This article was written May 20, 2010 in the Daily Business Review but I missed it so I think many of you might have too. I last reported on Parkland in February when the loan was in default. Lynda Bell got a lot of money from Ed Easton for her campaign. It is pretty important to keep up with developments looming on the wrong side of the Urban Development Boundary. This Parkland development of regional impact (DRI) was particularly awful...Hold the Line!!
Developer sues partners after loan to keep project afloat
Developer Ed Easton is suing two partners to recover money he claims he put up to help rescue a controversial Miami-Dade project from a potential foreclosure.
Easton sued developers Michael Latterner and Wayne Rosen in Miami-Dade Circuit Court early this week over the Parkland project proposed for outside the county’s urban boundary.
Easton is seeking $1.18 million he said he paid to help cover his partners’ share of mortgage payments. The money was used to pay down loans that at the time totaled $47 million tied to the 961-acre Parkland site, bounded by Southwest 162nd and 177th avenues and 136th and 152nd streets.
Latterner and Rosen did not immediately return calls for comment.
In 2004, Easton, Latterner and Rosen created a partnership called Krome Grove Investors. The partnership is one of several entities behind Krome Groves Land Trust, which is seeking state and county permits to develop the 6,941-home community in western Miami-Dade.
Each of the three partners in Krome Grove Investors was responsible for capital contributions to help the trust cover expenses and keep loans current. If one of the partners could not make a capital payment, the others were to make the payment, according to the lawsuit. The payment was to be in the form of a loan.
In September, the partners were required to contribute close to $3.9 million to help the trust reduce a $44.6 million mortgage with City National Bank to $40 million, according to Miami-Dade County records.(hit read more)
The payment also helped cut two second mortgages totaling nearly $2 million to $414,150 last year, county records showed.
When Latterner and Rosen couldn’t pay their combined $1.18 million share of the $3.9 million payment, Easton paid the entire amount.
Easton has been trying to get paid for nearly eight months, said Miami attorney Bill McCaughan, who represents Easton.
“They don’t question that they owe that money,” said McCaughan, a partner with K&L Gates. “Their concern is that there is going to be future capital calls and they want to structure things in a way that Mr. Easton would cover future ones so they would have all the benefits but none of the obligations.”
Easton, managing partner of Krome Grove Investors, is also the trustee of the Krome Groves Land Trust. Other investors in the trust include Miami-based Lennar Homes, Miami developer Sergio Pino, members of the Herran and Guerra families — who own Sedano’s Supermarkets — and lobbyists Rodney Barreto and Ramon Rasco.
McCaughan said the future of Parkland is safe since Easton helped pay down the trust’s debt and obtain a City National Bank loan extension until April 2011.
In addition to thousands of homes, the proposed community would include 200,000 square feet of retail space, 100,000 square feet of medical offices, a 200-bed hospital and 550,000 square feet of light industrial space.
The trust applied for a county permit to build the massive project outside the county’s urban development boundary in 2007, as the housing market began to rapidly deteriorate. But in December 2008, the trust put its application on hold.
Paola Iuspa-Abbott can be reached at (305) 347-6657.
1 comment:
Isn't Ed Easton one of Jebs favorite gold partners.
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