Chilean developer Claudio Fischer has secured a $65 million loan from Banco Santander for a 1-acre development site in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. The financing is tied to properties at 68, 82 and 84 Southwest 13th Street and 1399 Southwest First Avenue, according to public records.
The site currently includes a three-story office building that once housed the Mexican consulate before its relocation to Coral Gables in 2023. Fischer plans to demolish the existing structure and build a new 41-story residential tower with 544 units, about 9,400 square feet of retail space, and parking for 421 vehicles. Miami-Dade County granted approval for the Arquitectonica-designed project last year. It remains unclear whether the planned units will be apartments or condominiums.
Fischer’s entity acquired the assemblage for $53 million in 2020. If built, this would be his first high-rise development. Fischer is known as a spec home developer and founder of Sun Dreams, an operator of casino resorts across Latin America.
Despite these plans, Fischer is under contract to sell the Brickell site to Key International, a Miami-based real estate firm led by brothers Inigo and Diego Ardid. This agreement is documented in public filings, which also indicate that the purchase and sale contract serves as collateral for the Banco Santander mortgage. It has not been disclosed whether the $65 million loan will go toward construction costs. Neither Fischer nor representatives from Key International responded to requests for comment.
Key International manages approximately 6,000 residential units and 3,000 hotel rooms with assets totaling $2 billion, according to information on its website.
In another partnership within Brickell, Key International has teamed up with Coconut Grove-based 13th Floor Investments—led by Arnaud Karsenti—to develop a Nobu-branded condominium tower standing at 74 stories with about 300 units on a nearby site spanning roughly two acres.
Additionally, this joint venture secured a $79.2 million construction loan in November for Skye—a planned apartment complex with 327 units—within Parks at Delray’s mixed-use development in Delray Beach.
