Centennial Bank president J. C. de Ona in Miami. Courtesy photo

A 71-acre vacant waterfront property in Palmetto Bay could be headed for residential development.

Developer Oscar Barbara, founder of Coral Gables-based Luxcom, bought the property at 6525 SW 152nd St. from Florida Power & Light Co. for $33 million by financing the purchase with a $19.8 million Centennial Bank loan. Both deals closed Dec. 21.

The property already has a basin where a marina could be built and bridge-free access to Biscayne Bay.

“Land in Miami is just becoming scarce. Developers, when they are going around looking for land, there's just not a whole lot of land,” said J.C. de Ona, the Centennial Bank president in Miami who closed the loan. “It was a gem of a property. There's really nothing like it down here.”

The two-year loan has a 6 percent interest rate and renewal options.

Exactly what will be built remains unknown.

Barbara is developing single-family homes at Mosaic at Venetian Parc at 15100 SW 176th St. in south Miami-Dade County and the Greyson townhouse community at 9919 Pioneer Road in West Palm Beach, according to Luxcom's website.

The Palmetto Bay property would lend itself well to residential, most likely single-family homes, de Ona said.

Its primary land use is vacant residential, according to the county property appraiser's office.

The property is near schools, surrounded by residential development and could accommodate homes of different sizes, de Ona said.

“It's a big enough property if you want to have different price points for different individuals and different-sized lots to meet the needs, I think you can,” he said.

The difficulty was closing quickly during the holidays.

De Ona said closing the loan quickly was vital for Barbara to beat competitors on the purchase.

“There were other people who wanted to buy this property,” de Ona said.

Still, moving fast during the holidays isn't easy.

“Any time you are in the holiday season there's always days that are dead days, whether it's while you are getting an appraisal or if you have people who are on vacation. It just makes it a little bit more difficult at that time of the year to close something quickly,” de Ona said. “It's one of those efforts that everyone needs to do what they can to make that happen for Mr. Barbara.”

Home BancShares, the parent company of Arkansas-based Centennial Bank, in 2017 bought Pompano Beach-based Stonegate Bank. The takeover increased the bank's ability to issue loans.

“If we were still Stonegate Bank, we wouldn't have been able to do this. We were limited on exposure. Oscar was an existing client, and we already had existing projects with him,” de Ona said. “Now our capacity is much larger.”

De Ona said he has closed about six Barbara project deals.

Adding a layer of comfort for Centennial Bank is the property's location north of the Deering Estate.

“You know how they say, 'Real estate is location, location, location.' Anytime you have such a unique property like this and it's waterfront, it adds a level of comfort,” de Ona said. ”It's just really a marquee property.”