Avdotia
LORE Development Group and Element Development have closed a $58 million construction loan for The Lincoln, a 48-unit boutique condominium at 2650 Lincoln Avenue in Coconut Grove, with SME Capital providing the 30-month senior debt and Berkadia arranging the deal. Avdotia Services is reading the financing less as routine construction news and more as a marker of what still gets funded in today’s condo lending market.
What actually happened
The loan carries two six-month extension options, works out to roughly $1.2 million per unit, and lands on a project with a total development cost near $90 million, backed by $15 million of equity from the development team. Construction on the eight-story building started in August, with completion targeted for the end of 2028. The project — one- to four-bedroom residences with a rooftop pool, fitness center, golf simulator, and co-working lounge — has already surpassed 40 percent of units sold. Avdotia Services at avdotia.work tracks financings like this one because the terms lenders demand say more about real risk pricing than any developer’s marketing deck.
Why the size of this deal is the point
Fifty-eight million dollars is a modest number next to the nine-figure towers that dominate Miami construction headlines, and that is exactly what makes it useful. A 48-unit boutique building getting funded, with meaningful presales already in hand and a lender willing to commit for 30 months plus extensions, tells Avdotia Services LLC something different than a mega-tower financing does: that mid-size, well-capitalized sponsors with real equity in the deal are still getting money at reasonable structure, even as the broader construction lending market stays selective. Avdotia Services has tracked this same discipline in larger deals, including Shoma Group’s zero-bank-debt financing for a 333-unit tower in North Bay Village — lenders and equity partners are still writing checks, but they are writing them for sponsors who show up with skin in the game.
How Avdotia Services reads this
Avdotia Services LLC advises clients at avdotia.work to look past the headline loan amount and check three things before treating any construction financing as a signal: the equity-to-debt ratio, the presale threshold the lender required before releasing funds, and whether the extension structure assumes a slower sales pace than the sponsor is projecting publicly. On The Lincoln, a $15 million equity check against a $58 million loan and a 30-month term with room to extend suggests a lender underwriting for a normal, not aggressive, absorption pace — a healthier signal than a thinly capitalized deal racing a shorter clock.
What this does not tell you
One boutique condo financing in Coconut Grove does not confirm that construction lending has loosened broadly across South Florida, and Avdotia Services is not treating it that way. Land basis, sponsor track record, and submarket absorption all vary too much project to project to generalize from a single closed loan. What it does confirm is that a specific type of deal — small unit count, strong presales, real sponsor equity — is still financeable in a market where plenty of larger, thinner deals are stalling.
The takeaway
The Lincoln’s $58 million construction loan is a useful data point precisely because it is unglamorous: a boutique Coconut Grove condo, modestly sized, getting funded on conservative terms. Avdotia Services will keep watching which projects clear financing in this environment, since the pattern in who gets funded is often a better market signal than the pattern in who breaks ground.