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Judge gives Rishi Kapoor OK to sell Cocoplum waterfront estate
Embattled Location Ventures founder is seeking to list half-acre home for $8.5M
A photo illustration of Rishi Kapoor along with 7233 Los Pinos Boulevard in Coral Gables (Getty, The Real Deal, Google Maps)
Rishi Kapoor can move forward on selling his waterfront Cocoplum home, but his wife won’t be the listing agent.
The asking price is $8.5 million, roughly $2.6 million above what the $5.9 million the couple paid for the property in 2021.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra granted a request allowing the developer to list the couple’s six-bedroom house at 7233 Los Pinos Boulevard in the exclusive Coral Gables enclave, court records show. The request was made by Kapoor and Bernice Lee, the receiver overseeing his former company, Coral Gables-based Location Ventures, and its affiliates as a result of a pending civil lawsuit by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission against Kapoor.
The property will be listed by South Miami-based Boschetti Realty Group. But Becerra granted Lee’s request that Jenni Frank Kapoor, a real estate agent who hung her license at Boschetti, could not handle the listing. Sales proceeds will go toward paying off a private lender that has a pending foreclosure complaint alleging the Kapoors defaulted on a $4.6 million mortgage debt. Any remaining funds are subject to a freeze on Kapoor’s assets.
The Kapoors also agreed to dismiss a bankruptcy petition filed by the entity managed by the couple that owns 7233 Los Pinos Boulevard, as well as a 90-day period to sell the house, court records show.
The Kapoors attorney Fred Schwartz said his clients are “very pleased” with the judge’s ruling. “We are particularly appreciative of the cooperation of the receiver and the SEC and the quick action of the court,” he said in an email.
Lee declined to comment.
In March, Kapoor sought Becerra’s approval to put the 6,000-square-foot residence for sale and allow his spouse to list and show the property to potential buyers. Lee objected to Kapoor’s proposal, according to motions.
Kapoor’s once rising ascent in South Florida’s real estate development has been in a freefall since May of last year when a civil lawsuit by his former CFO revealed a Location Ventures subsidiary had paid Miami Mayor Francis Suarez a $10,000 a month private consulting gig.
Despite a nearly half-a-billion dollar project pipeline, Location Ventures and its subsidiaries imploded due to a cascade of lawsuits over unrealized investor returns, unpaid debts to vendors and defaulted loans. In late December, the SEC sued Kapoor, Location Ventures and various affiliates for allegedly defrauding more than 50 investors out of $93 million for his failed real estate projects.
Kapoor is also allegedly a target in separate state and federal criminal investigations.