Witkoff, Monroe Capital Sued by Shore Club South Beach Partner

From remaining: Witkoff’s Steve Witkoff and Monroe Capital’s Theodore Koenig with the Shore Club (Monroe Cash, Witkoff, Shore Club, Getty)

Updated, July 25, 5:50 p.m.: A former owner of the Shore Club in South Beach front sued developer Witkoff and its fiscal backer on the undertaking, Monroe Capital, alleging it was illegally slash out of its share of possession in the oceanfront home by means of a “crooked and secretive land get.”

An entity tied to The Clark Estates, the family of the late newspaper publisher and businessman Stephen Carlton Clark, is in search of at the very least $125 million in damages, which is the sum it predicted to get from a previously prepared challenge on the website. SC Philips Clark LLC filed the lawsuit in New York this 7 days, as initially claimed by Professional Observer. It provides to a slew of lawsuits that have associated the Art Deco resort.

The criticism alleges that Steven Witkoff, who heads the New York-based business, “appears to have hatched and orchestrated the scheme” to in the end erase SC Philips Clark’s curiosity in the Shore Club, a 3-acre residence at 1901 Collins Avenue. The lawsuit statements that Witkoff and Monroe violated the revenue participation agreement that was put in put to safeguard SC Philips Clark’s stake.

A spokesperson for Witkoff claimed the lawsuit is “baseless.”

“We will defend it vigorously and we remain remarkably self-confident that it will in the end be dismissed,” in accordance to the spokesperson’s statement.

Witkoff and Monroe are functioning on plans to renovate and redevelop the Shore Club into a luxury condo and hotel complicated. The historic lodge was crafted in 1939 and redesigned by architect David Chipperfield in the early 2000s, when hotelier Ian Schrager reopened it as a Morgans Lodge Team residence. It is been shut since the pandemic began.

An affiliate of SC Philips has owned the lodge for many years. Fortress and HFZ Cash Group joined SC Philips in 2013 to redevelop the property into a luxurious condominium and hotel, according to the complaint. HFZ’s plans to do so fell apart when the condominium market place slowed down in 2018, forcing it to terminate the planned Fasano-branded project and return buyers’ deposits. New York-centered HFZ would later confront a litany of challenges in New York, as properly, like at the Bjarke Ingels-created Xi development.

Monroe obtained HFZ’s interests in the Shore Club entities that owned the house in 2020, and partnered with Witkoff to direct the redevelopment of the web site.

“Monroe and Witkoff then specific Plaintiff’s pursuits — interests that have been not theirs to get,” the criticism alleges, claiming that the alleged plan “unfolded systematically.”

Shore Club Mezzanine Loan company LLC, which SC Philips Clark refers to as a “Monroe change moi,” carried out a UCC foreclosure with Monroe on both sides of the deal, foreclosing on by itself, according to the grievance. SC Philips Clark claimed it located out that Monroe and Witkoff have been the new house owners soon after The Genuine Offer noted on their strategies for the house, five months following they obtained regulate past yr.

Monroe and Witkoff relied on “disinformation, and [conducted] a collection of sharp-elbowed, unscrupulous maneuvers — like clandestine house assignments, a collusive U.C.C. foreclosure, and selectively and misleadingly withholding essential info from courts in equally New York and Florida,” in accordance to the complaint.

In addition, Monroe and Witkoff “exploited the downfall” of HFZ to choose control of the entity that SC Philips Clark had manufactured its offer with, SC Philips Clark statements in the suit.

An affiliate of the Clark Estates sued the HFZ-tied LLCs that owned the Shore Club previous spring to halt the sale of the resort. Fasano, the luxurious Brazilian hospitality model that HFZ introduced in to redesign the previous undertaking, also sued for in excess of $6 million. In a scarce win for HFZ, a judge dominated in favor of the developer in that scenario last yr.