The Real Deal Weekly Dirt: Developer Rishi Kapoor’s Downfall

The embattled developer resigned from the company he founded this week. But Rishi Kapoor’s troubles are far from over. 

The FBI is conducting a public corruption probe into the business arrangement that a subsidiary of Kapoor’s Location Ventures had with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, which involved Suarez earning a $10,000-a-month consulting fee. That was while Location Ventures had business before the city. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also looking into other allegations that Kapoor misrepresented potential profits to investors and misappropriated funds for personal expenses, among other possible securities violations.

Ex-Miami-Dade judge Alan Fine is taking over management of Location Ventures and will oversee its liquidation, my colleague Francisco Alvarado reports. Coral Gables-based Location Ventures has a development pipeline of projects worth $300 million. That includes co-living in Coral Gables, Miami and Miami Beach, and a luxury Edition Residences-branded condo tower in Fort Lauderdale. 

It seems unlikely that any of the projects will move forward as originally planned. Many employees have left Location Ventures in recent weeks. 

A source tells Alvarado that a group of investors, as well as the company’s ex-CFO Greg Brooks (who revealed Kapoor’s business arrangement with Suarez in the lawsuit he filed earlier this year), and others are “desirous of avoiding bankruptcy proceedings” and that Kapoor was likely forced out. It’s unclear who will be paid back in full and if any payments made by Location Ventures, its subsidiaries and Kapoor will be clawed back. 

The SEC and FBI probes could shed light on and/or confirm the allegations brought against Kapoor. 

What we’re thinking about: What effect will this have on Suarez’s presidential campaign and his perception (and position) as mayor? Send me a note at [email protected]. 

CLOSING TIME 

Residential: Luxury car dealer Michael Cantanucci sold a non-waterfront Palm Beach home for $32.4 million, three months after his record purchase of an oceanfront compound. A trust linked to advertising moguls Ashlee Wilson Clarke and Chris Clarke bought the property at 240 Clarke Avenue. 

Commercial: Blackstone’s Link Logistics paid $162 million for an industrial campus in Deerfield Beach. PGIM Real Estate sold the properties at 710-750 South Powerline Road and 3155-3161 Southwest 10th Street within the Quiet Waters Business Park to New York-based Link. 

— Research by Adam Farence and Kate Hinsche

NEW TO THE MARKET 

The lakefront estate at 9508 Windy Ridge Road in Windermere, Florida, hit the market for $30 million. The seven-bedroom, 14-and-a-half (!) bathroom mansion sits on 18 acres from which the residents can see nightly fireworks from Walt Disney World. The listing describes a property rivaling some resorts. It includes a junior Olympic pool, garage for 50 cars, a commercial kitchen, staff quarters, and more than 600 feet of lake frontage. Ziba Mohammadi of Keller Williams holds the listing. Commercial real estate developer Jeffrey Gelman and his wife, Christine, own the property. 

A thing we’ve learned 

Sharks have been feasting on hauls of cocaine dumped at sea, giving them the nickname “cocaine sharks.” 

Elsewhere in Florida 

• New standards for how Black history should be taught in Florida’s public schools include instruction for middle school students that includes how slaves personally benefited from being enslaved. The Florida Board of Education’s new guidelines sparked outrage and criticism from education and civil rights advocates, CNN reports. 
• Efraín López García, a farmworker in South Florida, died about two weeks ago after experiencing symptoms consistent with heat illness while on the job, according to NBC News. The 29-year-old was working on a farm in Homestead.  

A federal judge will determine whether to issue a preliminary injunction against the new state law restricting foreign investment in real estate from a group of “countries of concern,” with buyers from China facing a near ban. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor listened to arguments this week in the lawsuit filed by four Chinese people and a real estate brokerage that works with Chinese clients.