Another piece of Rishi Kapoor’s former real estate empire sold for $17.5 million, but the deal froze out more than 30 co-living condo buyers.
Bernice Lee, a court-appointed receiver overseeing Kapoor’s defunct Location Ventures, completed the sale of the unfinished Urbin Miami Beach co-living condominium project at 1234 and 1260 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach, a recent motion states.
Pakman Miami Beach, an entity led by Fort Lauderdale-based parking moguls Prakash Patel, Andrew Beachler and Richard Haestier, acquired the two properties.
Lee, a partner with law firm Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, declined to comment. The buyers did not respond to a request for comment about their plans for the site.
Kapoor, who resigned from Location Ventures in July 2023, had previously planned a mixed-use development with 65 co-living condo units, but the project fell apart along with Kapoor’s other real estate ventures due to a tsunami of lawsuits against him, his former company and its affiliates by investors, lenders and vendors. Also in 2023, Miami Beach city officials shut down construction due to unpermitted work at the development site.
Proceeds from the sale will be primarily used to pay off 1234 Washington Acquisition, an affiliate of Coral Gables-based Spectrum Mortgage, that had a pending $19.2 million foreclosure lawsuit against the Location Ventures entity that owned the Miami Beach properties. In exchange for dropping the complaint, 1234 Acquisition will receive $16.7 million, court records show.
In November, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra approved the sale and the distribution of the remaining proceeds to cover $570,000 in delinquent property taxes, $125,000 in closing costs, $25,000 to Fisher Auction Co. for marketing the site, $15,000 for utilities and a fee for the receiver to be determined at a future hearing.
As a result, more than three dozen investors that placed deposits to purchase co-living units will lose their deposits which total more than $10 million, court records show. Several contractors that filed liens claiming non-payment of more than $11 million were also left out in the cold.
Last year, Lee was appointed to manage and oversee the disposition of all Location Ventures assets as a result of a federal lawsuit that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed against Kapoor, his former company and its affiliates alleging that he defrauded more than 50 investors who provided $93 million in equity for his failed real estate projects.
Becerra recently approved a settlement agreement between Kapoor and the SEC in which he is banned from serving as an officer or director of a company with securities for a five-year period. He is also barred for life from disseminating false and misleading documents and materials to any prospective investor about securities and investment strategy, or the prospects of success for a project or company.
Kapoor is allegedly still a target of ongoing state and federal criminal investigations stemming from his time steering Location Ventures, including his role in giving Miami Mayor Francis Suarez a private consulting agreement that paid the elected official $10,000 a month.
Since January of last year, Lee has also sold an incomplete Coconut Grove spec mansion for $17.5 million. She also agreed not to contest a final foreclosure judgment against the Location Ventures entity that owned the firm’s Coral Gables headquarters at 299 Alhambra Circle. That property was acquired last year by the lender, an entity that is tied to Stephen Bittel’s Terranova.