Usually, when a South Florida real estate project goes haywire, it’s the investors accusing the developer of a double-cross. But the tables have turned, according to a recent lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
Prive Group and Javier Rabinovich, the North Miami Beach-based firm’s CEO, are seeking roughly $20 million in damages from six Peruvian investors: Cesar Augusto Paniagua, Victor Alfredo Arce Mendoza, Oscar Martin Bravo Puccio, Alonso Bravo Arenas, Nicolas Alejandro Labarthe Zlatar and Fernando de Nunez. The lawsuit also names the investors’ company YVY Project Management and 12 affiliates as defendants.
In the complaint filed last month, Prive and Rabinovich accuses its six partners of attempting a hostile takeover of a planned condo project in Aventura and a planned Fort Lauderdale apartment building after Prive performed all the legwork to obtain zoning entitlements for the sites.
Prive, which co-developed an Aventura office condominium and Uptown Biscayne, a North Miami Beach mixed-use project, also filed lis pendens against the properties at 20605 Northeast 34th Avenue in Aventura and at 1000 West State Road 84/Marina Mile in Fort Lauderdale to prevent the sites from being sold while the lawsuit is pending.
Robert Stok, the lead attorney representing Prive and Rabinovich, said his clients were promised development fees and participation in the profits as minority partners.
“[Rabinovich] lent his expertise in the deals,” Stok said. He accomplished a tremendous amount in terms of advancing the value of the projects. Basically, they gave him the boot.”
Lawyers for the Peruvian partners did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2022, Prive brought in YVY Project and its six principals as partners to redevelop the Fort Lauderdale site, a 1.8-acre property with a nightclub. The Peruvians allegedly agreed to provide $28 million in capital for the planned multifamily project, the lawsuit states. Prive and Rabinovich held a small minority interest, while YVY was the majority shareholder and responsible for a bulk of the funding of both projects, the lawsuit claims.
Both sides also agreed that Prive would collect 60 percent of the development fees during the planning, permitting and building phases of the Fort Lauderdale project. After Prive successfully secured development approvals for the Marina Mile site last year, YVY allegedly refused a capital call to continue funding the project, therefore preventing Prive from collecting its fees and causing delays, according to the lawsuit.
In addition to owing $2.9 million to Prive, the Fort Lauderdale entity that owns the site hasn’t paid $1.8 million owed on a mortgage and $70,000 owed to vendors, the lawsuit alleges. Prive was also allegedly terminated as the Marina Mile project’s manager.
In Aventura, in addition to being a general partner in the project, Prive was also supposed to receive a development fee for obtaining city approvals for a site plan and a zoning variance while the land was under contract, according to the suit. Unbeknownst to Prive, YVY purchased the site for $7.5 million in 2023, but through an entity that did not include Rabinovich’s firm as a minority owner of the 22,239-square-foot vacant lot, the lawsuit alleges.
Because of YVY’s alleged reassurances that Prive was still a general partner, Rabinovich’s firm continued to work on obtaining the approvals. But YVY failed to provide Prive with its ownership interest and removed the company as the project manager, the lawsuit alleges.