Broker Alyssa Morgan spent a year and a half trying to sell her ex-husband’s waterfront Star Island mansion in Miami Beach, coordinating showings and negotiating offers.
Morgan, who lived in the home at 27 East Star Island Drive when the couple was married, even arranged showings for the buyer who ultimately purchased the property, CrossCountry Mortgage CEO Ron Leonhardt. Initially, that buyer offered $70 million, but Jansheski refused what he called a “bottom feeder number,” according to a lawsuit. Leonhardt then bought the house for $57 million in September 2023.
Morgan and her Side-backed brokerage, Inside Network, were cut out of the deal, she alleges in her recently amended complaint filed in September in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Morgan and Inside Network are suing Jansheski and Starboard Florida IV, his company that sold the property, alleging breach of written and oral contract, unjust enrichment and other counts.
Compass agent Chad Charroll represented the buyer, and Douglas Elliman’s Dina Goldentayer represented Jansheski, according to the Multiple Listing Service.
The amended complaint was filed nearly a year after Morgan first sued Jansheski, court filings show. In August of this year, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Joseph Perkins dismissed the original lawsuit.
The amended lawsuit adds the claim of breach of oral contract. Jansheski’s attorneys, of the law firm Waserstein & Nuñez, did not respond to requests for comment. In their motion to dismiss the second complaint, filed last week, Jansheski’s lawyers argued that Morgan is barred from seeking a commission from Jansheski and that no oral contract exception to Florida law exists.
“On a more profound level, this case involves more than an ordinary commission dispute between two corporate parties to an arms’-length listing contract,” the amended complaint states. “Rather, it involves broken promises made by a former husband … to his former wife.”
The timeline
Morgan and Jansheski were divorced in May 2020, but were on amicable terms while she was listing the property. Jansheski, who founded the dental goods company DenTek, had owned the nearly 1-acre estate since 2011.
Morgan, then an agent with One Sotheby’s International Realty, presented Jansheski’s Starboard with the $70 million offer in early 2022, according to the complaint. Jansheski wasn’t interested, and “refused to present any counteroffer,” the lawsuit alleges.
In August of that year, Morgan launched the Inside Network. She entered into an exclusive sales agreement with Jansheski in October 2022, and in late December 2022, the Inside Network and Starwood amended their listing agreement to increase the commission amount to 4.5 percent from 3 percent. Morgan’s firm would receive 2 percent of the purchase price.
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By January 2023, the asking price was reduced to about $74.7 million, down from $77 million. Names of prospective buyers who the Inside Network submitted included Equities Property Holdings, the Leonhard LLC that ultimately purchased the home, according to the lawsuit. Leonhardt’s name is listed on a notice of commencement submitted earlier this year for the renovation of the pool. The buyer’s identity has not previously been disclosed.
In February 2023, Jansheski’s Starboard terminated the exclusive listing, but allowed Morgan’s brokerage to continue to market the property, according to the lawsuit. She arranged “elaborate walkthrough tours with household staff present” and continued to carry out negotiations with the ultimate buyer and others.
In May 2023, Morgan coordinated the walkthrough with the buyer, text messages included in the filing show. But by Aug. 1 of last year, Jansheski gave the listing to Goldentayer.
Morgan had scheduled a showing for Aug. 6 of last year, and Jansheski “specifically wrote that The Inside Network were protected for its showing” on that day, the complaint states.
“I told you you are protected on this deal are you concerned about this particular deal?” Jansheski texted Morgan on Aug. 5, 2023, according to an attachment to the complaint.
The buyer presented the final officer two days later, which was accepted.
Morgan “worked really, really hard for a long time … and he paid her nothing,” said her attorney, Alexander Almazan. “The contract even came to her, and the plaintiff had received from this same buyer an offer for over $10 million more than was rejected by the seller.”
The property, which includes a restored 1924 home designed by Walter D Garmo and a newer waterfront mansion designed by South African firm SAOTA, was once asking $90 million. Combined, the houses span 19,800 square feet, with seven bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and four half-bathrooms.
Prospective buyers included billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, who owns other properties on Star Island, court filings show.
Morgan’s commission on the $57 million sale would have been $1.14 million. Goldentayer is not named as a defendant, though she and Elliman received the commission that Morgan is seeking.
Goldentayer’s brokerage, Douglas Elliman, was sued earlier this year over the $79 million sale of a waterfront Indian Creek estate to Jeff Bezos. Goldentayer is not named as a defendant in that lawsuit either, though she brokered the deal with another Elliman agent. In a statement provided to The Real Deal, Morgan said the Star Island lawsuit is “about maintaining high standards in our industry, giving credit where it’s due and all working together.”
