Chetrits Lose Miami Beach Hotel To Foreclosure After $96M Judgment
Beleaguered real estate moguls Joseph and Meyer Chetrit have lost a historic Miami Beach hotel in a foreclosure auction after a five-year legal battle ended in a $96M judgment against them.
Miami-based mortgage lender Safe Harbor Equity acquired the 90-year-old Tides Hotel in an online auction Monday morning with a $10,300 bid, according to the Miami-Dade County comptroller's foreclosure and tax deed sales website.
Safe Harbor sued affiliates of New York-based Chetrit Group and Meyer Chetrit, the firm's president, in 2021 for defaulting on $42M of unpaid mortgage debt. In January, Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Thomas Rebull ruled in favor of Safe Harbor and ordered a foreclosure sale to satisfy the debt and interest, which ballooned to $95.6M.
The Chetrits attempted to halt the foreclosure through an appeal, but the 3rd District Court of Appeal denied the claim, according to the filings. They didn't post a $53M bond that would have stalled the auction, which closed after one minute of bidding.
"The appeal itself — of the final judgment — is proceeding with full force," Chetrit’s lawyer, Dennis Richard, wrote in an email. "We believe the issues that our client will raise on appeal are well-grounded."
Safe Harbor declined to comment.
Affiliates of Chetrit Group purchased the art deco hotel at 1220 Ocean Drive in 2011. The firm took out a $45M mortgage for the 13-story, 45-key hotel from Miami-based Ocean Bank in 2014.
Hurricane Irma damaged the hotel in 2017, and despite getting insurance payments to cover repairs to the property, it has been closed ever since. After the pandemic hit and the Chetrits defaulted on the debt, Ocean Bank in January 2021 sold the $42M mortgage to Safe Harbor, which had been looking to buy distressed loans.
Safe Harbor then filed a foreclosure suit for the hotel in 2021 against Chetrit affiliates CG Tides LLC, CG Tides Village LLC, CG Tides Village I LLC, CG Tides Village II LLC and 1155 Collins LLC.
The foreclosure included the 1930s hotel and the sites at 1201, 1221 and 1225 Collins Ave. that were set for the hotel’s expansion, plus a 28K SF parking garage at 1155 Collins Ave.
Safe Harbor also alleged that the Chetrit affiliates stole $2M in insurance money, The Real Deal reported. The insurance funds were to repair damage caused by Hurricane Irma, which was estimated to cost more than $9M, according to the filings.
Chetrit’s attorney didn't deny that the borrowers deposited the $2M check without Ocean Bank’s knowledge or consent and that they transferred $1.2M of the insurance proceeds to Meyer and Joseph Chetrit, according to the filings. The Chetrits also didn't object to a statement of fact that they never spent $7M to repair the property, as they had previously stated, and never took out permits to make needed repairs.
In late 2022, the Miami-Dade Circuit Court ruled that the Chetrit affiliates owed $82M, which included attorney fees, $42M in unpaid principal debt and nearly $48M in interest, TRD reported.
But the Chetrits appealed the decision, and in 2024, the 3rd District Court of Appeal overturned the lower court's ruling and ordered the case to be reheard.
After a five-day trial in November, Judge Rebull issued a final judgment of foreclosure, damages and other relief in favor of Safe Harbor, ordering that the Miami Beach properties be sold at an auction Monday.
The 3rd District Court of Appeal on Friday denied the Chetrits' motion to modify a lower court order that would halt the foreclosure sale. In the appeal, Richard wrote that Safe Harbor’s "business is to acquire legitimate loans from banks and leverage the borrowers with predatory demands for default interest."
The appeal also said that upon Safe Harbor buying the note in 2021, the company demanded that the borrowers pay almost $20M in backdated prematurity default interest.
Chetrit Group is waiting on another appeal on the final judgment that was filed on Feb. 25, holding out hope of getting the building back, Richard said.
The foreclosure is among a handful of legal entanglements for the Chetrit family.
In October, Joseph and Meyer Chetrit were arrested and charged in New York with two counts of tenant harassment in rent-regulated units, which is a felony case that could end in up to four years in prison.
Miami-based architect Kobi Karp sued Joseph and Jonathan Chetrit in January over an alleged $660K debt tied to design work on the $1B Miami River project that Adam Neumann's Flow took over in 2025.
Another troubled hotel owned by the family, the Hotel Carter in Times Square, is set to be auctioned off, the New York Post reports. The Chetrits also lost the historic Hotel Bossert in Brooklyn in a foreclosure last year, when they owed more than $1B in defaulted debt.
