Affiliates of embattled real estate duo Joseph and Meyer Chetrit lost the Tides Hotel in Miami Beach to their lender in a foreclosure auction.
It marks the latest in a protracted legal battle between the Chetrits and their lender, affiliate of Miami-based Safe Harbor Equity, led by Rafael Serrano, over a $45 million mortgage on the property originally borrowed in 2014.
Safe Harbor took title of the hotel and adjacent lots through a credit bid in the foreclosure auction Monday, Miami-Dade County records show.
The foreclosure auction came after Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Thomas Rebull issued a $95.6 million final judgment in January against Chetrits’ affiliates, representing $41.8 million in an unpaid loan balance and $61.3 million in default interest from November 2017 to November 2025. The judge applied a $7.5 million credit for payments already made, but said the Chetrits’ affiliates also owe nearly $20,900 in daily interest from Nov. 22 up to the day of the order.
The Chetrits’ entities sought to halt the final judgment, and Rebull conditioned suspension of judgment on the entities posting a nearly $53 million bond, according to court records. The borrowers appealed both the bond requirement and Rebull’s final judgment for $95.6 million.
The Third District Court of Appeal denied the borrowers’ motion to change the requirement for a bond, allowing the foreclosure auction to proceed.
Safe Harbor acquired the 13-story, 45-key Tides Hotel, as well as adjacent sites at 1201, 1221 and 1225 Collins Avenue and the garage at 1155 Collins Avenue.
The hotel “is a historic landmark,” and its “next chapter” will “reflect that significance,” Safe Harbor said in a statement,
The Chetrits’ entities still are appealing, seeking to overturn Rebull’s final judgment in hopes of taking back title to the hotel, said Dennis Richard, attorney for the borrowers, adding they “have powerful arguments to reverse the judgment.”
The Chetrits bought the Tides Hotel, built in 1936, in 2011, and took out a $45 million loan in 2014 from Ocean Bank. The hotel was damaged by Hurricane Irma and has been closed ever since.
After the loan matured in 2020 amid the pandemic lockdown and while the borrowers were working on securing a refinancing in 2021, Ocean Bank sold the debt to Safe Harbor. Then, Safe Harbor requested a payoff for $61 million, consisting of the $41.8 million loan balance and another nearly $20 million “back-dated default interest,” according to the Chetrits’ affiliates’ filings in appeals court.
Safe Harbor sued for foreclosure in 2021. Named defendants include CG Tides, CG Tides Village, CG Tides Village I, CG Tides Village II, 1155 Collins and Meyer Chetrit.
The lender claimed the $20 million in retroactive default interest was triggered in 2017 when the borrowers failed to transfer the $2 million hurricane insurance disbursement to Ocean Bank, the Chetrits’ affiliates said in court filings.
Safe Harbor claims that the borrowers deposited the $2 million insurance proceeds without Ocean Bank’s required consent and then transferred $1.2 million to the Chetrits, according to court filings.
The owners didn’t repair or maintain the hotel after the hurricane in 2017, despite the insurance funds, Safe Harbor’s affiliate argued in an appeals court filing.
The Chetrits deny that allegation.
“The $2 million, plus millions more, were used to repair the hurricane damages and enhance the project,” attorney Dennis Richards said in a statement, emailing images of the hotels’ exteriors and interiors.
Safe Harbor’s “business is to acquire legitimate loans from banks and leverage the borrowers with predatory demands for default interest,” the Chetrits’ entities said in the appeal.
A judge in 2022 ruled the Chetrits breached their mortgage agreement by allowing insurance coverage to lapse and by transferring the $2 million insurance funds to company bank accounts and personal accounts for Joseph and Meyer Chetrit without Ocean Bank’s consent. Also in 2022, the trial court issued an $82.1 million judgment against the borrowers, consisting of the loan balance and nearly $48 million in interest.
That order was reversed on appeal in 2024.
The Tides Hotel isn’t the only trouble for Joseph and Meyer Chetrit. In New York, the brothers are facing criminal tenant harassment charges. They have pleaded not guilty.
The Chetrits’ vacant and deteriorating Hotel Carter in Times Square is headed for auction by the Manhattan sheriff’s office on May 6.
In August, Adam Neumann’s Flow, Canada Global and billionaire Yakir Gabay’s Yellowstone Trust took a majority stake in Chetrit Group’s planned Miami River megaproject, slated for up to 1,900 residential units and additional commercial space. Chetrit Group retained a “significant” minority stake.