Investor Raoul Thomas is having a hard time stemming the collapse of his commercial real estate portfolio.
Recently, Thomas’ CGI Merchant Group lost its Coconut Grove headquarters at a foreclosure auction, and is now one step closer to losing 65 commercial units at a Coral Gables mixed-use building.
Before the latest blows, CGI Merchant lost a Gabriel-branded hotel in downtown Miami, as well as a Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington D.C., at separate Uniform Commercial Code foreclosure auctions on the same day in August.
The bleeding continued last month when Coconut Grove-based Torose Equities, led by Scott Sherman, emerged as the winning bidder at another UCC foreclosure auction for a five-story office at 3480 Main Highway where CGI Merchant is based.
Torose won the auction by assuming a $32.5 million mortgage from New York-based Madison Realty Capital. Last year, Madison Realty filed a UCC foreclosure against the CGI Merchant entity that owned the building at 3480 Main Highway, alleging default of a $4.7 million mezzanine loan that was part of a $35.5 million financing provided in 2021.
Thomas’ firm paid $3 million for the Coconut Grove office building in 2014.
On Monday, CGI Merchant was hit with another foreclosure complaint in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Wilmington Trust, as trustee for a commercial mortgage backed securities trust, sued a CGI Merchant entity for allegedly defaulting on a $24.2 million mortgage, according to a complaint filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court and real estate database Vizzda.
The loan, obtained in 2018 as a refinancing of a previous mortgage, is secured by the first three floors, consisting of office and retail spaces, at Ten Aragon Condominium at 55 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables. The commercial units are 89 percent occupied, according to CGI Merchant.
In an emailed statement, a CGI representative said the firm is in “constant communication with the lender to reach an amicable resolution,” and is “extremely confident that we will resolve this matter very quickly.”
In 2013, CGI Merchant acquired the commercial units and a 400-spot parking garage at Ten Aragon for $26.8 million. The building also has 184 residential condos, records show.
The complaint alleges that CGI Merchant hasn’t made any monthly payments since September. The loan entered special servicing in November for being 60 days delinquent on payments, Morningstar Credit shows.
A source familiar with the property told The Real Deal that multiple buyers are looking to purchase the commercial units.
Thomas’ firm is also facing UCC foreclosures for an allegedly unpaid $71.1 million loan from Deutsche Bank secured by the Gabriel South Beach, a 132-room hotel in Miami Beach, as well for allegedly defaulting on a $48.7 million loan secured by a 15-story office building at 550 Biltmore Way in Coral Gables.
Auctions for the hotel and the office building have been postponed multiple times.
All this comes after CGI lost two of its marquee buildings, a hotel in downtown Miami and the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, which is the former Trump International Hotel that Thomas bought from the president’s Trump Organization in 2022.