deal and terminated the hotel lease, The Real Deal reported.
New York-based Cirrus, which didn't respond to a request for comment, provided a $70M loan in 2023, consisting of a renewal of an existing $62.6M loan and new debt of $7.4M, TRD reported.
The following year, the lender issued a UCC public sale notice for a foreclosure auction for the entity that owns 340 Biscayne Owner, BH Downtown Miami LLC.
Both LLCs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy days before the auction, halting the sale. It was the second bankruptcy filing in three years — 340 Biscayne filed to restructure in 2021, and the court approved its reorganization plan, which included a loan extension, in 2022.
Linda Worton Jackson, the attorney representing 340 Biscayne Owner, said in December that the property owner was in the process of refinancing the debt, according to TRD.
Worton Jackson didn't respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday.
In March, Worton Jackson filed a motion to employ Hilco Real Estate LLC to market the site for sale. The following month, the ownership filed an adversary complaint against Cirrus, claiming it stonewalled redevelopment and helped drive the entity into bankruptcy.
“Cirrus has not been paid a dollar in nearly a year and the debtors have been in default for a year and a half,” the lender wrote to a federal judge in April when Hilco began marketing the site, TRD reported.
Hilco marketed the Regalia on the Bay site with a bid deadline of June 16, but the date came and went with no sale. Last month, 340 Biscayne Owner filed a new motion, seeking to hire Concierge Auctions to market and sell the commercial property, according to court records.
But Hilco filed an objection, claiming it continued to work after its contract had ended on Aug. 2 through the end of September. It expects a reimbursement of up to $25K and a commission if the buyer comes from Hilco’s prospect list.
Hilco brokers Jeffrey Azuse, Michael Kneifel and Stephen Madura led the initial marketing process. Azuse and Kneifel didn't respond to requests for comment, and Madura declined to comment.
Gabriel Flores of One Commercial told Bisnow in a phone call that he didn’t have any information regarding the transfer of services.
He said its proximity to other high-profile projects, like the Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences Miami a block away, makes the site attractive to potential buyers, despite its contentious history.
“I think that it's an exciting deal,” Flores said. “We’ll see who steps forward and what interest is percolating.”
