Embattled Coachella hotel developer to auction Beverly Hills manse

Stuart Rubin behind Coachella hotel project facing receivership

Gary Stiffelman and Stuart Rubin in front of hotel rendering.
Gary Stiffelman and Stuart Rubin in front of hotel rendering.

Facing a myriad of lawsuits as his Coachella luxury hotel site hurtles toward receivership, developer Stuart Rubin is putting his Beverly Hills mansion up for auction, according to documents obtained by The Real Deal.

On April 17th, Rubin’s home on Alpine Drive in Beverly Hills is set to be auctioned without reserve, meaning the developer will sell the property regardless of what price it fetches. Meanwhile, Rubin’s proposed Hotel Indigo in Coachella will go into receivership on March 25.

The auction comes as Rubin’s ambitious Coachella hotel is replete with debt and lawsuits, according to a review of court documents. Messages left Tuesday for Rubin through his company RP Realty Partners were not immediately returned.  His lawyer, Laurence Berman, also could not be reached for comment.

Rubin and another investor, entertainment lawyer Gary Stiffelman, began development of the 35-acre hotel in 2018
as a franchisee of the InterContinental Corp., which owns the Hotel Indigo chain. It was viewed as an opportunity to capitalize on the trendy area that is home to the annual Coachella Arts and Music Festival.

But the project ran into cost overruns and in January Stiffelman filed a lawsuit against Rubin, accusing his business partner of “incompetence and fraud” including rapidly spending $50 million on a project budgeted to cost $45 million total, according to The Desert Sun.

Stiffelman’s colorful complaint accused Rubin of siphoning money from the hotel project to pay for his daughter’s wedding and to buy a $165,000 Bentley.

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The lawsuit — pitting the two investors against each other — came after their limited liability company, Glenroy Coachella LLC, faced litigation from a handful of contractors who said they were owed money. The plaintiffs included Silhouette Outdoor Furniture and Doug Wall Construction.

Stiffelman’s complaint also came after a Riverside court agreed in December with lender Calmwater Capital to place the property into receivership following a 90-day period, which is set to end March 25.

Rubin’s RP Realty Partners billed itself as investing in “mid-market properties” of $10-$100 million. It is also listed as the developer of a 52-story tower slated for downtown L.A.

Rubin’s Beverly Hills mansion totals 13,000-square-feet including a guest house on a half-acre property. The estate has been listed and delisted several times since 2017. It was first listed for $20.5 million in March 2017 and then cut to $17 million last September before being delisted earlier this month.

The home is technically back on the market at its initial $20.5 million asking price, and Joyce Rey of Coldwell Banker is the listing agent. Rey referred questions to Austin-based Concierge Auctions, who will be auctioning the property. A representative for the auction company said that the Beverly Hills estate is not distressed.