Fannie Mae Sues To Foreclose On Lurin Capital Properties

Fannie Mae’s holiday gift to Jon Venetos was a series of lawsuits attempting to foreclose on five of the remaining properties in his crumbling multifamily portfolio.

The government-sponsored lender accused Venetos’ Dallas-based firm, Lurin Capital, of defaulting on $59.4 million tied to five Pensacola, Florida properties. Fannie Mae filed the five suits in Escambia County Circuit Court on Dec. 8.

The properties in question are:

Lorient Apartments, at 110 Creekside Court;
Overlook Apartments, at 1200 Scenic Highway;
Papillon Apartments, at 7270 Hilburn Road;
Ascend at Pensacola Bay Apartments, at 800 Scenic Highway; and
Palmiere Apartments, at 4435 Marlane Drive.

Lurin borrowed nearly $60 million in January 2024 and stopped making payments in October 2025, Fannie Mae claims. The lender also accuses Lurin of neglecting the properties and allowing liens to pile up against them.

Fannie Mae is asking the court to foreclose on the properties and demand payment of the unpaid principal on the loans, interest and attorneys’ fees. It also asked the court to appoint a receiver to manage the properties but withdrew the requests on Dec. 23. The filing does not specify a reason.

The suits mark the second state in which Fannie Mae has sued Lurin Capital. It claimed in a Nov. 6 Texas District Court filing that Lurin Capital defaulted on a $77.2 million loan tied to Latitude 2976, a 734-unit Houston apartment complex at 201 and 301 Wilcrest Drive.

The bottom has fallen out for Lurin Capital, whose multifamily properties have mostly been lost to foreclosure or are in receivership.

Distress ramped up for Venetos’ firm in the spring, when Acore Capital Mortgage accused Lurin of defaulting on nearly $400 million in loans tied to 12 properties in Florida. In a series of October lawsuits, Acore claimed that Venetos personally guaranteed the money he borrowed from the lender and still owes $81 million.

Vista Bank and Keybank also filed lawsuits claiming defaults. Their claims include fraud. Keybank alleged Venetos transferred $24,570 from his accounts with the bank to a personal account. Vista accused him of falsifying account statements from the lender in an attempt to take out loans elsewhere. Former employees have also come out to accuse Lurin of lying on loan reimbursement requests to lenders by inflating costs of repairs and submitting invoices for work that wasn’t done.

Cities are also suing the firm over conditions at the properties it still controls.

In November, the firm was hit with a temporary restraining order that ordered residents of a Lurin-owned property in Plano to vacate due to unsafe conditions, including lack of access to water, sewer or gas.

Lurin was sued by the city of Huntsville, Alabama on Jan. 2. The city claims Lurin has abandoned The Flats at Redstone, a 231-unit property at 2022 Golf Road, and that the state of the building “poses a substantial risk of illness or injury to anyone who enters the property,”

The lawsuits are still pending.