MIAMI—When SC Property Acquisitions landed its $290 million construction loan to develop Surf Club Four Seasons Private Residences and Four Seasons Hotel in Surfside, FL, attorney Luis Flores was working behind the scenes. Flores also worked on the $120 million construction loan for Biscayne Beach and the $112 million loan on Hyde Beach.

In a previous exclusive interview in this series, Flores, an attorney in Arnstein & Lehr's Miami office and chair of the firm's Florida Commercial Practice Group, told GlobeSt.com, what lenders look for in condo deals. Indeed, lenders have to be concerned about the supply-demand issue even in a region where the population is outpacing most of the rest of the nation. At least one condo project, Ion East Edgewater, has already stalled in the current cycle.

With some condo developers working with traditional financial institutions and other working with non-conventional lenders, we asked Flores what the big differences are. That's a key question, especially since doing business with the right lender is vital to the success of the project.

“If the non-traditional lender also has equity investments, it is more likely that it will be willing to accept alternative investment structures on the development side,” Flores says. “This is because a lender with equity partners in its own projects understands that investors in today's market may want other returns in lieu of capital, such as the right to acquire portions of the project, or the right to convert their investment into a real estate interest.”

Mayan Properties is one a non-traditional lender that falls into this category. An Aztec Group affiliate, Mayan provides direct equity investment sourced from the firm's network of investors and its own principals. All told, principal Ezra Katz has been involved in transactions across all asset classes totaling in excess of $10 billion.

Last August, for example, Mayan Properties just invested $5 million in Riverbend Marketplace, a 190,000-square-foot retail shopping center under construction in Broward County. Mayan is the investment arm of merchant banking firm Aztec Group. The Riverbend project will bring the first Walmart Supercenter to the City of Fort Lauderdale, FL.

But what about the other side of the coin? What about traditional lenders. Flores says traditional financial institution will be more guarded in those types of circumstances. That may be one reason why alternative sources of capital, including crowdsourcing, are gaining momentum in this cycle.

If you missed the first two parts of this exclusive interview, you can still check them out: Three Legs of the New Capital Structure and What Lenders Look for in Condo Deals.

Do you agree? Sound off.