Two years after buying a pair of downtown Miami office buildings, Stonerock Capital Partners could lose the properties to foreclosure.
An affiliate of Atlanta-based Ardent Companies filed a foreclosure complaint in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Friday. It’s against the Stonerock Capital entity that owns a 12-story building with a data center and ground-floor retail at 200 Southeast First Street, as well as a 26-story office tower anchored by First Horizon Bank at 44 West Flagler Street.
Ardent alleges that the joint venture defaulted on a $49.4 million mortgage debt that matured on June 1, the lawsuit states.
Boca Raton-based Stonerock Capital, led by Yaakov Handelsman, and its then-partner, Delray Beach-based Triple Double Real Estate paid $56.7 million for both properties in 2022. The purchase was financed by a $58.3 million mortgage provided by Ardent, records show. After publication, a spokesperson for Triple Double CEO Andrew Greenbaum, told The Real Deal that Triple Double exited the joint venture in March of last year.
Representatives for Stonerock Capital and Ardent’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
The office tower at 44 West Flagler was completed in 1974, and the office mid-rise at 200 Southeast First Street was completed in 1958, records show. The smaller building is subject to a ground lease that expires in 2055. Tenants in the larger building include the Consulate General of Jamaica and the Law Offices of Robert Hanreck. Tenants in the smaller building include The Spot Barbershop, Idea Financial and Jonathan Schwartz P.A.
Stonerock allegedly last made a mortgage payment in December, and allegedly failed to pay $1.2 million in property taxes for both properties in 2023, the lawsuit shows.
While South Florida commercial real estate has largely escaped the distress seen in other markets, the tri-county region is experiencing some fallout. Foreclosure filings for office, retail, multifamily and industrial properties have ticked up in recent months.
Last month, Atlanta-based Trimont filed a foreclosure complaint in Broward County Circuit Court against an affiliate of Alliance HP, a Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania-based real estate firm, that owns One Financial Plaza in Fort Lauderdale. Trimont alleges that Aliance HP defaulted on a $59.2 million mortgage that matured in October of last year.
In July, New York-based R&B Realty avoided losing Gateway at Wynwood, a mixed-use project in Miami’s Wynwood, at a foreclosure auction. The R&B affiliates that own the 14-story office and retail building filed for Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, court records show. Wilmington Trust NA, as trustee for Boise-based lender A10 Capital, won a final judgment for a $112 million mortgage debt allegedly owed by R&B.
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified Triple Double Real Estate as a co-owner of the two dowtown Miami office buildings.