MIAMI—Peter Mekras, president of real estate investment and merchant banking firm Aztec Group, tells GlobeSt.com that the multifamily market as far as supply and demand, both for capital and investment, remains very liquid. He says there continues to be a lot of equity and investor capital available in desire of new projects, both existing and ground-up development.

Mekras recently arranged $142 million for refinancing for Melo Group's Art Plaza in Miami's Art and Entertainment District.

"On the financing side, the markets are even more liquid," Mekras says. "All segments of the market today have numerous capital sources ready and available to provide capital. Given the amount of equity out there, that marriage leads to a very liquid market."

Mekras notes that there are a lot of large-scale projects being delivered, with large-scale defined as greater than 300 units. Many of these projects are turning to bridge financing as the developer partner seeks to transition away from construction loans. Bridge money is plentiful and priced well, he says.

"That 300 unit figure is a small number because there are projects that are 400, 500, 600 and all the way up to more than 800 units," Mekras says. "That's a lot of apartments for one project to absorb, so over the interim time, they will use bridge financing, which is probably part of their original business plan anyway."

In-migration is a big driver of the multifamily market. Mekras says he expects this to continue with a mix of baby boomers looking for a change of scenery, empty nesters and younger generations that are looking for places like South Florida to either start a family or either have their first of a second job.

On the retail side, Makras opines that the overall market is favorable, but he says that with a caveat that it's important to look at the details of a property or submarket.

"Generally, the health of the retail market is good. Occupancy is high and we remain very high in demand by tenants who are looking nationally. Locally, we have a lot of organic growth."

Mekras says Aztec's business strategy hasn't changed much over the years. He says the firm is now more of a real estate investment bank than it is a brokerage shop. "We really have a boutique approach. What has changed and evolved is the type of clients we focus on. There was a period of time in our history of almost 40 years when we had more of an institutional focus on the borrower side as well as the owner side. With the nature of the industry today, we are more focused on delivering capital on the debt and equity side from institutions and our clients are typically high net worth individuals or the operating partners of those institutions."

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Large-Scale Projects Increasingly Tap Bridge Financing

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