Four months after filing for bankruptcy on his downtown Miami hotel, Brazilian investor Gilberto Bomeny put the storied building planned for a massive redevelopment on the market.
Bomeny is open to options for the Holiday Inn Port of Miami-Downtown, including selling the site, securing a debt or equity investor to refinance the $70 million loan that defaulted, or joint venturing on the planned redevelopment, according to records and filings in the bankruptcy case.
Entities 340 Biscayne Owner and BH Downtown Miami own the 10-story, 200-key hotel at 340 Biscayne Boulevard. They are affiliated with Bomeny, who co-owns the property with other investors whose identities remain hidden.
This month, bankruptcy court Judge Laurel Isicoff in Miami approved the retention of Northbrook, Illinois-based Hilco Real Estate to market the property.
It marks the latest chapter for the 75-year-old Holiday Inn, built in 1950, that’s under its second Chapter 11 reorganization in the past four years.
Under the existing overlay zoning, the nearly 1-acre site could be redeveloped with an 82-story tower spanning more than 1.4 million square feet, according to a source familiar with the matter. Bomeny and his partners plan 365 residential units, a 120-key hotel, co-working spaces, a rooftop deck and a gourmet dining hall. A wellness center, which would include a gym, spa and holistic therapies, would be the tower’s “hallmark,” the source said.
Bomeny’s planned project, called Regalia on the Bay, is a glass tower with wavy vertical designs on the façade. Bomeny was a development partner in the Regalia Residences condo in Sunny Isles Beach, as well as the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum condo tower in downtown Miami.
Investors in the Holiday Inn also have developed in the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Nigeria and Portugal, according to court filings. Their projects include the World Trade Center in
Sao Paolo.
The listing comes amid a development market characterized by higher interest rates, skyrocketing property insurance, retrenching lenders and, more recently, economic uncertainty due to the Trump administration’s tariff and other policies. Construction materials and labor costs have stopped increasing, but remain elevated.
But Hilco, which plans to market the site internationally and also reach out to developers already with a stake in downtown Miami, is confident the property will garner interest. The site is immediately north of where PMG and its partners are developing the Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences, which will be Miami’s first supertall.
“There’s been a lot of money kind of on the sidelines from the development perspective over the last few years post-Covid,” the source said. “Now, people are interested in putting their money in areas of the country that are at the precipice of continued expansion.”
Potential buyers, development partners, or debt or equity investors are asked to submit expressions of interest by June 16. After that, Hilco will aim to formalize agreements with prospective parties by mid-July, the source said.
A deal will ideally settle the debt dispute between 340 Biscayne Owner and New York-based lender Cirrus.
In November, Cirrus filed a Uniform Commercial Code foreclosure against 340 Biscayne Owner. The $70 million loan issued in 2023 had a floating rate and an 8 percent spread, according to court filings.
In December, 340 Biscayne Owner and BH Downtown Miami filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, listing between $100 million and $500 million in assets and up to $100 million in liabilities.
Last summer, the Holiday Inn was appraised at $200 million. The value skyrockets to $1.7 billion if the redevelopment is completed, according to a bankruptcy court declaration by Cristiane Bomeny, manager of 340 Biscayne and BH Downtown.
Cirrus alleges it’s owed about $100 million, including interest that continues to accrue. 340 Biscayne has disputed this amount in court.
340 Biscayne bought the property for $65 million in 2015 and sold it to Aventura-based Kawa Capital Management for $42.5 million in a sale-leaseback in 2016, according to records. At the time, Kawa also was 340 Biscayne’s lender.
340 Biscayne filed for bankruptcy in 2021, and the court approved its reorganization plan, including a loan maturity extension, in 2022. As 340 Biscayne tried to refinance, Cirrus purchased the land and the loan from Kawa, according to court filings. In recent years, 340 Biscayne took ownership of the land and also has been working to complete the property’s legally required structural recertification, Cristiane Bomeny’s declaration says. Cirrus’ loan matured last May, the filing says.
This month, 340 Biscayne filed an adversary complaint in bankruptcy court against Cirrus, alleging it stalled loan workouts, pushing the landlord “into a corner.”
At first, Cirrus was supposed to refinance Kawa’s loan but instead bought the debt “behind the back” of 340 Biscayne, according to the filing. Cirrus also hasn’t disbursed structural reserve funds needed for the recertification. At one point, 340 Biscayne had a chance to get the hotel demolished and turn the site into a low-cost, income-producing parking lot that would help pay off the loan. But Cirrus stonewalled communication and delayed signing off on the agreement, which foiled the pending deal, according to the adversary complaint. Also, Cirrus has tacked on an annual interest rate on the loan of more than 25 percent, which is illegal in Florida, the complaint says.
In March, Cirrus alleged in court the landlord has delayed loan workouts for a while and used the bankruptcy proceeding “to hold Cirrus and the other creditors hostage.”
“Cirrus has not been paid a dollar in nearly a year and the debtors have been in
default for a year and a half,” the lender wrote.
Attorneys for Cirrus and 340 Biscayne/BH Downtown didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
