After betting big on a pair of luxury condo projects in the 2010s, Brazilian developer Gilberto Bomeny’s attempt to add a third skyscraper to Miami-Dade County’s skyline hasn’t gotten off the ground.
But he’s still fighting. Now he’s in a nasty tug-of-war with New York-based Cirrus Real Estate Partners for control of the downtown Miami development site where he planned an 82-story mixed-use tower.
The battle came after Bomeny lost prized units at his Regalia in Sunny Isles Beach condominium in 2019, and after he and partners nearly lost unsold condos at the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum tower in downtown Miami in 2021.
Cirrus, led by Joseph McDonnell, won an auction redo last month for the nearly 1-acre site at 340 Biscayne Boulevard with a $95 million credit bid. The bankruptcy auction stemmed from Bomeny entities’ alleged $70 million delinquent mortgage.
However, Bomeny is still throwing haymakers to block a transfer of the property. His fight against Cirrus calls back to Bomeny’s history of tussling with former associates and lenders for control of unfinished units at his two previous developments.
Bomeny and his daughter Cristiane Bomeny, who dealt directly with Cirrus executives, did not respond to requests for comment. Attorneys for Bomeny’s entities and Cirrus declined comment.
Bomeny’s previous battles
Regalia tower in Sunny Isles Beach, a 46-story waterfront, all-glass high-rise featuring one unit per floor, was Bomeny’s first major luxury project in South Florida. A skirmish related to that development ties into the 340 Biscayne Boulevard site.
Bomeny and his partners had completed a majority of the Regalia building by 2014, but a legal war stifled progress on Regalia’s two most expensive residences, a two-story lower level “beach house” condo with six bedrooms and a three-story penthouse.
In 2016, Bomeny and his partners sued attorney Anthony Montello, who they had hired to oversee development responsibilities at Regalia and One Thousand Museum, the developer’s other significant project. The complaint alleged Morello and his firms, MVW Management and Montello & Associates, helped themselves to Bomeny’s and his partners’ money. They also claimed Montello had a conflict of interest by representing the developers as their attorney while also representing them as a “boots on the ground” developer representative.
Montello alleged in counter filings that Bomeny used proceeds from a $29 million condo inventory loan for the penthouse and beach house to help purchase the development site at 340 Biscayne Boulevard.
Bomeny’s entities paid $65 million for the downtown Miami property in 2014, which is home to a Holiday Inn that Bomeny planned to tear down to make way for the mixed-use tower.
Montello won. In 2019, after Bomeny and his partners failed to pay a $3 million judgment, a Miami-Dade judge ordered the Regalia developer group to turn over their stake in the penthouse and beachhouse.
Bomeny also faced trouble at One Thousand Museum, the 62-story tower at 1000 Biscayne Boulevard that he co-developed with Louis Birdman, Kevin Venger, Gregg Covin and Todd Michael Glaser.
In 2021, an affiliate of London-based billionaire Reuben Brothers sued to foreclose on 15 unsold units, alleging the partnership owed roughly $82.7 million plus interest on a condo inventory loan.
The developers scrambled to sell units and restructure debt, eventually paying off the inventory loan and staving off foreclosure.
The Cirrus war
Today, Bomeny finds himself in another brutal legal squabble, except this time he doesn’t have a finished building to fight for.
When he bought the 340 Biscayne Boulevard property, it came with approved plans for a 950,000-square-foot tower with 374 condos, 120 hotel keys, offices, retail and 500 parking spaces designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica.
However, the project has been mired in trouble. Bomeny’s entities filed for bankruptcy in 2021, which was approved a year later. The city of Miami and Miami-Dade County found the property was in violation of building codes in 2022.
Cirrus stepped in as the new lender in 2024, refinancing an existing $62.6 million loan and increasing it by $7.4 million with a floating rate.
A year later, Cirrus filed a Uniform Commercial Code foreclosure against the site. Bomeny’s entities staved off foreclosure by filing for bankruptcy for the second time in four years. The developer further delayed Cirrus’ takeover of the property by challenging the results of a bankruptcy court auction in December that the lender won with a $77 million credit bid.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurel Isicoff scheduled a do-over last month, and Cirrus won again.
But Bomeny hasn’t given up, lodging the recent claims of predatory lending and deal sabotage.
Cirrus claims Bomeny’s refusal to accept the outcome fits a pattern of adversaries portraying him as a developer who won’t take “no” for an answer, even when the numbers don’t pencil in his favor.
His motions, in turn, paint lenders and intermediaries as gatekeepers using process to cap upside for everyone but themselves, echoing earlier fights.
In his battle against Cirrus, Bomeny already succeeded in undoing the lender’s initial auction win in December with a $77 million credit bid. He also forced Cirrus to pay a higher price.
Bomeny hasn’t given up. Recent motions in Miami federal bankruptcy court allege Cirrus engaged in predatory lending tactics that made it impossible for Bomeny to refinance the debt. Bomeny also accuses Cirrus of sabotaging a $10 million agreement with Property Markets Group, the developer of the adjacent 100-story Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences Miami at 300 Biscayne Boulevard, to use 340 Biscayne as an employee parking lot during construction.
If the $95 million sale goes through, creditors will point to the higher price as proof that Bomeny’s complaints forced more value out of the process — even if that value bypasses him.
For a developer whose name is tied to some of Miami’s flashiest towers but whose control over them has repeatedly been contested, 340 Biscayne Boulevard is another reminder that Bomeny doesn’t take defeat lightly.
