Opposition to the Byron Carlyle Deal v.2 R7 AR7-A
Opposition to the Byron Carlyle Deal
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●Galbut and Menin have a track record of being sued by condominium owners
○Menin and Galbut - Sued by condominium owners - Shelborne South Beach
○Companies tied to Russell Galbut - Sued by condominium owners - Mondrian South Beach
○Jared Galbut, Menin Hospitality - Sued by condominium owners - Bentley Condominium Association
●Serious Issues with City of Miami Beach Commission and Administration
○Complete Failure to Address Byron Carlyle during G.O. Bond Planning Process, Conflicts of Interest
○Demolition by Neglect Claim
○Unjust Enrichment For Developers / Denial of Property Taxes to City, County, and School System
●Matis Cohen - potential issues with City of Miami Beach campaign finance laws
○SalsaFest Election Finance Issue
○Abraham Galbut Election Finance Issue
Table of Contents
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Menin Hospitality and KGTC propose to take the
Byron Carlyle and surrounding lots from the City to
develop a condominium.
In return, the developers would provide a cultural
facility in the form of a condominium that would be
deeded to the City.
They would also build workforce housing on top of the
cultural facility condominium. The profits from the
workforce housing would not be shared at all with the
City that provides the land.
The developers would not pay for city, county, and
school taxes on the land value.
Overview - Proposed Condominium Deal Structure
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Developers sued by condominium owners - Bentley Condominium Association - 6/29/2020
29 page complaint (185 pages with exhibits)
filed against Menin Hospitality, Jared Galbut,
and Keith Menin on 6/29/2020
Sharon and Manning - Larry has this complete complaint
downloaded as a PDF. Should we upload to Google Drive
and create a link to share? PDF is 100 MB
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Companies tied to Russell Galbut - Sued by condominium owners - Mondrian South Beach
https://therealdeal.com/miami/2020/09/08/mondrian-south-
beach-unit-owners-sue-condo-association-and-companies-
tied-to-russell-galbut-alleging-securities-fraud/
Fifty-one condominium owners are
seeking $30,600,000 in damages in this
lawsuit.
Why would the City of Miami Beach
want to have a condominium in a
building owned and managed by
these people?
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Menin and Galbut - Sued by condominium owners - Shelborne South Beach
“Things began going awry in 2010, a year after management
of the Shelborne was handed over to Menin Hotels, a
company controlled by Galbut and his cousin, Keith Menin,
the lawsuit states. From 2006 through the beginning of 2015,
Menin also served on the condo association board. The
lawsuit alleges Menin and the board voted in favor of a $15
million renovation in 2011 to redo the Shelborne’s common
areas, from the hotel hallways to the lobby to the pool deck
without obtaining approval from at least 75 percent of the unit
owners as required by state law.
Yet the non-Galbut owners still got a bill for the $15
million through a series of special assessments between
2011 and 2012.”
https://www.floridabulldog.org/2016/08/owners-at-south-be
achs-shelborne-fight-30-million-assessments-foreclosure/
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Complete Failure by Mayor and City Employees to Address Byron Carlyle during G.O. Bond
Planning Process
$439,000,000 borrowed…
And not a single penny was dedicated
to renovating the Byron Carlyle cultural
facility.
Why?
Could there be a conflict of interest?
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Conflict of Interest between the G.O. Bond Committee and developer KGTC, LLC
https://www.gombinfo.com/committee-members/
http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/GetDoc
ument?aggregateId=flal-l15000097892-599c8cf9-33a6-40e
0-92a9-bf0adff40b80&transactionId=l15000097892-5f2076
ca-72da-456b-acdb-3ca49f452dc0&formatType=PDF
“Founded in 2003 by
brother-sister team Daniel and
Laura Veitia, Urban Resource is
a rapidly growing Real Estate
and Property Management
company located in North Beach,
the northern neighborhood of
Miami Beach.”
https://www.urbanresource.com/o
ur-team-page
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The Veitia siblings manage properties for Matis Cohen throughout North Beach.
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City of Miami Beach - Demolition by Neglect Claim
The City purchased the Byron Carlyle in 2001 for $1.7
million.
From the date of purchase, the City of Miami Beach
was responsible for the repair and maintenance of the
property.
This Commission has taken bold action to protect
North Beach properties, such as the Deauville Hotel,
from demolition by neglect.
