$18M Refi for Brickell Avenue Office Building

MIAMI-Blumberg/Brickell Ltd. has obtained $18.1 million in refinancing for Banco Santander Center, a 189,000-sf office building in the city’s sought-after Brickell Avenue submarket. Meanwhile, the building is being marketed for sale.

Aegon Realty Advisors, a US commercial real estate lender, provided the fixed-rate financing. Paul Whalen and Joshua Schrager of Whalen Realty Capital LLC in Hollywood, FL, arranged the transaction for Blumberg/Brickell Ltd., which is owned by American Ventures Realty Corp. The 14-story building was more than 97% leased at the time the funding was obtained.

“The combination of outstanding sponsorship, low leverage and future appreciation of this asset due to the improving location and below-market rents made this loan a great addition to Aegon’s loan portfolio,” Schrager says in a statement.

James W. Shindell, a partner in the full-service law firm Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP, and Marina Luybimova, an associate in the firm, represented the owner in the refinancing transaction.

The sale of the 25-year-old building, located at 1401 Brickell Ave., is being handled by senior director Jay M. Caplin in Cushman & Wakefield’s Financial Services Group in the city. The current owners bought the building–which underwent a renovation in 1991–in late 1996 from Banco Santander. “The property’s matured in its value” since then, he says.

Reasons for this include the building owner’s approach to adding value, including extending the lease with the tenant Banco Santander Central Hispano and the “very strong interest” in buildings for sale on Brickell Avenue. Banco Santander Central Hispano, which is leasing a total of 60,000 sf with a recent 13,482-sf expansion in the class B building, is involved in commercial banking in Spain and overseas, including Latin America, and provides banking, financial and other services to corporations and individuals. Other tenants at Banco Santander Center include Citi, local law firms and financial services groups.