Dive Brief:
- BankUnited announced that it will provide the $300 million Frost Museum of Science in Miami with a $47.2 million loan to assist in construction financing, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
- In January, museum officials and Miami-Dade County said they had run out of museum funds and could not pay general contractor Skanska, so the Frost family – museum patrons and namesake – provided interim financing and asked for the museum board's resignation.
- BankUnited competed against BBVA Compass Bank, Morgan Stanley, SunTrust Bank and other banks to score the tax-exempt bond loan deal.
Dive Insight:
In January, Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez proposed advancing the museum $45 million, but it is not clear if that was the entire shortfall or if the $47 million BankUnited loan completes the museum's financing needs. At the time, the city said there were no available funds to pay Skanska between $5 million-$7 million due at the end of January or in the future. Officials also said part of the reason the museum was in such a dire financial position was that the board's fundraising efforts failed to meet its goals.
The project has not only been plagued with money problems. Massachusetts contractor Suffolk Construction was the original general contractor on the museum, but museum officials said they fired Suffolk after delays and "quality concerns" that added an additional $25 million onto the museum price tag.