Why should the City be exempted from its own laws?
Why should the City give away land to a developer
because it failed to maintain its own property?https://www.remiamibeach.com/north-beach/byro
n-carlyle-theater-s-horror-show/
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Unjust Enrichment For Developers / Denial of Property
Taxes to City, County, and School System
Over the 99 year lease term, the
City, County and School System
would be deprived of much needed
tax revenue by this poorly structured
deal!
From October 14, 2020 Commission Meeting 11
Tax Data - a property valued at $6.3M should pay
$121,965 in taxes; $44,912 of which go to the school
board
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Tax Data - Assuming an annual 5% increase in property taxes, the table below
shows how much in taxes Menin Hospitality and KGTG will be saving per year in 10
years, and in 99 years, at the expense of the community and the public schools
Year Total Taxes School Taxes
2020 $121,965 $44,912
2021 $128,063 $47,158
2022 $134,466 $49,515
2023 $141,190 $51,991
2024 $148,249 $54,591
2025 $155,662 $57,320
2026 $163,445 $60,186
2027 $171,617 $63,196
2028 $180,198 $66,355
2029 $189,208 $69,673
2030 $198,668 $73,157 <== Year 10
2118 $14,547,438 $5,356,902 <== Year 99 13
Miami Beach Campaign Finance Ordinance
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https://library.municode.com/fl/miami_beach/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=SPAGEOR_CH2AD_ARTVIISTCO_DIV
5CAFIRE_S2-487PRCACOVE
Matis Cohen - SalsaFest Election Finance Issue
Matis Cohen’s Kahunah Properties paid to support a campaign event for
Commissioner Ricky Arriola during the 2019 election.
CMB Campaign Finance law: “Candidates for… Commissioner… may not
directly or indirectly… accept… any campaign contribution from a vendor,
real estate developer, and/or their lobbyists.”
https://kahunahproperties.com/about
Matis Cohen was on the list of Prohibited Donors
published by the City of Miami Beach in 2019.
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Matis Cohen - Abraham Galbut Election Finance Issue
https://www.miamibeachfl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02
/City-of-Miami-Beach-Campaign-Finance-Laws.pdf
http://ethics.miamidade.gov/library/clos
ed%20investigations/2019/pi-19-45-co
mmissioner-steven-meiner.pdf
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New Info - Abraham Galbut is involved with KGTC, LLC
http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/GetDoc
ument?aggregateId=flal-l15000097892-599c8cf9-33a6-40e
0-92a9-bf0adff40b80&transactionId=l15000097892-5f2076
ca-72da-456b-acdb-3ca49f452dc0&formatType=PDF
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New Info - KGTC, LLC was formed by Russell Galbut
Formed in 2015
http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/Convert
TiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2015%5C0608%5C906
31439.tif&documentNumber=L15000097892
Renamed in 2016
http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/Convert
TiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2016%5C0119%5C808
71870.Tif&documentNumber=L15000097892
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Additional Donation from Abraham Galbut in 2017
http://docmgmt.miamibeachfl.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?i
d=156740&searchid=b824735c-3ebf-48c5-8979-af60e0d66
42f&dbid=0&repo=CityClerk
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Matis Cohen and Abraham Galbut own property near the Byron Carlyle.
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KG 72ND LLC - Matis Cohen and Abraham Galbut
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Matis Cohen Ownership Entities
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●Did they review each lawsuit with the Mayor and Commissioners before proposing this Byron Carlyle
condominium deal?
●Did they research conflicts between Laura Veitia (on the Mayor’s GO Bond Committee) and Daniel
Veitia (paid for managing Matis Cohen’s properties?)
●Did they research potential election campaign finance issues related to Matis Cohen and Abraham
Galbut?
How did we even get to this point? Did Eric Carpenter, Assistant City Manager, tell the Commission about
these things or not? Did the Commission ignore the information because of direct or indirect
compensation by the Galbut family? Did Eric Carpenter receive direct or indirect compensation to avoid
seeking better deals from other developers?
Are Jimmy Morales and Raul Aguila responsible for this? Why didn’t we spend time on a plan to renovate
and re-purpose the Byron Carlyle, instead of this terrible condominium deal from Galbut and Cohen?
Who is responsible at the City of Miami Beach for the due
diligence on this proposed deal?
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