Chilean developer Claudio Fischer has obtained a $65 million loan from Banco Santander for a 1-acre development site in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. The financing is secured by properties at 68, 82 and 84 Southwest 13th Street and 1399 Southwest First Avenue, which include a three-story office building formerly occupied by the Mexican consulate until its relocation to Coral Gables in 2023.
Fischer intends to demolish the existing structure and build a 41-story residential tower featuring 544 units, approximately 9,400 square feet of retail space, and parking for 421 vehicles. Miami-Dade County approved the Arquitectonica-designed project last year. It remains unclear whether the planned units will be apartments or condominiums.
Records indicate that an entity managed by Fischer acquired the assemblage for $53 million in 2020. This would be Fischer’s first high-rise project; he is known as a spec home developer and founder of Sun Dreams, an operator of casino resorts in Latin America.
Despite these plans, Fischer is under contract to sell the Brickell site to Key International, a Miami-based firm led by brothers Inigo and Diego Ardid. A memorandum filed with public records confirms this agreement. The purchase and sale agreement serves as collateral for the Banco Santander mortgage. There is no confirmation on whether the $65 million loan will fund construction of the proposed tower. Neither Fischer nor representatives from Key International responded to requests for comment.
Key International manages about 6,000 residential units, owns around 3,000 hotel rooms, and oversees $2 billion in assets according to its website.
In addition to this pending acquisition, Key International has partnered with Coconut Grove-based 13th Floor Investments—headed by Arnaud Karsenti—to develop a Nobu-branded condominium tower with approximately 300 units on another Brickell site measuring about two acres. The joint venture also secured a $79.2 million construction loan last November for Skye, a planned apartment complex within Delray Beach’s Parks at Delray mixed-use development.
