A foreclosure is being filed on an office building in Fort Lauderdale Area while the owner seeks investors for its renovation

A 44,000-square-foot office building in Lauderdale Lakes is facing foreclosure while its owner tries to attract investors for a remodeling project.

Best Meridian Insurance Co. of Florida, part of Miami’s BMI Financial Group, has filed a foreclosure lawsuit in Broward County court. The lawsuit demands repayment of a $7.2 million mortgage or control of the property located at 3361 W. Oakland Park Blvd, in the Fort Lauderdale area.

The legal action, filed by Coral Gables-based law firm SMGQ Law and identified by real estate intelligence platform Vizzda, aims to take possession of the property from LW Square Office LLC, managed by Janalie Joseph of Wells Real Estate Investment. Best Meridian Insurance is asking the court to allow it to collect any rent from the property, known as Bank of America Financial Plaza, and to pursue LW Square Office if a foreclosure sale doesn’t cover the mortgage balance.

Neither the lender, the law firm handling the foreclosure, nor the property owner responded to questions. Janalie Joseph obtained the $7.2 million mortgage in March but stopped paying interest in May, according to the lawsuit. This default triggered a clause in the mortgage contract that allows the lender to demand full repayment of the debt, according to legal documents.

The lawsuit states that Joseph personally guaranteed the debt. She is also a sales associate at Coldwell Banker Realty, which services the Boca Raton area, according to the brokerage’s website. LW Square Office LLC acquired the property for $7.6 million in two transactions in October 2018, property records show. The seller was Rus’s Property LLC, managed by Ioan and Mary Rus of Davie.

Wells Real Estate Investment is promoting the property online as a mixed-use redevelopment opportunity. The plan is to replace the three-story office building, built in 1976, with a project called LW Square, which includes 400 apartments, 25,000 square feet of office space, 17,000 square feet of retail space, and a 200-car garage.

Lauderdale Lakes, located north of Lauderhill and just south of the Cypress Creek commercial area, is not a well-established office market, with only 21 active listings on LoopNet. Multi-million dollar foreclosures have been rare in Broward County recently, especially for office properties.

At the end of January, UMB Bank, acting as trustee for investors in educational facility revenue bonds, seized a former charter school building in Sunrise and scheduled its auction following a $15 million foreclosure judgment, as reported by the South Florida Business Journal. Earlier that month, a 27,000-square-foot redevelopment site at 405 NE Second St. in Flagler Village, intended for a condo-hotel, was foreclosed on by Miami-based lender Safe Harbor Equity, according to SFBJ.

Available foreclosures:

Lauderdale Lakes: 21 properties for sale

Sunrise: 1 recent foreclosure

Flagler Village: 1 recent foreclosure

By Elias DaSilva | September 17, 2024.