With its planned luxury amenities deck, sinuous architecture and polished interior finishes, the Melo Group’s Aria on the Bay luxury condo is a stark departure in style from the no-frills, high-rise apartment buildings the company has cut its teeth building up and down Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard.

When it came to getting a loan to fund Aria, however, the Melos seem to have gone back to old habits: underwhelming, unsexy and safe.