Ali Choudhri Allegedly Refuses to Vacate Houston Office

A foreclosure sale traditionally involves handing over a property’s keys to the highest bidder.

That doesn’t seem to be the case with Ali Choudhri’s TwentyFour25 West Loop South.

The National Bank of Kuwait, which has been trying to get control of the distressed property for three years, claims the embattled real estate investor and his company Jetall Capital refuse to vacate a suite at the building.

By allegedly trespassing, Choudhri is “diminishing the value of the property,” the lender claims.

The claim appeared in a filing by the bank to move a lawsuit filed by Choudhri — in which he seeks over $1 billion in damages, claiming he was deprived of his “interest in a multitude of invaluable real estate transactions” — to Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Choudhri borrowed $51.7 million from the bank in 2018, mortgage records show.

The property has been in distress for years. The bank first filed for foreclosure on it in September 2021, but Jetall managed to stave off a sale. The Choudhri-controlled LLC that owned the property filed for bankruptcy last year. After a protracted legal battle, the bank finally wrested back control of the building in August.

The 283,000-square-foot office building was constructed in the 1980s and is the former headquarters of the now-defunct national department store operator Stage Stores. Its occupancy plummeted when Stage Stores, which leased 67 percent of the property, folded in 2020.

Choudhri’s legal problems are a lot bigger than one Houston-area office building.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jeffrey Norman in September called Choudhri “a forger and a liar ”after two of his former associates testified that Choudhri falsified documents. Choudhri didn’t show, claiming he was ill; the court regarded his excuse with suspicion.

Norman referred the matter to a United States Attorney.