Harvey Hernandez sued over delinquent loan for downtown Miami condo project

In March, Hernandez settled a lawsuit against Airbnb alleging fraud

Harvey Hernandez, Centro Condo
Harvey Hernandez, Centro Condo

Miami developer Harvey Hernandez is facing another lawsuit — this time alleging his company is delinquent in payments on his downtown Miami condo tower.

The lender is suing Hernandez, after his company allegedly defaulted on a $2 million loan for the Centro tower. The owner of the loan is now seeking to foreclose on nine condo units at the 352-unit, 37-story building at 151 Southeast 1st Street.

The lawsuit comes two months after a company tied to Hernandez settled a suit against Airbnb, which alleged that his company, NGD Homesharing, defrauded the short-term rental company in a partnership and stole $1 million.

According to the Centro lawsuit, the Miami-based private lender BridgeInvest made a $2 million secured mortgage to Hernandez’s company, Centro NGD Holdings, in 2017. The loan was eventually acquired by PS Funding, which is tied to a California fintech lending company called PeerStreet.

“We have been negotiating with PS Funding for the last few weeks and were ready with refinancing, but the pandemic has delayed the process,” Hernandez said in a statement. “We’re confident we should resolve the matter soon.”

Ronald Cohn of the Tampa-based law firm Burr & Forman, who represents the lender, did not return a request for comment.

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The complaint alleges that Centro NGD Holdings failed to make balloon payments on the loan that was due in October 2019. The complaint also alleges Centro NGD Holdings failed to pay 2019 property taxes on the property. The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on May 4, also names two companies tied to Hernandez, Centro NGD Holdings and Centro Downtown Condominium Association, as defendants.

The lender declared default in March 2020 and is seeking payment of the loan plus interest, according to the complaint.

The South Florida Business Journal first reported news about the lawsuit.

The Centro condo tower was built in 2016 and is known for having no attached parking garages. Separately, Hernandez, who also leads the development firm Newgard Development Group, is partnering with Russell Galbut to build a hotel and condo Natiivo project in downtown Miami.

In 2016, Hernandez’s development company was sued over a failed robotic car garage he installed at the luxury condo tower Brickell House in Miami. In September, a Miami-Dade County judge awarded the Brickell House condo association $40.6 million from the development group after the technology malfunctioned and left residents without a working garage.