Cafecitos, cigars and a chance to experience Cuban culture? These are some of the many facets of a trip to Havana. But being able to use a credit card instead of cash to pay for your trip? Priceless.
Pompano Beach-based Stonegate Bank (NASDAQ: SGBK) issued the first of its MasterCard credit cards for use in Cuba on Tuesday.
The South Florida bank was the first – and so far the only bank to launch a debit card for use by U.S. travelers in Cuba. The bank announced a partnership with MasterCard when it launched the debit cards last year.
That move followed Stonegate’s decision to become the first U.S. bank to establish a relationship with a Cuban bank.
Since President Barack Obama announced the intention to re-establish a relationship with Cuba, Stonegate has been actively increasing its banking ties to the island nation. At the request of the U.S. Department of State, Stonegate agreed to handle the banking for the Cuban government in the U.S., which encompass services such as travel visas and any dealings with embassies in Washington, D.C.
The issuance of a credit card has been a work-in-progress for the last nine months. To commemorate the occasion, Stonegate is offering a limited-edition card featuring a design by Cuban artist Michel Mirabal.
"Hopefully, more U.S. Banks will allow their customers to use their cards in Cuba, thus helping to alleviate the burden on travelers to the island," Stonegate President and CEO Dave Seleski said. "I am very excited to introduce these products which I believe will benefit our corporate clients and provide a meaningful diversified income stream to the bank."
In addition to personal credit cards, Stonegate announced plans to issue corporate, purchasing, payroll and prepaid cards within the next 30 days.
Debit and credit cards certainly allow increased flexibility when traveling in Cuba. However, Cuba and its businesses still need to establish infrastructure to accept debit and credit cards to process sales.
Stonegate is one of the largest South Florida-based banks, with $2.45 billion in assets.
While Broward County might not have the same glitz and glamour of its southern cousin Miami-Dade, the county had plenty of big-ticket commercial deals last year that racked up millions.
The Real Deal analyzed data from the CoStar group, an information company, to compile a list of Broward’s biggest commercial buyers during 2015.
#1 Prologis – $407.5 millionPrologis, one of the country’s biggest industrial real estate firms, racked up more pricey property purchases in Broward than any other company.The company sank a total of $407.5 million into 23 properties spread throughout the county, mostly concentrated in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale.What helped push Prologis to the top this year was its $820 million acquisition of a 21-property portfolio from Morris Realty Associates. Three of those properties were located in Broward, totaling about $69.4 million.
#2 Starwood Capital Group – $281.9 millionSecond on the list was investment firm Starwood Capital Group, headquartered in the wealthy enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut.The firm put $281.9 million down on 13 properties in Broward, most of which were office buildings located in Fort Lauderdale business parks.Not to be outdone, Starwood also closed on a massive commercial sale last year. The investment firm was one of three buyers that paid $1.1 billion for Duke Realty’s portfolio of 62 properties in the Southeastern United States.Among those properties were eight office buildings in Fort Lauderdale and one in Pompano Beach, which made up the bulk of Starwood’s investment total for Broward County last year. Together, they totaled almost $180 million worth of properties.
#3 Norges Bank – $272.3 millionClose behind Starwood was the Norwegian central bank, which had a serious hankering for South Florida real estate last year.Norges Bank assembled $272.3 million worth of Broward County commercial properties during 2015, landing it in third place for the year’s list of biggest buyers.Those purchases were spread out over 13 properties between Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Hallandale and Dania Beach.All 13 were purchased in a joint-venture with Prologis — our No. 1 contender — as part of the $5.9 billion acquisition of KTR Capital Partners’ portfolio of 322 distribution properties throughout the U.S.Norges Bank is one of many foreign sovereign wealth funds picking up big chunks of U.S. real estate.
#4 TIAA-CREF – $238.8 millionTIAA-CREF is a Fortune 100 company that provides pensions for teachers and other professionals. It’s also one of the country’s largest real estate investment companies, and holds the No. 4 spot on the list of Broward’s biggest commercial buyers.The company spent $238.8 million on Broward County properties last year. The interesting part? That was split between just two purchases.In the first deal, the financial giant picked up Orlando-based Zom’s Casa Palma apartment complex in unincorporated Broward for nearly $90 million.Next, TIAA-CREF paid the Related Group an incredible $149 million for its Manor at Flagler Village apartment project in Fort Lauderdale.
#5 Global Logistics Properties – $187.7 millionLast but certainly not least is Chicago-based Global Logistics Properties, a multinational real estate firm that specializes in — you guessed it — logistics properties.Last year, GLP put down an impressive $187.7 million for 11 Broward County properties, all but one of which was located in Fort Lauderdale.The commercial giant continued this list’s trend of massive portfolio deals with its purchase an Industrial Income Trust assemblage in a deal valued at $4.55 billion.In Broward, that portfolio’s biggest piece was Sunrise Distribution Center in Fort Lauderdale. It alone fetched $43.8 million.
Property records revealed Friday the price of a Massachusetts-based company’s hotel acquisition in Pompano Beach: $24.8 million. In September, the Claremont Companies acquired the Residence Inn by Marriott for an unknown amount and began managing the property, which has a litigious history dating back to 2002.
At the time of the sale, $21.5 million in financing for the deal was issued by U.S. National Bank. The newly released price breaks down to $281,818 per room. The beachfront hotel, at 1350 North Ocean Boulevard, has 88 hotel rooms, a wedding chapel, two swimming pools, an on-site restaurant and 2,500 square feet of conference space.
Its largest amenity is a 20,000 square foot fitness and spa facility. It was once an independent condo-hotel called the Spa Atlantis Ocean Resort, where investors purchased units and leased them back to the management, which would then rent them out to guests. But a 2003 federal lawsuit alleged the management, Spa Atlantis LLC and Chai Development LLC, stiffed the owners for their payments.
The suit was eventually dismissed in 2005: it’s unknown what agreement the two parties reached, but Chai sold off all the units in bulk to a Minnesota company that same year. Mercury Investment, the property’s new owner, re-branded the condo-hotel as Ocean Sands Spa & Resort Residences, and later brought on Concord Hospitality Enterprises and Aztec Group as partners in 2009.
Then in 2010, the hotel underwent its final re-branding as the Residence Inn by Marriott Pompano Beach/Oceanfront, under which it operates today.
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