Jeffrey Soffer Lands $73M Loan For Fontainebleau Project
Jeffrey Soffer’s plan to expand meeting and event space at his iconic Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort got a financial boost.
An affiliate of Soffer’s Aventura-based Fontainebleau Development scored a $72.8 million construction loan from Goldman Sachs for a proposed five-story events center at 4360 and 4370 Collins Avenue, according to records and Vizzda.
This week, the developer filed a notice of commencement with the city of Miami Beach. In October, Soffer’s firm broke ground by tearing out surface parking lots and preparing the site’s soil for vertical construction, records show.
Spanning 50,000 square feet, the events center is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2025, according to a press release. Connected to Fontainebleau Miami Beach’s Tresor Tower via a skybridge, the building will have an 18,000-square-foot ballroom that can be divided into four smaller spaces. The project will also have another 9,000-square-feet of ballroom space, 10 breakout rooms and a 9,000-square-foot rooftop deck.
The events center will feature floor-to-ceiling windows and architectural elements inspired by the work of Morris Lapidus, the late architect who designed the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, the release states. The hotel opened in 1954.
In 2005, Aventura-based Turnberry Associates bought the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, which has 200,000 square feet of meeting and event space on-site. In 2019, Soffer left his family-owned firm, and formed Fontainebleau Development. His new company became the owner of Fontainebleau Miami Beach, as well as the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa in Aventura. His holdings also include the Big Easy Casino in Hallandale Beach, and a Miami Beach building that housed the recently closed Story nightclub.
In Las Vegas, Soffer is about to complete the rebirth of a failed project he launched in Sin City shortly before the 2008 real estate crash. In the final quarter of this year, Soffer’s firm is anticipating completion of Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a new 67-story hotel along the city’s famed strip.
In 2009, Soffer’s Las Vegas development entity went bankrupt, and billionaire Carl Icahn acquired the unfinished project a year later for about $150 million. Icahn subsequently sold it to a joint venture led by New York-based Witkoff for $600 million. Witkoff sold the project to Fontainebleau Development and Koch Real Estate Investments for an undisclosed amount in 2021.
