New condo project at the Jockey Club receives $21 million in financing

The old Jockey Club, a once-popular nightlife spot in unincorporated Miami-Dade County near North Miami, could get a brand new look after a planned condo and hotel project there received $21 million in financing Wednesday.

Developers want to build 240 luxury condo units, a 90-room boutique hotel, a new deep-water marina and a five-acre “health and wellness” complex at 11111 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. That’s in addition to the 411 condo units already on site. The project is called Apeiron, which means “without limits” or “infinite” in ancient Greek.

During its heyday in the 1970s, the Jockey Club was as hot as South Beach is today with bars, a restaurant and a reputation for the funkiest disco dancing in town. But it gradually fell out of favor and into foreclosure. Several developers have tried and failed to revitalize the property in the years since.

Last year, a group led by former Ritz-Carlton Group president Horst Schulze, hotel designer Michael Bedner and former Related Group executive Muayad Abbas bought the 13.6-acre property for $3.25 million, according to county property records.

The recent round of financing was provided by Toronto-based mortgage lender Romspen.

Developers have started buying land in North Miami and North Miami Beach as prices skyrocket for waterfront land in Miami and Miami Beach. Just four miles north of the Jockey Club, the Soffer and LeFrak families are developing the 183-acre former Biscayne Landing site into a massive, mixed-use project they’ve dubbed SoLeMia.

This story was originally published December 23, 2015 at 11:03 AM with the headline "New condo project at the Jockey Club receives $21 million in financing."