Acore Capital Management is seeking to collect more than $80 million from Jon Venetos, founder of Dallas-based Lurin Capital, after foreclosing on several properties linked to his company. According to court filings, Acore filed six lawsuits last week pursuing judgments totaling $80.7 million based on personal payment guaranties and other expenses related to defaults.
The lawsuits come after Acore foreclosed on a dozen Lurin-owned assets in Florida earlier this year. The lender alleges that Venetos personally guaranteed the $394.4 million borrowed for loans tied to three Texas properties and 12 Florida properties. His liability was allegedly triggered by loan defaults and the placement of mechanics’ liens on the properties. Attempts to reach Lurin Capital for comment were unsuccessful.
The affected Florida assets began being sold at foreclosure auctions in April, with the loans associated with these properties amounting to $383.6 million.
Venetos is also involved in another legal dispute with Select Securities Europe, a Luxembourg-based lender claiming he defaulted on 15 loans totaling $40.5 million.
Venetos and his wife Ashley started Lurin Capital in 2016 after his departure from hedge fund Citadel. On a podcast in 2022, Venetos said, “The opportunity to extract outsize returns with a relatively manageable amount of risk was far greater in real estate.”
Lurin Capital’s business model focused on acquiring Class B apartment complexes, renovating them, raising rents, and selling at a profit. The firm’s website states it owns 46 properties across five states; however, some of these have faced foreclosure.
Rising interest rates have increased debt service costs for operators like Lurin that relied on floating-rate loans while construction expenses have also gone up. At the same time, Texas has seen significant new apartment development leading to lower rents and occupancy rates.
Industry experts expect more financial distress among multifamily property owners in Texas as about $19 billion in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans tied to multifamily assets are set to mature over the next five years.
