MIAMI—Parque Towers Developers, an affiliate of J. Milton & Associates, just secured a $136.5 million loan to construct a condominium in Sunny Isles, FL. Wells Fargo is lending the construction funds for Parque Towers at 300-350 Sunny Isles Boulevard.

The Miami office of Arnstein & Lehr represented Parque Towers. Luis Flores, a partner and chair of the firm's Florida Commercial Practice Group, led a team including, David Shear, Rebecca Sarelson, and Amanda Shear on the deal. Joseph Milton, Yosi Gil, Rex Barker, Douglas Ramberg, and Ary Gomez led the Parque Towers team.

"Many condo projects are in the planning stages in Miami but not all of them will be able to secure construction financing," Flores tells GlobeSt.com. "Banks continue to be extremely careful and selective in funding construction loans. If you analyze the large construction loans secured in recent times, you will see they all went to developers with a proven track record surrounded by a strong team and building very high-quality condo developments in class A locations."

Developers are positioning Parque Towers as a high-end condominium project described as "six-star luxury living.” The development includes two towers of 25 and 28 stories with a total of over 320 condominiums overlooking the Intracoastal and with views of the Atlantic Ocean from many units.

Flores has been involved in several of South Florida's largest condo construction loans in the current real estate cycle. He says, “Lenders learned a lot from the last real estate cycle and have put in place a series of safeguard measures that require condo developers to jump through a lot of hoops.”

Beyond construction loans, there's also a race to refinance. Take Miami Beach's Shore Club as an example. Developers secured a $185 million refinance loan from Mexico's Banco Inbursa. Meanwhile, the office building 396 Alhambra in Coral Gables received a $50 million loan, a North Miami luxury condo tower closed an  $87 million construction loan, and the proposed 83-story Panorama Tower locked in a $340 million loan for construction in Miami's Brickell neighborhood.

"As a result of strong relationships and financeable assets, we are in various stages on a number of loans expected to close within the next month or so,” Daryl Shevin, CFO of 13th Floor Investments, tells GlobeSt.com. “As long as interest rates remain low and capital markets unfrozen, we can expect to see debt and equity pour into variety of asset classes and loan types; especially in a market like ours.”