Retired Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge, Alan Fine, has a formidable task ahead of him.
The Location Ventures new boss will need to lead an effort to find buyers willing to pay top dollar for the Coral Gables-based development firm’s real estate projects to avoid a fire sale through federal bankruptcy proceedings, Fine told The Real Deal.
When its founder and CEO Rishi Kapoor stepped down last week, the firm’s other partners — including married couple Diana Ulis and Alex Kleyner — tapped Fine to oversee the liquidation of its assets.
“I spent the week learning the status of the business,” he said. “There is a lot of value in the assets.”
Location Ventures has already listed a five-story office building at 275-299 Alhambra Circle with an asking price of $22 million, according to a Loopnet listing. Benjamin Silver with CBRE is marketing the property, which is 60 percent occupied and offers rental rates at about 40 percent lower than neighboring office buildings, the listing states. This is also where the firm is headquartered.
A Location Ventures affiliate bought 275-299 Alhambra Circle for $12.5 million in 2018, and renovated it two years later.
“We won’t have a definitive plan on any particular asset for a while,” Fine said. “But we want to finish the projects that make sense to finish, and then sell the ones that don’t.”
Currently, Location Ventures has at least four co-living projects under construction or in the planning phase in Coral Gables, Miami, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale. The company had also proposed The Edition Residences Fort Lauderdale condominium.
Location Ventures’ remaining principals have no interest in filing for bankruptcy protection, but the intent is to satisfy any vendors and lenders who are owed money.
“Sales proceeds will be used to pay off creditors,” Fine said. “If there is any money left, then investors will be paid.”
Over the past seven months, Location Ventures imploded as the company faced an onslaught of litigation and liens by vendors, investors and a former executive, Greg Brooks. In a May lawsuit he filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Brooks alleged that a Location Ventures affiliate was secretly paying Miami Mayor Francis Suarez $10,000 a month for consulting services, among other alleged financial improprieties by Kapoor.
Kapoor, whio launched Location Ventures in 2016, has denied any wrongdoing involving Suarez’s side gig, but county, state and federal law enforcement agencies are investigating the business relationship between his company and the mayor. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also probing allegations that Kapoor misled investors and misappropriated funds, among other violations.
This month, Ulis and Kleyner sued Kapoor and a Location Ventures affiliate in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, alleging they are owed $25 million of the $45 million they invested in the company and two projects.