Kushner Companies has filed a lawsuit against Harvey Hernandez, the head of Newgard Development Group, over an alleged default on a $22.9 million loan connected to a Fort Lauderdale development site.
The suit was filed Thursday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court and names Hernandez as the personal guarantor for the loan. Kushner Companies, based in New York and led by Laurent Morali and Nicole Kushner Meyer, also has an ongoing foreclosure complaint in Broward County Circuit Court against a Newgard affiliate that owns the 1-acre property at 200 West Broward Boulevard. The site is near Fort Lauderdale’s Brightline station and is planned for Natiivo Fort Lauderdale, a proposed 40-story condominium with 384 units designed for short-term rentals.
Neither Hernandez nor representatives from Kushner responded to requests for comment.
Newgard purchased the property from Kushner and Aimco in 2023 for $31.2 million. That same year, Kushner provided Newgard with a $21.2 million mortgage that was not fully repaid by its June 15 maturity date, according to court filings. The amount allegedly owed now totals $22.9 million after including fees and interest.
The foreclosure complaint states that Newgard pledged all of its equity interest in the development entity as collateral for the mortgage.
In its Miami-Dade filing, Kushner alleges that Hernandez “absolutely and irrevocably guaranteed and promised to pay the lender, among other things, for any losses, costs, judgments, awards, court costs and legal or other expenses.”
Kushner is also seeking a court order requiring Newgard’s affiliate to turn over $23,471 per month in rent collected from using the undeveloped site as a parking lot.
Sales efforts for Natiivo Fort Lauderdale began last year with Cervera Real Estate initially handling sales before One Sotheby’s International Realty took over marketing duties in December. Construction on the project has not started yet.
Newgard’s other major projects are joint ventures with Two Roads Development; together they are developing Lofty Brickell and Standard Residences—two condominium towers along Miami’s Brickell neighborhood by the Miami River—and secured $513 million in construction financing for these developments this past September.
