Lender wins final foreclosure judgment for Caroline Weiss’ Blue Lagoon dev site

Caroline Weiss is on track to lose a waterfront Blue Lagoon development site at the center of a bitter legal fight with her eldest daughter.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Thomas ReBull on Aug. 10 granted final summary judgment for TIG Romspen, a lender that filed a foreclosure lawsuit last year against two Weiss entities that own a 7-acre assemblage on Northwest 7th Street and Northwest 48th Avenue in Miami, court filings show.

Represented by Lee Mackson and Michelle Hendler with Shutts & Bowen, TIG Romspen alleged the Weiss entities defaulted on a $13.1 million mortgage debt that ballooned to $17.9 million after adding default interest, unpaid property taxes and other fees, according to ReBull’s order. 

The ruling marks the latest setback in Weiss’ effort to develop a mixed-use project on the site, after winning approval from the city of Miami in 2019 for a height increase from eight to 16 stories for the assemblage. 

Michael Schlesinger, Weiss’ attorney, did not respond to a request for comment. 

For nearly a decade, Weiss’ eldest daughter Adeena Weiss-Ortiz fought her mother in a separate lawsuit contesting ownership of the site. Weiss-Ortiz alleged that she and her younger sister, Alitza Weiss, were the true owners, but that their mother illegally transferred title of the assemblage to entities Weiss controlled. 

In May, the Third District Court Of Appeals affirmed a 2022 lower court ruling that dismissed Weiss-Ortiz’s lawsuit against her mother and the entities that own the site. 

In 2020, TIG Romspen provided a $21.3 million bridge loan to the entities, about the same time Weiss unveiled plans for a mixed-use project with 882 apartments and two hotels with a combined 433 rooms. 

Weiss allegedly failed to repay $13.1 million of the mortgage debt when the loan matured in October 2022, as well as allegedly did not pay property taxes in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the foreclosure complaint states.