Caroline Weiss is at risk of losing a waterfront building plot for the Blue Lagoon at the center of a bitter legal dispute with her eldest daughter.
Miami-Dade District Court Judge Thomas ReBull granted a final summary judgment in favor of TIG Romspen on Aug. 10. The lender filed a foreclosure action last year against two Weiss entities that own a 7-acre property at Northwest 7th Street and Northwest 48th Avenue in Miami, court records show.
TIG Romspen, represented by Lee Mackson and Michelle Hendler of Shutts & Bowen, alleged that the Weiss companies defaulted on a $13.1 million mortgage debt that ballooned to $17.9 million when late payment interest, unpaid property taxes and other fees were added, according to ReBull’s order.
The ruling represents the latest setback in Weiss’ efforts to develop a mixed-use project on the site after he received approval from the City of Miami in 2019 to increase the building’s height from eight to 16 stories.
Michael Schlesinger, Weiss’s attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.
For nearly a decade, Weiss’ eldest daughter, Adeena Weiss-Ortiz, fought a separate legal battle with her mother over ownership of the property. Weiss-Ortiz claimed that she and her younger sister, Alitza Weiss, were the true owners, but that her mother had illegally transferred title to the property to companies controlled by Weiss.
In May, the Third District Court of Appeals affirmed a 2022 lower court ruling that dismissed Weiss-Ortiz’s lawsuit against her mother and the property’s owners.
In 2020, TIG Romspen provided the companies with a $21.3 million bridge loan around the same time Weiss unveiled plans for a mixed-use project with 882 apartments and two hotels with a total of 433 rooms.
Weiss allegedly failed to repay $13.1 million of the mortgage debt when the loan came due in October 2022 and also failed to pay property taxes in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the foreclosure complaint states.
