A Coconut Grove commercial condo association wants the court-appointed receiver for disgraced developer Rishi Kapoor’s defunct firm to cough up $650,000 in maintenance fees.
It’s the latest dust-up surrounding an unfinished mixed-use project at 3120-3170 Commodore Plaza previously being developed by an affiliate of Location Ventures, the defunct Coral Gables-based firm founded by Kapoor in 2016. This month, Andrew Korge’s Miami-based KOR Development canceled a year-old purchase agreement to buy the project and its ground lease for $28.2 million.
Bernice Lee, a Miami-based attorney who’s the receiver for Location Ventures and its affiliates, has a back-up buyer lined up, but Commodore Centre Condominium Association claims the sale of the Commodore Plaza project is taking too long, according to an Oct. 14 motion filed in Miami federal court.
Location Ventures and its affiliates were placed into receivership last year due to a pending U.S. Securities and Exchange civil complaint against the company and Kapoor that alleges he misappropriated $93 million in investor funds meant for real estate projects.
Kapoor, who stepped down as Location Ventures CEO prior to the lawsuit, and the SEC settled in November, but the receiver is still selling company assets to pay creditors.
Lee and Commodore Centre Condominium Association’s lawyer declined to comment.
A Location Ventures affiliate that owns 29 of 63 office condos at 3162 Commodore Plaza allegedly hasn’t paid maintenance fees since 2023, the condo association’s motion states. That year, the general contractor renovating the 29 office condos walked off the job, failing to properly secure the building and leaving it “grossly exposed to the elements,” according to the condo association.
“Two years plus of summer rains have poured into the building, causing substantial damage,” the motion states. “The remaining members of the association have done their best to mitigate the damages. However, [Location Ventures] also stopped paying its maintenance assessments…leaving the association with struggling finances.”
Despite having more than $2 million in “unencumbered cash on hand” and collecting rental income from one of the office condos that has a tenant, Lee has refused to pay the $650,000, the motion states. In addition, the association wants Location Ventures to cover $250,000 needed to “shore up” the building at 3162 Commodore Plaza.
“While the association was hopeful the receiver’s proposed sale would be approved and closed, almost a year has passed since [Lee] filed the sale motion,” Commodore Centre’s court filing states. “And it is still not clear if the sale will either be approved or close, as the receiver has not changed course and sought the approval of a back-up bidder.”
