Lease agreement between Coral Gables mayor and embattled developer Rishi Kapoor is over
Embattled developer Location Ventures is no longer leasing retail space from Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, the mayor said, severing a financial relationship that connected Lago to a planned luxury condo tower that the firm’s former CEO had planned to build across the street.
Lago told the Miami Herald on Friday that he and Location Ventures mutually agreed about two or three weeks ago to “terminate” the developer’s lease agreement for the retail space at 1424 Ponce de Leon Blvd. The developer — which is currently liquidating its assets, and whose former CEO Rishi Kapoor is under the scrutiny of federal investigators — had planned to use the former martial arts studio as a sales center showroom for its upcoming development project at 1505 Ponce de Leon Blvd.
“We came to an agreement — both parties — to separate because of the situation that they’re having, and they did not want to proceed, so we came to an agreement and we walked away,” Lago said in an interview Friday. “Sometimes it’s better to walk away from a situation.”
Neither Kapoor nor lawyers for Location Ventures responded to the Herald’s request for comment on the matter.
The apparent termination of the lease agreement occurred after Location Ventures’ 10% stake in the project was bought out by two other investors this summer, according to former Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Alan Fine, who is overseeing the company’s liquidation.
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Lago and Location Ventures
The lease agreement for 1424 Ponce began more than a year ago, shortly after Lago and a small group of investors purchased the 1424 Ponce property last May. During that same time period, Location Ventures was seeking City Hall approvals for the 1505 Ponce project.
Lago, who recused himself last year from votes on Location Ventures’ projects, previously told the Herald that Kapoor was one of several potential tenants who approached the 1424 Ponce owners about renting the retail space. He said the decision to rent to Location Ventures was unrelated to the 1505 Ponce project.
Details about the mayor’s lease agreement with Kapoor emerged after a lawsuit from a former Location Ventures employee revealed a previously-undisclosed consulting agreement between Kapoor and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez — an arrangement that’s prompted an FBI investigation. In addition to the FBI, the Securities and Exchange Commission, along with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and county ethics investigators, have launched inquiries into Kapoor, his business and his consulting arrangement with Suarez, both of whom have denied wrongdoing.
The lease agreement wasn’t the only factor tying Lago to Kapoor’s 1505 Ponce project. Until recently, the mayor hung his real estate license at a boutique brokerage called Rosa Commercial Real Estate, which netted a $640,000 commission from the sale of 1505 Ponce in late 2022. Lago said he had no involvement in the sale.
Lago first joined Rosa Commercial Real Estate on June 30, 2022, according to state records. Two days earlier, the Coral Gables City Commission approved Kapoor’s 1505 Ponce project, with Lago abstaining from the vote.
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Lago left the brokerage last month, days after one of the other five real estate agents registered at the time with the brokerage, William “Bill” Riley Jr., was arrested on corruption charges alongside Miami City Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla.
Lago said he is “vetting” a few brokerages right now, and that he hopes to join one that is untethered to South Florida politics.
“I’m trying to find the largest international or national broker that I can find where I don’t have one contact,” Lago said, “where nobody knows me, and I can just place my license there, continue to conduct business and be in a position where, again, none of this is local, none of these people know each other, nobody’s involved in anything that deals with politics, nobody’s involved in anything here.”
This story was originally published October 17, 2023 at 4:31 PM.
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