Key International is going after the Coconut Grove home of developer Caroline Weiss after she allegedly failed to repay an $8 million loan issued in 2024.
Miami-based Key, led by brothers Diego and Inigo Ardid, filed a foreclosure complaint in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court on June 25 against Weiss, two trusts in her name and Schlesinger Law Group, a firm that formerly represented her.
Key alleges Weiss failed to repay the $8 million mortgage when it was due in full on Jan. 1. She put up her 1.6-acre waterfront estate, which includes her four-bedroom home at 3187 Royal Road, as collateral. Weiss briefly listed 1.3 acres of land with a boat dock on the property for $59 million in 2022.
The lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal battles dogging the octogenarian real estate mogul.
Court records in other cases allege Weiss is unwell and being taken advantage of by her two adult daughters, Alitza Weiss and Adeena Weiss Ortiz.
Alitza Weiss denied any wrongdoing. “My mother has been very ill,” she said. “She has a lot of physical problems. We are taking care of everything.” Adeena Weiss Ortiz did not respond to requests for comment.
Weiss was active in the 1970s and ’80s especially, building offices and apartments in Miami’s Blue Lagoon neighborhood.
“Everything will be rectified after tomorrow,” Alitza Weiss said Tuesday. “There will be no more foreclosures. No more bankruptcies. No more nothing.” She declined to explain the significance of “tomorrow.”
The Ardids and Key’s attorney Jose Sepulveda did not respond to requests for comment. Weiss and her lawyer Martin McCarthy did not respond to phone messages and emails.
Key’s complaint named Schleslinger Law Group, led by attorney Michael Schleslinger, as a defendant because the firm has a court lien against the property.
Schleslinger, who represented Weiss for decades until last year, declined comment. He defended Weiss in lawsuits filed in 2014 and 2022 by Adeena Weiss Ortiz, her eldest child, that contested her mother’s sole ownership of a 7-acre assemblage at 4865 Northwest Seventh Street in Blue Lagoon, where Weiss secured rezoning for a major mixed-use project in 2019.
A judge ruled in Weiss’ favor in both cases, and her daughter’s subsequent appeals were denied, court records show.
Schleslinger sued Alitza Weiss and Adeena Weiss Ortiz in November for tortious interference, fraud and defamation. In his lawsuit, Schleslinger alleges that Caroline was diagnosed with post-anesthetic dementia and diminished capacity after a shoulder surgery. While Weiss was incapacitated, her daughters allegedly “infused themselves in Caroline’s life and took over her personal and financial affairs,” Schleslinger’s lawsuit says. The siblings allegedly isolated their mother from her friends and lawyers, ultimately firing him and another attorney, John Kirkpatrick.
Caroline Weiss filed a legal malpractice lawsuit against Schleslinger last month, alleging he charged her millions of dollars without providing any documentation of the work he performed on her behalf.
Court records in another pending lawsuit against Weiss over an unpaid $260,336 home equity line of credit allege that Alitza Weiss, Adeena Weiss Ortiz and Weiss’ new attorney Martin McCarthy are defying a judge’s order to make Caroline Weiss available for a medical evaluation to determine if she needs a guardian ad litem.
Alitza Weiss countered that it was Schleslinger who “manipulated my mother.”
“She was his golden ticket,” Alitza Weiss said in a response to that lawsuit. “He was wrongful toward her in every way, including making her sign documents while she was in the hospital.”
Meanwhile, Weiss is in danger of losing the 7-acre development site in Blue Lagoon, where she planned 882 apartments and two hotels with a combined 433 rooms. Toronto-based TIG Romspen is seeking to force the bankruptcy sale of the property to satisfy a $20.1 million final judgment against two Weiss entities that own the assemblage, court records show. TIG Romspen was awarded final judgment in 2024, a year after the lender filed a foreclosure complaint alleging Weiss failed to repay a bridge loan.