LuxUrban Founder Files for Personal Bankruptcy

The fallout from LuxUrban Hotels’ spectacular unraveling is no longer confined to courtrooms, creditors and locked hotel doors. For a former executive, it’s turning personal.

Brian Ferdinand, the founder and former chief executive of the short-lived hotel operator, filed for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy last month, seeking a clean break from nearly $100 million in liabilities tied largely to the company’s failed New York City hotel leases. Ferdinand reported less than $4.5 million in assets against more than $98 million in debt, according to the filing, first reported by Bisnow.

At the core of the wreckage are the personal guarantees Ferdinand signed as LuxUrban raced to scale up its master-lease model across Manhattan. Those guarantees left him directly on the hook for tens of millions of dollars after the company stopped paying rent and landlords moved to enforce their claims.

Ferdinand owes $28 million to MAve Hotel Investors, which owns Hotel 27 on Madison Avenue, $6.4 million to the owner of The Herald near Herald Square and $14.2 million tied to the Tuscany Hotel, court records show.

The list of creditors reads like a cross-section of LuxUrban’s most troubled deals. Ferdinand also disclosed a $19 million obligation to Wyndham Hotel Group stemming from an abandoned partnership, a $2.7 million judgment related to a defaulted lease at 123 Washington Street and nearly $4 million owed to merchant cash advance lenders.

He reported 18 lawsuits filed against him in the year before the bankruptcy, most connected to breached loan or lease guarantees, along with $148,000 in unpaid federal taxes from 2023.

Financially, the filing portrays a dramatic reversal. Ferdinand says he is unemployed, with no income, less than $170 in cash across three bank accounts and a repossessed Porsche Cayenne. He is receiving a $30,000 monthly allowance from his father. His biggest remaining asset is a Sunny Isles Beach condo valued at $4.4 million, though it is encumbered by $5.7 million in mortgages.

Ferdinand launched CorpHousing Group in 2017, initially leasing apartments for short-term stays before pivoting during the pandemic to master leasing hotels. That strategy powered a $13 million initial public offering in 2022 and a rebrand to LuxUrban Hotels, pitching the company as a fast-growing disruptor in hospitality.

The ambition outpaced the balance sheet. After a short seller report and mounting lawsuits, LuxUrban filed for Chapter 11 in September, only to collapse into Chapter 7 liquidation weeks later after abandoning hotels, workers and booked guests.

Though Ferdinand had stepped away from day-to-day leadership, the company’s court-appointed trustee is seeking to pull him back into the liquidation, arguing that only he can produce key financial records.

— Holden Walter-Warner