Downtown Dadeland Project Developer Goes Bust

November 24, 2007

This past week, the Daily Business Review published a very interesting real estate news story. The article, entitled “Condo Meltdown: Historic Failure in Kendall Project”, revealed that the developers of the Downtown Dadeland project, located in Kendall, have decided to walk away from the project and are handing the development over to the lender.

The article opens with the following two paragraphs:

The developers of Downtown Dadeland are walking away from the massive mixed-use project in Kendall and handing over the unfinished complex to construction lender Goldman Sachs Commercial Mortgage.

Gulfside Development principals Jackson Ward and Stefan Johansson say they can no longer afford to make payments on the $224 million construction loan and won’t fight a foreclosure suit filed two weeks ago in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

The rest of the article goes on to say how this could be one of the largest defaults to have ever occurred in Miami-Dade County. I think this is just the beginning. It will be interesting to see how many similar stories will be published within the next couple of years.

Investment groups, bulk buyers, vulture capitalists – whatever you wish to call them – will have a field day in Miami in 2008.