Swerdlow Drops Bid to Have Peebles Jailed Over $800,000 Debt

Michael Swerdlow backed off his bid to have Don Peebles jailed over an $800,000 debt tied to their protracted legal feud over an Overtown development site, which has been built out already.

The litigation between the pair of developers, both big names in South Florida real estate, over a 3.4-acre property in Miami’s Overtown started in 2020. Peebles affiliates first sued Swerdlow, an entity tied to him and his project partner Alben Duffie, alleging Peebles’ affiliates were swindled out of the land deal, with city of Miami officials sabotaging their redevelopment proposal. The city wasn’t a named defendant.

After a series of court defeats for Peebles’ entities, they also were hit with an $800,000 tab in 2022 for legal fees and costs due to Downtown Retail Associates, an entity managed by Swerdlow.

Swerdlow’s team filed a motion in January for criminal contempt in the Miami-Dade civil court case against Peebles, saying he should be “incarcerated” if the judge finds he violated a post-judgment court order in May of last year. That order appointed a receiver over two entities tied to Peebles and on the hook for the $800,000 tab.

In its motion, Downtown Retail Associates argued that the dissolution of Peebles’ two entities circumvented the May receivership court order and amounted to “indirect criminal contempt of the court.” The motion for criminal contempt carried a maximum penalty of six months in jail.

But Downtown Retail Associates has called off this effort. In an April filing, the entity withdrew its criminal contempt motion, citing sworn deposition testimony by Erika Avila, in which she said the dissolution of the entities in violation of the receivership order “was not done intentionally,” according to Downtown Retail Associates’ filing.

Avila is listed as executive assistant to Peebles at Miami Beach-based The Peebles Corporation, according to the company’s website.

A transcript of Avila’s testimony isn’t yet attached in court records.

Peebles called this a “vindication” and pointed out attorneys for Downtown Retail Associates withdrew the motion for criminal contempt themselves before the court even ruled on it.

“We have said all along it was, of course, absurd and without merit. … Here now I have been vindicated by them [Downtown Retail Associates], so that meant they didn’t even think it had an iota of merit,” Peebles said. “Frankly, their motion couldn’t pass the laugh test. Is it laughable? It didn’t pass that in my view.”

Swerdlow and his attorneys didn’t return requests for comment.

This doesn’t end the battle.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Thomas Rebull last month granted a motion by Downtown Retail Associates that amounts to a continued bid to collect on the $800,000, including potentially pursuing the funds directly from The Peebles Corporation and have it disclose its assets.

During the course of the receivership over the two Peebles-tied entities, it became clear that one of the affiliates, TPC Overtown Block 45, “had no real existence or capitalization,” leading to the February discharge of the receiver, the motion says. The filing, which described Peebles’ April deposition as “vacillating from evasive to incomplete,” goes on to claim TPC Overtown was never sufficiently capitalized or had assets to meet its obligations.

The motion then goes on to say that The Peebles Corporation has assets, including office furniture and equipment, stock and membership interests, bank accounts and other personal property, that potentially can be used to pay off the $800,000 according to Downtown Retail’s filing.

In his approval of Downtown Retail Associates’ motion, Rebull pointed out he’s making no findings of fact regarding the motion’s allegations about The Peebles Corporation’s assets.

In 2020, Swerdlow’s Coconut Grove-based Swerdlow Group and its partners, SJM and Duffie, bought the disputed Overtown property for $10 million. About two years ago, they completed the Sawyer’s Walk development on the site with 578 senior affordable housing apartments and a 251,000-square-foot office and retail center anchored by Target and Aldi stores.

Swerdlow’s next big project is the redevelopment of a collection of public housing complexes in Miami’s Little River with over 20 buildings with 5,730 units, combined, including 314 replacement public housing apartments. The project is being done through the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration program that opens the door for developers to work with counties and municipalities to redevelop or renovate public housing that has struggled due to underfunding.