Miami’s former immigration building has a new owner after B Capital Group completed its $23 million purchase of the troubled property.
In March, a Miami-Dade judge approved the sale of 3.5 acres at 7880 Biscayne Boulevard to B capital, led by CEO Sebastian Barbagallo. Some of the proceeds will be used to help repay the loans of more than 100 Chinese nationals who invested more than $50 million in a failed mixed-use project at the previous owner’s Fullview, Florida, immigration complex by Fu Jing “Leo” Wu and Wai Kin “Benny” Lam.
The Avison Young team, led by Michael Fay and Jay Ziv, represented Florida Fullview receiver Michael Goldberg in the court-ordered transaction. Fay said in a statement that B Capital was the “sole successful bidder.”
Shortly after, Goldberg took over management of Florida Fullview Chun LiuA Chinese national residing in Portland, Oregon, one of the EB-5 investors, filed a class-action lawsuit against the entity in 2020.
According to the complaint, Wu and Lin recruited Liu and dozens of others to fund their plan to rebuild the abandoned former Immigration and Naturalization Service office building.Wu and Lin proposed to build Triton Centera mixed-use project with a 135-room hotel and 24,000 square feet of retail.
Wu and Lam lured Liu and other investors by marketing the Triton Center as an EB-5 project. The EB-5 visa program provides permanent residency to investors and their immediate family members if they fund job-creating U.S. projects.
The Triton Center never broke ground, and the shell of the immigration building was condemned by the City of Miami in 2021.Wu and Lam allegedly misappropriated more than $50 million raised from EB-5 investors, including using some of the funds for their investments $14.2 million Purchased Little Farm Trailer Park in El Portal in 2015. Wu and Lam also failed to redevelop the nearly 16-acre former mobile home park.
In March, Liu filed a second class action lawsuit against Wu and Lam in an attempt to prevent $5 million Wu will receive proceeds from the sale of the former immigration building and small farm property. Avison Young is also marketing the site.
B Capital also previously submitted a $102 million bid for the two properties, but withdrew its bid for the Little Farm site after it was discovered that parts of the land were contaminated.
