Zaha Hadid’s One Thousand Museum is caught in an $82.7M lawsuit over unsold units
The developers of the architect Zaha Hadid’s sinuous One Thousand Museum condo in downtown Miami are facing foreclosure for failing to pay $82.7 million in debt on unsold units — even though only 15 units remain.
According to court filings, Motocomb Estates, LTD., an agent for British businessmen and brothers David and Simon Reuben, is seeking to take over the remaining developer-owned units from Biscayne Tower LLC and its principal investor, Gilberto Bomeny. The striking 62-story building has a total of 84 condos; prices for remaining units start at around $5 million.
The lawsuit caught co-developer Louis Birdman by surprise, he said.
“This action by our current lender was completely unexpected, as they are well aware that our sales team had a record-breaking year of sales, and that we are preparing to pay off the construction loan this month,” said Birdman. “We remain focused on the successful sellout of our limited number of remaining residences at One Thousand Museum during the course of this year.”
Reached by phone, Bomeny said the suit was “absolutely incredible” but declined to comment further. The Real Deal website first reported on the lawsuit.
Attorneys for the Reuben Brothers — Jon Polenberg, Darren Goldman and Yasin Daneshfar with Becker & Poliakoff — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Though they are among Britain’s wealthiest families, the Reuben Brothers have been little known in Miami until this year, when they emerged as the buyers of Wynwood’s popular Kyu restaurant, part of an international buying spree that includes properties in South Florida. They have been lenders on One Thousand Museum since May 2020 and bought the remainder of the loans
in February.
One Thousand Museum negotiated three separate forbearances between June and August 2020, with the most recent amount coming due Oct. 16, 2020. The suit states that date came and went without payment, and that $82.7 million, plus interest and fees, remains outstanding.
The remaining condos range from a 4,600-square-foot, four-bedroom unit listed for $4.95 million to an 8,400-square-foot, five-bedroom condo listed for $14.8 million. Well-heeled buyers include Miami Inter co-owner David Beckham; an entity tied to a Chicago-area investment group; and wealthy New Yorkers.
Those currently looking include more out-of-towners — part of the ongoing Miami-migration wave, said Daniel de la Vega, president of ONE Sotheby’s International Realty, which has the listings. Potential buyers are unlikely to be deterred by the lawsuit, he said.
“We are in the process of raising prices. The building is performing better than ever,” he said.
Over the last 14 months, more than $100 million worth of units sold — including $35 million in sales during the first two months of 2021, Birdman said by email.
One of One Thousand Museum’s chief selling points — and one justification for its unusually high prices — is its distinctive and innovative design by British-Iraqi superstar architect Hadid, who died in Miami Beach at age 65 before it was finished.
The tower is one of the last projects Hadid had a direct hand in designing, though the firm she founded carries on.
The tower overlooking the park and Biscayne Bay is considered to be one of the most complex skyscrapers ever built. Most of its support structure is on the exterior — the curving concrete columns that give One Thousand Museum the look of a scorpion or an alien.
That “exoskeleton” required a painstaking construction technique that had never been used before, raising the cost of erecting the tower well beyond that of otherwise comparable ultra-luxury condo towers in Miami and Miami Beach. But the developers could boast of large, flowing units with few if any interior columns.
Sales prices reflected the unusual architecture and construction. Miami-Dade County property records show units in the building sold for around $3.5 million to $19.8 million — the price Beckham paid for a 2-story penthouse in the tower.
The range is especially high considering the tower is not set on the water. Units in the 700-foot high-rise were priced at nearly double the cost per square foot of other downtown condos. Units range from half-floor condos to full-floor residences, four townhouses and the penthouse purchased by Beckham.
A review of the Miami-Dade property records indicates that unsold units include several located high in the tower — some of the priciest in the building.
This article has been updated to clarify the timeline on the Reuben Brothers investment in One Thousand Museum.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
