The Salty Donut isn’t worth its salt, if you ask the confectionary’s lender.
City National Bank of Florida sued the Miami-based donut maker, claiming it defaulted on a $4.8 million loan issued in October 2021, according to a lawsuit filed in August in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.
The Salty Donut borrowed the money to develop a store in Houston, but it never came to fruition, City National Bank’s lawyer Johanna Castellon Vega said. The store was supposed to open at 1658 Westheimer Road in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood.
The loan matured in January, the bank claims, but it entered into a forbearance agreement with The Salty Donut in May, pushing the maturity date back to June 27. The loan still hasn’t been paid off, according to the bank.
Salty Donut founders Andres Rodriguez and Amanda Pizarro personally guaranteed the loan, the lawsuit claims. City National Bank is asking the court to require repayment as well as interest and attorneys’ fees.
“Our client is at their wits end with this, knowing this is an entity that has several locations, not only in Texas, but here in Florida and in other states,” Vega said.
The Salty Donut didn’t respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Pizarro and Rodriguez founded the company in 2014, originally operating out of a vintage camper, and opened the first brick-and-mortar store in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood in 2016. The company operates 21 locations, in Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach, with additional stores coming soon to Atlanta, Charlotte and the Washington, D.C. area, according to the Salty Donut’s website.
Houston is missing from the list. So is the Houston suburb of Katy, where a Salty Donut outpost opened late last year. The company opened its first Houston location at the 34-acre mixed-use development LaCenterra, at 23501 Cinco Ranch Boulevard, about 30 miles west of downtown Houston.
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