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Prudential sues South Beach club Ora for nearly $5M
The owners of Ora, which operated at the Boulan South Beach until April, allegedly did not make rent payments on time and violated a settlement agreement
After missing a settlement payment of $43,000, a former commercial tenant of the boutique condo-hotel Boulan South Beach is now facing a demand for nearly $5 million by an affiliate of Prudential Financial, according to a recently filed lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
The lawsuit centers around the ground-floor space of 2000 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach that until April housed Ora nightclub.
MC GA Collins Realty, the Prudential affiliate, is suing Zilkatur LLC — which operated Ora — for allegedly breaching its lease agreement by not making rent payments on time and violating a settlement agreement.
Attorneys for the two entities did not respond to requests for comments.
According to the complaint, Zilkatur signed its lease in 2014 with the former landlord, Parc Place Development, which the Prudential affiliate took over when it purchased the common elements and hotel rooms of the Boulan South Beach $33.5 million in 2016. By then Zilkatur was already having trouble making rent payments, which forced the company to obtain a promissory note from Parc Place and an affiliated company for $313,000. Zilkatur agreed to pay back the note in 24 monthly installments of $13,056, according to the suit.
In July 2017, the promissory note was amended so Zilkatur’s monthly payment was reduced to $9,647. That was on top of the company’s monthly rent of $54,842, the lawsuit states. During that time, Ora operated inside the ground floor space. The venue billed itself as “a more refined, sophisticated version of the stereotypical South Beach night,” according to a recent Miami New Times article.
Yet it appears Ora never caught on. On Feb. 1, 2018, Zilkatur failed to pay $222,028 to the Prudential affiliate, which included the monthly promissory payment, rent and other costs the landlord passed on to the tenant, the lawsuit states. An acceleration clause nearly doubled the amount due two days later, the Prudential affiliate claims. And on Feb. 23, MC GA notified Zilkatur, which is run by Mischa Deeter, Amit Raizada and David Belfiore, that it was terminating its lease.
On March 14, both sides came to a settlement agreement requiring Zilkatur to pay off $267,000 in three installments of $75,000 and one installment of $43,000, plus $73,771 in rent for April. Ora closed that month, according to Miami New Times.
However, Zilkatur missed the $43,000 installment payment, MC GA alleges. As a result, Zilkatur now owes the Prudential affiliate for all of the rent for the remainder of the lease term, which comes out to $4.8 million, the lawsuit states. The complaint does not say when the lease was set to expire.