From left: Rockstar Energy’s Russell Weiner, Richard Meruelo, and Maria Meruelo alongside with 5101 Pine Tree Push in Miami Seaside (Getty, Google Maps, Coldwell Banker)
Less than two miles from the now mostly demolished Deauville Seaside Vacation resort, a separate saga involving the Meruelo family members is playing out in courtroom over a waterfront estate on Miami Beach’s Pine Tree Travel.
The key people include Richard Meruelo, son of developers Belinda and Homero Sr. Richard’s previous wife, Maria Meruelo and Rockstar Electricity founder, billionaire Russell Weiner. The property is 5101 Pine Tree Generate, a 4-bed room, 15,000-sq.-foot mansion sandwiched amongst Weiner’s two attributes.
Maria Meruelo submitted for divorce from Richard Meruelo in 2018 — and again in October 2019. Even though the latter case is continue to open, their relationship was dissolved final calendar year immediately after Richard submitted a motion to break up the dissolution of the marriage and a remaining judgment into different problems. Richard’s drive for the bifurcation of difficulties was to marry his girlfriend, who became expecting in March 2019 and with whom he now has two young children, his attorney Daniel Kaplan wrote in a motion filed early past yr.
Kaplan, of Kaplan Loebl, argued that it would “greatly get the particular pressure out of the equation, and the scenario will become extra like a business dispute.”
In addition to getting section of the prolonged divorce-linked litigation, the Pine Tree Generate assets is at the centre of a foreclosures situation filed in August 2021. Weiner turned included when he bought the observe on the house about a month following the preceding loan provider sued for far more than $6 million in unpaid home loan payments. (Weiner compensated additional than $35 million in 2021 for the two encompassing waterfront properties on 5011 and 5111 Pine Tree Generate, which whole just about 3.5 acres.)
Yet, possession of the Meruelos’ home continues to be in dispute, next intricate legal dealings. Maria, a true estate agent with Coldwell Banker, is listing the residence at 5101 Pine Tree Push for $22 million. It is been on the industry due to the fact May perhaps of previous calendar year and is obvious on Real estate agent.com.
But it really bought this past January when Richard transferred possession to a company controlled by his mother for about $7 million. Richard’s transfer of ownership of the house is being challenged in courtroom, with two hearings in the divorce and foreclosure every single established for March 3.
Kaplan said the enterprise that acquired it “saved the day by redeeming the assets,” alternatively of making it possible for it to be offered for “a fraction of its truthful marketplace value” at a foreclosure sale. (In foreclosure proceedings, the borrower can “redeem” the residence if they shell out off the loan and relevant charges.)
Weiner’s lawyers, Matthew Kramer and William Riley, argued in a Jan. 19 movement that simply because Meruelo transferred ownership to his mother’s LLC prior to the foreclosures auction and prior to redeeming the residence, the redemption is invalid. Complicating the situation even extra, on Jan. 25, the clerk accredited that Richard satisfied the closing foreclosure judgment.
Litigation has dragged on. In the divorce alone, attorneys have entered almost 3,000 docket entries.
“Basically what we have here is a circumstance of scorched earth litigation,” reported Kaplan, Richard’s lawyer. “The previous wife is refusing to transfer on with her everyday living.”
In late 2018, Maria Meruelo acquired sole possession of a individual Miami Seaside property that the few formerly shared, at 5727 Pine Tree Drive.
Divorce filings display Maria has been hoping to promote 5101 Pine Tree Drive home to developer Andres Isaias for $18.4 million. In accordance to a request filed on Jan. 13, her lawyer requested the court docket, for the fourth time, to enforce the sale agreement the previous pair experienced with Isaias, and to claw again Richard Meruelo’s transfer of the house that he redeemed.
Isaias declined to comment.
In 1 submitting, Maria’s lawyer cites Miami-Dade Choose George Sarduy’s ruling May 16 that precludes Richard from transferring a marital assets without a court purchase or permission from Maria. Her legal professional calls the January transfer to the Belinda Meruelo entity “fraudulent.”
“Just as we said, and feared, would materialize, the previous partner bought the 5101 property at the foreclosures sale for pennies on the dollar,” reads the Jan. 13 crisis movement, filed by Melissa Kanoff, an lawyer in Raymond Rafool’s office environment. Rafool signifies Maria Meruelo.
Richard Meruelo “plays by his personal principles and thinks he is higher than the law,” the filing alleges. It goes one particular move further more, inquiring the choose to put Richard Meruelo in jail for failing to comply with the amended sale get.
The Meruelo spouse and children is regarded locally for its authentic estate holdings in Miami Beach. The family owns the Deauville Beach front Resort web-site at 6701 Collins Avenue, where a proposed upzoning failed to pass in November. The historic resort was subsequently typically demolished. Belinda and Homero’s grownup young children, which include son Alex in Los Angeles, Richard in Miami Beach and L.A., and the late Homero Jr., who died in November, have all been included in the serious estate sector.
Deauville Associates, led by Belinda, owns the oceanfront Deauville website. In Maria Meruelo’s divorce complaint, she said that Richard was vice president and director of a Deauville entity, and alleged that he “uses his status” and his regulate over his mother to transform the firms into “mere instrumentalities of his have individual types.”
Last yr, Deauville Associates entered into a contract to promote the house to Miami Dolphins operator and billionaire Associated Organizations developer Steve Ross for a described fifty percent a billion dollars.
The Meruelos had previously been accused of deliberately allowing the resort tumble into disrepair, to the level where it was declared unsafe by the town and purchased to be knocked down by the exact judge who oversaw the Surfside collapse litigation.
By the summer season, Miami Beach front Mayor Dan Gelber introduced an unsolicited proposal from Ross to redevelop the web site. The offer you was contingent on Ross receiving a voter-approved increase in ground location ratio — or in general dimension of the venture — to accommodate his Frank Gehry-developed options for an Equinox rental and hotel growth.
Whilst all of that was in the is effective, the Meruelos were lining up homes to purchase, which include the historic Casablanca resort in Miami Seashore.
Prior to the unsolicited give for the Deauville website, the Meruelo-led entity racked up thousands and thousands of dollars in fines from the town of Miami Seaside. In December, notable Miami architect Kobi Karp sued to implement a lien for unpaid work at the Deauville, totaling much more than $130,000. Karp’s get the job done commenced in early 2018 and ended in October 2021, in accordance to the complaint.
