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February 9, 2010 |
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| November 25, 2009 |
By: Terry Sheridan |
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Bank of America Tower at International Place
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he former law firm of embattled attorney Scott Rothstein firm didn’t pay rent this month on its Miami office, and the landlord either wants the money or the space.
Blue Capital U.S. East Coast Properties asked Tuesday for almost $23,000 for the November rent on 7,300 square feet leased by Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler at Bank of America Tower at International Place. It seeks a decision within 10 days on whether the firm’s bankruptcy trustee will keep or abandon the space.
Rothstein was ousted as the firm’s chairman. The firm is in bankruptcy proceedings after investors claimed he skipped payments in late October on their stakes in structured settlement financing. The FBI has not filed criminal charges but dismissed the investment offerings as a potential $1 billion fraud that’s not tied to any actual settlements.
Blue Capital general manager Vincent Croce said RRA moved into the building in September after signing a seven-year contract for the 33rd-floor office suite in the landmark downtown tower. It was the firm’s opening venture in the Miami market. Unlike the lavish inner sanctum that Rothstein built for himself at RRA’s Fort Lauderdale headquarters, the Miami quarters had no similar design, Croce said.
“This was not a main office for them,” he said.
In Fort Lauderdale, RRA leases about 30,000 square feet of space in Stiles Corp.’s 300 Las Olas Place office building that fronts on Las Olas Boulevard and stretches for a block. In addition to the typical law firm quarters, Rothstein had an atypical private sanctuary requiring a pass card for entry and allows a secret exit to a disguised private hallway elevator.
Stiles Realty president Tom Kates said Tuesday that it has not yet been determined if and when the firm would leave the building. He said disposition of the space is being handled by Senior Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Herbert Stettin, who was appointed RRA’s bankruptcy trustee last week. Stettin could not be reached for comment by deadline.
In an earlier interview, Stettin said he was considering reducing the RRA space in Fort Lauderdale but keeping a portion of it.
Attorney Jeffrey Roth of Roth & Scholl in Coral Gables filed motions for Blue Capital asking to assume or reject the lease and pay the November rent as an administrative expense. He had no comment by deadline.
“Blue Capital wishes to retake possession of the premises in an effort to mitigate its damages or wishes to have the debtor assume the lease” and keep current on the rent, one of the motions said.
Terry Sheridan can be reached at (954) 468-2614.
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