Art Falcone

Co-Founder, Managing Principal, Encore Capital Management

Founder and CEO, Falcone Group

Falcone has risen from fast-food franchisee to a local developer. His Miami Worldcenter complex made a mark on the South Florida skyline, despite Falcone getting embroiled in allegations of wrongdoing. 

Falcone has become an expert in assembling distressed lots for large projects. Plantation Walk is approved for 700 apartments, about 250,000 square feet of offices and 225,000 square feet of retail. In downtown Miami/Park West, Falcone is a partner in the master development team for the $6 billion, 10-block Miami Worldcenter. 

Distress isn’t new for Falcone, who started Transeastern Homes with his brother, Edward, in the 1980s, working to become a regional homebuilding giant. In 2005, they sold the business for $1.6 billion to Technical Olympic USA, which fell into bankruptcy in 2008 under the strain of the housing market collapse. Its creditors unsuccessfully sought damages against the Falcone brothers. Broker Edie Lacquer, who had worked on deals for Miami Worldcenter lots, settled a case based on allegations that Falcone squeezed her out of a promised 10 percent stake in the project. 

The sellers of Boca Raton cemetery sued the Falcone brothers, alleging their attorney, Michael Masanoff, received $100,000 for pushing the deal through for $6.1 million on a property valued at $40 million. Masanoff testified he worked for both sides, but an appeals panel lifted rulings against the Falcones.