Vista Bank Sues Jon Venetos Over Personal Guaranty

Another bank has joined the hunt for embattled multifamily investor Jon Venetos.

Vista Bank sued the founder of Dallas-based Lurin Capital, claiming he personally guaranteed a $10.3 million loan Vista provided for the purchase of a Fort Worth apartment complex, according to a Nov. 7 filing in Dallas County District Court.

Vista took control of The Nolan, a 100-unit property at 6629 South Hulen Street, at a foreclosure sale via a $6.7 million credit bid after Lurin defaulted on the loan, Vista claims. Lurin still owes Vista $3 million — the remaining debt plus property taxes, interest, foreclosure costs and attorney’s fees — the bank alleges.

Vista is the second bank to take legal action against Venetos for debt remaining after the foreclosure process.

Acore claims Venetos personally guaranteed a $394.4 million loan tied to properties in Florida and Texas. The 12 Florida properties headed to foreclosure auction in April. The lender filed six lawsuits in October asking for judgments totaling $80.7 million, Venetos’ payment guaranties, plus other default-related expenses, court records show.

Venetos is also fighting lawsuits from Fannie Mae accusing him of defaulting on a $77.2 million loan tied to a Houston apartment complex and from Select Securities Europe, a lender from Luxembourg that claims he defaulted on 15 loans totaling $40.5 million.

The properties remaining in Lurin’s portfolio are in trouble, too.

Judge Bryan Gantt granted the city of Plano a temporary restraining order against Lurin on Oct. 27 and ordered residents of Evana Grove Apartments to vacate due to unsafe conditions.

According to the filing, residents of the complex at 3500 Hillridge Drive didn’t have access to water, sewer or gas — even though the property had racked up 1,459 code violations and ownership and management of Evana Grove was on the receiving end of nearly 100 lawsuits over conditions at the property.

Venetos and his wife Ashley launched Lurin Capital in 2016 amid a wave of upstart real estate operators who planned to make money by purchasing Class B apartment complexes, updating them, raising rents and selling them at a profit.

Lurin’s website says the firm owns 46 properties across five states, but the list includes assets that were handed back to lenders

Interest rates complicated the strategy for many of them, increasing debt service on their floating-rate loans and raising construction costs. At the same time, Texas, a hotspot for value-add multifamily operators, was absorbing a historic wave of apartment development, causing rental rates and occupancy levels to fall.

As a result, experts anticipate a wave of multifamily distress in Texas, where about $19 billion in CMBS loans tied to multifamily is set to mature in the next five years.