Robert Rivani is going after restaurateur Derek Gonzalez of Goat Hospitality Group for $10.5 million over a failed plan to open a steakhouse in Wynwood.
Rivani claims in court filings that Gonzalez’s WGOAT15 owes $9.1 million in rent through 2035, plus taxes and common area maintenance, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
Gonzalez signed a lease in 2024 to open Mia Steakhouse at Rivani’s Wynwood Jungle building at 50 Northwest 24th Street in Miami. Last summer, Rivani’s entities RJR Realty and RJR ML sued Gonzalez’s affiliate, claiming it failed to pay May and June rent, and didn’t open on time.
Rivani won possession of the property in August, but is now claiming damages against Gonzalez.
Rivani is an investor who moved his company in 2022 from Los Angeles to Miami, scooping up restaurant spaces and commercial buildings. In Miami Beach, he owns and is renovating the seven-story Rivani office building at 1691 Washington Avenue, where Playboy’s parent company will move its headquarters.
Gonzalez’s Goat Hospitality’s venues include Luna Sol Night Club in Wynwood.
Rivani and Gonzalez are locked in the dispute partly over who was responsible for what payments. Under their agreement, Gonzalez was to pay for the restaurant’s interior buildout and start paying rent early last year. Rivani was to cover the costs for the architect and interior designer.
Gonzalez said in a deposition that he thinks Rivani’s entities led to the restaurant’s opening delay partly by failing to release construction funds. Gonzalez also admitted that he didn’t meet thresholds for the money to be released such as finishing the buildout.
In a countersuit against Rivani filed last week, Gonzalez again accused Rivani’s affiliates of failing to pay for architects, interior designers and other agreed vendors, stalling the project.
The landlord also didn’t provide electrical utility meters for the property, according to the counterclaim. Gonzalez claimed he was led to sign the lease partly by the landlord’s false claims about other tenants signing up for space at Wynwood Jungle, including rapper Machine Gun Kelly.
Lisa Gonzalez, who is Gonzalez’s attorney and wife, said that Mia Steakhouse didn’t open because of the landlord’s failures to meet its responsibilities, and that lease amendments were signed under pressure. She also said the dispute is part of broader issues between the landlord and other tenants at Wynwood Jungle.
The lease terms were amended several times last year.
Attorneys for Rivani’s affiliates didn’t respond to the outlet’s request for comment. In court filings, they have reiterated that the landlord was on the hook only to pay the architects and interior designers. –– Lidia Dinkova
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