Cain Teams Up With Kushner For South Florida Projects
Cain, formerly Cain International, is broadening its South Florida horizons with a new partnership.
The London-based company is partnering with New York-based Kushner to build a 40-story, 364-unit apartment tower in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, the companies announced.
This is the first project for the new partnership between Cain, which has more than $8B in assets under management, and Kushner, which owns more than 27,000 apartments across 14 states. The joint venture plans to focus on “select residential and mixed-use investment and development opportunities” in South Florida.
It's also a departure for Cain, led by CEO Jonathan Goldstein — its most frequent collaborator has been Vlad Doronin's OKO Group.
“We’ve been investing in South Florida for nearly a decade and have long been confident in the market, which we believe continues to present compelling growth opportunities,” Goldstein said in a statement. “We’ve benefited from strong partnerships across the region and are delighted to expand that network with Kushner.”
The joint venture also landed a $42M loan from MSD Partners LP, Michael Dell's family office, for the project, which is expected to start construction by next year.
“Kushner has built a strong track record in South Florida, with successful projects across Edgewater and Wynwood,” Kushner CEO Laurent Morali said in a statement. “This partnership with Cain is a natural extension of that momentum, bringing together two firms that know this market well and are committed to delivering more high-quality residential developments.”
The company was founded in New Jersey by Charles Kushner and led for years by his son, Jared Kushner, until he was tapped to work in the White House for his father-in-law, Donald Trump. It is led today by Morali and Nicole Kushner Meyer, Jared's sister, while the patriarch serves as U.S. ambassador to France and Monaco.
The release stated that Cain owns the 1.5-acre site at 614 and 720 NE 27th St., a three-minute walk from the luxury Missoni Baia condo tower that Cain co-developed with OKO.
But property records from the Property Appraiser of Miami-Dade County show the site is owned by 720 NE Street Propco LLC, an entity registered to OKO Chief Financial Officer Francis Scola.
The entity purchased the site in 2016 for $54M, according to property records.
A spokesperson for Cain said OKO originally co-owned the site, but the parties have dissolved the partnership. OKO still owns a piece of the site, the spokesperson said.
An OKO spokesperson declined to comment.
While it is unclear whether Cain and OKO Group had plans to develop the site together, the pair have worked jointly on multiple projects through the years.
The most notable partnership was on the 57-story, 640K SF office tower 830 Brickell, which was built speculatively but landed tenants like Citadel, Microsoft, and Thoma Bravo during the peak of Miami's pandemic-driven corporate migration. The pair landed a $600M loan from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to refinance the tower in November.
Cain and OKO also developed the 47-story, 129-unit high-rise condo tower in Brickell dubbed Una Residences. The tower, which finished construction three years after its expected delivery date, has generated $172M in sales and received its temporary certificate of occupancy in February, The Real Deal reported.
They also co-developed the Aman New York on Fifth Avenue, which was the most expensive hotel in Manhattan when it opened.
But other projects that the pair have worked on together have recently come under fire.
A group of investors on a planned 34-story, 251-unit apartment project in Fort Lauderdale dubbed One River sued OKO Group in September for fraud and breach of contract after the project failed to start construction three years after landing its financing. Cain was not named in the suit.
In Miami, the condo association of the Missoni Baia luxury tower is suing OKO alleging construction defects. The developer sued its insurers after claiming they only covered some of its losses, which totaled $55M, following issues found during construction and project delays earlier this month.
