BrickellHouse developers face foreclosure suit

BrickellHouse and Harvey Hernandez
BrickellHouse and Harvey Hernandez

Newgard Development Group’s Harvey Hernandez and Jesus Quintero, developers behind the ongoing 46-story condominium project BrickellHouse in Miami, have been hit with a foreclosure suit from their initial mortgage holder.

JBG Development LLC, alleging a breach of contract, wants to speed up a $15.8 million loan in order to receive an early payment of the debt. The Jose Baboun-led lien holder sold the 374-unit property at 1300 Brickell Bay river last year for $10 million. It also took back a mortgage for $15.8 million.

Baboun claims that the developers pressured him to accept a subordination of his position to a construction lender.

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“This case is about trying to force BrickellHouse to pay them three years before BrickellHouse is obligated to pay them,” Robert P. Frankel, the developers’ attorney, told the Miami Herald.

Construction is expected to be done by next summer. Ninety-nine percent of the units have been sold. Back when the tower broke ground last year, already 90 percent of the units had been sold, as previously reported.

Last month, Miami-based Newgard Development Group was named developer of the year by the Latin Builders Association. [Miami Herald]Mark Maurer