Workman Real Estate Ventures bought its fourth Miami-Dade industrial property, buying a Miami facility for $16 million. But the deal was almost derailed by an aggressive foreclosure action by a lender seeking repayment of a $9.2 million mortgage debt, court records show.
An affiliate of Miami-based Workman, also known as WREV, led by Tyler Workman, acquired the 72,477-square-foot industrial building at 3400 Northwest 67th Street, records and real estate database Vizzda show. The buyer also obtained a $9.2 million loan from BankUnited.
The deal breaks down to $220 a square foot. In August, WREV dropped $22.7 million for a three-warehouse portfolio in Medley from real estate investors Scott Sime and Belinda Sime.
The seller of the Miami warehouse, an entity managed by Morty Josh Yashar in Brooklyn, paid $11.5 million for the 2.1-acre site in 2023, records show. The building was completed in 1959.
Yashar’s entity financed its 2023 acquisition of the warehouse with a $9.2 million loan from NW 68th Street Holdings, an entity tracing to Basil and Wendy Beck in Coral Gables.
On June 23, NW 68th Street Holdings filed a foreclosure complaint in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against Yashar’s entity, alleging it failed to make a monthly interest payment in May. Yashar’s entity filed a counterclaim on Sept. 1, alleging the lender was responsible for the default over an issue with the May payment being made late.
Yashar’s entity acknowledged it wired the May payment after the due date. But the counterclaim alleges that when Yashar’s entity subsequently attempted to wire a $2,119 late fee into the NW 67th St. Holding’s account, it was rejected by the lender’s bank.
The counterclaim accuses the lender of “bad faith actions directing its bank to put a restriction on receipt of electronic payments from” Yashar’s entity.
Yashar paid the late fee and June’s payment, roughly $44,000, by going directly to the lender’s bank and depositing a check into the lender’s account, the counterclaim alleges. Yashar’s entity alleges the lender filed the foreclosure complaint despite receiving the funds owed.
Yashar’s entity continued to make interest-only payments in July, August and September, but the lender refused to cooperate in the pending sale to WREV by not providing a mortgage payoff estoppel letter, the counterclaim alleges.
On Sept. 18, NW 68th Street Holdings voluntarily dismissed the foreclosure complaint and four days later provided Yashar’s entity with a satisfaction of mortgage document, records show.
