$77M Winning Bid For Downtown Miami Site In Dispute

Brazilian developer Gilberto Bomeny is seeking to halt Cirrus Real Estate’s takeover of his troubled downtown Miami redevelopment site, setting up a high-stakes legal dispute unfolding during the year-end holiday period.

Entities tied to Bomeny, which own the property at 340 Biscayne Boulevard — currently home to a Holiday Inn dating back to 1950 — filed a motion in Miami federal bankruptcy court last week asking a judge to invalidate Cirrus’ $77 million credit-bid win and require the property to be reauctioned. The filing argues that frequent schedule changes and procedural irregularities during the auction unfairly limited competition and discouraged other potential bidders.

The request tees up a decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurel Isicoff, who is scheduled to hear the matter on Dec. 31. She will determine whether to approve Cirrus’ acquisition or reopen bidding for the nearly one-acre site. The property already has city approval for an 82-story, mixed-use tower totaling roughly 950,000 square feet, including 374 residential units, 120 hotel rooms, office and retail space, and a 500-space parking garage.

Representatives for both Bomeny’s ownership entities and New York–based Cirrus Real Estate did not comment on the dispute.

Bomeny’s group purchased the 10-story, 200-room hotel for $65 million in 2015. Earlier this year, the owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to block a foreclosure effort by a Cirrus affiliate, which claims the borrowers defaulted on a $70 million loan. When Judge Isicoff approved the auction process last month, she also authorized the lender’s $101.5 million credit bid as the largest creditor.

Cirrus ultimately emerged as the winning bidder at the Dec. 17 auction with a $77 million offer. Days later, the lender’s attorneys asked the court to compel Bomeny to finalize the sale agreement. Bomeny’s entities, however, are now asking the judge to dismiss the auction results altogether and schedule a new sale.

According to the motion, the Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions–run sale was plagued by confusion over timing. The auction was originally scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., then moved to 4 p.m. two days before the sale, and later shifted again to 2 p.m. the night before. On the day of the auction, one of Bomeny’s representatives reportedly could not access the bidding platform at 2 p.m. and was told by online support that bidding would begin at 6 p.m., even though the auction allegedly ran between roughly 2:30 p.m. and 2:50 p.m.

Cirrus was the only participant in the online auction. Bomeny’s filing claims that there was no centralized communication to alert interested parties of the repeated schedule changes and that several prospective bidders were ultimately unable to participate due to timing confusion, poor communication, and technical hurdles with registration and payment.

Brokers told Bomeny that multiple clients had planned to bid and remain interested in purchasing the property, either through a reopened auction or a private transaction. One potential bidder, according to the filing, was prepared to offer nearly twice Cirrus’ winning bid.

Bomeny’s entities also argue that approving Cirrus’ purchase would leave no sale proceeds for other creditors. They are asking the court to set a new auction date for Feb. 9, effectively reopening the sale process for the high-profile Biscayne Boulevard redevelopment site.