Coral Springs business is temporarily part-owner of a South Beach hotel. Here’s how
Through a century-old part of the tax code, Andrew Monaghan Jr.’s Coral Springs-based Private Exchange Group is — at least on paper — part-owner of the three-star Fairwind Hotel in South Beach.
The deal was first reported in the South Florida Business Journal Thursday afternoon. Two buyers, including one through Monaghan’s company, paid $31 million for the five-story property.
The hotel is home to Sola, a restaurant and hookah lounge, and Tokyo Club Sushi & Karaoke Bar. It also has a rooftop pool.
Monaghan is obligated to keep his client’s identity private — as indicated in his company’s name — but one of his favorite parts of his job is education.
“Our biggest competition to our business is ignorance,” Monaghan said.
He has been in the 1031 exchange business for 22 years, and has owned his own business in the niche for 17 of them.
According to Investopedia, a 1031 is essentially a swap — trading one business or investment property for another — that avoids capital gains or depreciation taxes.
While the state of Florida doesn’t have a capital gains tax, the federal government takes a certain amount depending on the property’s purchase and sale prices, how long the seller owned the property, the seller’s annual income and filing status.
Monaghan compares it to playing Monopoly in real life. In the game, players can swap four houses for one hotel, for example. The 1031 process is the same: an exchange between items of the same value.
“People think of it as a loophole,” Monaghan said. “It’s not political, it’s not socioeconomic, it’s a tool.”
The process has many rules. For example, property owners have to hire someone to be an intermediary. Monaghan’s company essentially holds property titles or money from sales until the multi-step IRS process is complete. There is also a limit on how much time can pass between transactions.
But for many who invest in real estate, it can be a way to hold on to wealth — even passing it along to their children or other heirs when they die.
“I love this job, because I’m solving problems for people,” Monaghan said. “People think this thing is only for the one-percenters — but that’s not true.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 6:38 PM.
