The Goodtime Hotel in Miami Beach is now in the hands of its lender after years of underperformance and legal tussles over millions of dollars in liability.
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Eric Birnbaum and Michael Fascitelli, who developed the 266-unit hotel five years ago, lost the property after an affiliate of CIM Group won a foreclosure auction with a credit bid, The Real Deal reported.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Rebull ruled in May that the Los Angeles-based real estate firm could foreclose on the hotel to collect a judgment of $204M.
CIM Group utilized its right to credit bid for the property and bid $100, a nominal amount allowed if there are no other bidders to reduce transfer tax payments.
Birnbaum and Fascitelli's Imperial Cos. landed a $152M mortgage from CIM's affiliate when the hotel opened in 2021 to refinance its construction loan.
Imperial Cos. built the seven-story hotel in partnership with musician Pharrell Williams and hospitality investor David Grutman, though the pair hasn't been involved with the project since 2024, a spokesperson for Grutman told the Miami Herald.
The hotel opened in the wake of the pandemic, and its tropical party aesthetic failed to bring as many guests as initially expected to its stretch of Washington Avenue, off the main drag of Miami Beach.
Birnbaum and Fascitelli claimed that the property "was not performing as expected" by spring 2023, according to court filings.
The developers claimed that they offered to hand the property over to CIM during the summer of that year, but the offer didn't go very far.
CIM alleged that the borrowers failed to follow a forbearance agreement, signed in 2023, before amending it several times. It also claimed that the borrowers stopped paying interest and didn't pay off the debt when the loan matured in 2024.
CIM's affiliate sued the pair personally in New York State Supreme Court, stating they were liable for at least $40M in personal guarantees, which they agreed to when negotiating the loan terms.
Birnbaum and Fascitelli responded, claiming in a December 2025 countersuit that its lawyer erroneously missed new language within loan documents and that the lender was exploiting it.
CIM asked to pause the litigation with the developers earlier this year as they worked on settling the claims and counterclaims in both the New York dispute and the foreclosure litigation.
The news comes on the heels of CIM merging with its nontraded REIT, CIM Real Estate Finance Trust. The combined firms have $30B of assets and are gearing up for a public listing in the next few years. It also is a partner in the $6B Miami Worldcenter development in Downtown Miami, selling the retail component of the project for $210M this year.
Birnbaum declined to comment. King & Spalding attorney David Kupfer, who represented Imperial Cos., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Greenspoon Marder partner, and representation for CIM, Jeffrey Gilbert, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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