Agave Holdings Lands $100M Loan for Metro Miami Project

The Plaza Coral Gables. Image courtesy of Agave Holdings

HFF has procured $100 million in financing for the development of the first phase of The Plaza Coral Gables, a mixed-use project in the Coral Gables, Fla., business district. The company secured the construction facility on behalf of the borrower/developer, Agave Holdings LLC. With offices in Miami and Mexico City, Agave represents the interests of Grupo JB (the family of Juan Beckmann, majority owner of José Cuervo) and owns and manages more than 4 million square feet of Class A office space in the U.S. and Mexico.

Underway on 7 acres at 2901 Ponce de Leon Blvd., The Plaza Coral Gables reportedly is the first large mixed-use development in the City of Coral Gables. Designed by CallisonRTKL, phase one includes a 14-story, 291,129-square-foot Class A office building; 135 multifamily units; 34 ground-level loft apartments; and 101,439 square feet of retail space primarily fronting Ponce de Leon and the project’s plaza, and comprising restaurants and entertainment and service tenants. The second phase, which is not covered by this financing, will encompass an additional 222,541 square feet of net rentable area, including office space, residential townhomes and retail, as well as a 242-key hotel.

The project broke ground in December 2017 and has an estimated completion date of June 2020. The latest update as of March indicates that construction on the office building has reached the seventh floor. Coastal-Tishman Construction is the general contractor.

The HFF capital markets team representing Agave included Executive Managing Director Manny de Zárraga, Managing Director Jim Dockerty and Director Matthew McCormack. The firm could not be reached for additional information.

Steady submarket

The Coral Gables submarket is one of the stronger, more active ones in metro Miami, according to a first-quarter report from Blanca Commercial Real Estate, which will handle office leasing for The Plaza Coral Gables. Class A space has an average direct vacancy of just 6.5 percent, and the submarket saw nearly 480,000 square feet of total Class A and B leasing in the first quarter, roughly evenly split among expansions, new leases and renewals.

As in other markets, coworking has been a steady driver of absorption in Class A and B office space. For example, last month Quest Workspaces opened its second location in Coral Gables, and its fifth in Miami-Dade County, in a 23,800-square-foot space at 2000 Ponce de Leon Blvd.