Fortress Refinances Dania Design Center With $45M After Foreclosure Fight – Commercial Observer
Fortress Investment Group has refinanced the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach, Fla., following a nasty foreclosure fight with its previous owner, New York-based billionaire Charles Cohen.
City National Bank of Florida supplied a $45 million loan backing the 780,000-square-foot office and design showroom complex at 1855 Griffin Road, facing the I-95.
In the past two years, Fortress has invested about $3 million updating the campus, which dates back to 1988. Another $3 million to $5 million of renovations are planned over the coming year. In June, it tapped Jamestown to oversee management and leasing of the mixed-use property.
The move comes about five years after the Design Center lost one of its main tenants, online pet retailer Chewy, which occupied about 100,000 square feet, when it relocated to Plantation Pointe.
Fortress won control of Design Center and the neighboring Le Méridien Dania Beach hotel in 2024, through a $76 million credit bid. The proceeding was part of a broader foreclosure suit with Cohen Realty Enterprises, which Charles Cohen’s father Sherman Cohen had founded in the 1950s.
In 2022, the New York-based lender provided a $535 million debt package, covering several commercial properties, including Cohens’s Dania Beach assets. The billionaire also personally guaranteed a $187 million portion of the loan.
A year later, Cohen defaulted, prompting Fortress to take control of the commercial real estate. The lender also went after the borrower’s personal assets, believing the commercial properties were worth less than what Cohen owed, the Wall Street Journal reported.
These include a chateau and vineyard estate in the south of France, a 220-foot megayacht, and a collection of Ferraris.
In response, Cohen sold off several properties in New York. In June, Cohen announced that he had paid off the full judgement. But the legal battle remains, with Cohen filing to recoup $204 million in alleged damages.
A representative for Fortress did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
