CIM Group Takes Goodtime Hotel in Foreclosure Auction

Five years after opening the Goodtime Hotel with a celebrity-studded party, Eric Birnbaum and Michael Fascitelli lost the marquee South Beach property to the lender.

Los Angeles-based CIM Group, through an affiliate, won the foreclosure auction of the hotel on Wednesday morning, a month after obtaining a $204.7 million foreclosure judgment in May, according to Miami-Dade County court records. The county clerk’s foreclosure auctions website shows 601 Washington Ave (FL) Owner LLC, an entity tied to CIM Group, won the property with a $100 bid.

As the lender that already won a foreclosure judgment, CIM used its right to credit bid for the property. Although it could have used its full credit bid of $204.7 million, lenders may bid less than their allowed credit bid if there are no competing offers for a property. This reduces property transfer taxes.

CIM’s $100 bid translates to $1.05 in documentary stamp taxes, the county’s foreclosure auctions website shows.

CIM’s attorney declined to comment. Attorneys for the debtor, Washington Squared Owner, an entity managed by Birnbaum, didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

The sale at auction marks a turnaround for the hotel that made a splashy opening in 2021, with a Vogue writeup of the party where guests included Kim Kardashian and David and Victoria Beckham.

At the time of the opening, much of the hoopla was over the developers’ project partners, who included musician and songwriter Pharrell Williams, and hospitality mogul David Grutman. Grutman and Williams haven’t been involved with the hotel since 2024, a spokesperson told the Miami Herald in March.

The developers bought the site at 601 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach for $36 million in 2015. The hotel is seven stories and has 266 keys.

Birnbaum and Fascitelli are of New York-based Imperial Companies.

Financial troubles became evident last summer when an affiliate of lender CIM sued Birnbaum and Fascitelli in New York over a $10 million personal guarantee payment allegedly due when the debt matured.

CIM’s affiliate filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Washington Squared Owner in January in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. CIM provided a $164 million loan in 2021 and subsequently reduced the principal to $152 million, according to its foreclosure complaint.

In the foreclosure suit, CIM alleged that Washington Squared Owner failed to live up to a loan forbearance agreement, which was first signed in 2023 and then amended several times after that, and also claimed the debtor stopped paying interest in 2024 and didn’t pay off the debt when it matured that year.

In his $204.7 million order for foreclosure, Judge Thomas Rebull wrote the amount includes $149.3 million in principal balance, $32.4 million in interest, $21.1 million in default interest, $1.5 million in late fees and about $112,500 in attorney fees and court costs.

In the New York case, Birnbaum and Fascitrelli filed a counterclaim against CIM, calling the 2023 forbearance agreement “draconian” and alleging the lender exploited a drafting error in the guarantee agreement that left the borrowers on the hook for carry costs such as taxes and operating shortfalls for much longer if they were to hand over the property to the lender. It was meant to be a three-month period of borrower-covered carry costs, they said in court filings.

Although debtors often file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on the eve prior to foreclosure auctions, this was unlikely here.

The two sides had been in talks to settle their dispute, and in April jointly asked Rebull for a final foreclosure judgment.

An order signed in May in the New York case also said all sides “have been in serious discussion concerning ways to settle the claims and counterclaims” in the New York litigation. The New York judge granted the two sides’ request to pause that litigation until they notify that court they have reached a settlement.

The loan on the property isn’t its only financial trouble. In Miami-Dade, Washington Squared Owner has been fighting off allegations of unpaid bills.

A company called 6 Washington Poll alleged $1.4 million in damages in a lawsuit filed in October due to unpaid fees for services provided under a food and beverage agreement. Washington Squared Owner filed a motion to dismiss and succeeded in getting a default final judgment tossed, arguing it’s been tied up with other pressing litigation and that 6 Washington failed to fulfill its duties under the food and beverage agreement. In its filing, Washington Squared Owner wrote the hotel is suffering from “severe financial distress.”

In January, Link Hospitality sued Washington Squared Owner, claiming more than $523,800 in unpaid invoices for temporary staff Link provided to the hotel, as well as late fees. Washington Squared Owner responded in court that Link’s invoices included errors and billed for services not provided, as well as that Link’s staff didn’t provide “services in conformity with practices current in the hotel industry.”