Holland Trio Secure $95 Million Loan from Ocean Bank
Holland & Knight's Joe Dewey, Elena Otero and Brett Holland represented Ocean Bank in the issuance of a $95 million loan to developer Melo Group for construction of the 53-story Aria on the Bay luxury condo in Miami. Ocean Bank is a longtime client for the firm.
This project is part of a booming trend of construction in South Florida. Mr. Dewey said he does not see any chance of a collapse like the one in 2007. "There is such a small amount of debt involved in this market today, even if there was a depreciation in value, you won't see a ripple effect from it like we had before because there is no credit bubble underlying it. So much of the market today is driven by cash that it is virtually impossible for what happened before to repeat itself," he said.