Developer Joe Farrell landed a $49 million mortgage to finance his Wellington single-family home community, which is tangled in litigation.
The New York-based developer took the loan from New York’s Maxim Credit Group for his 23-acre single-family home development in the Palm Beach Polo & Country Club. The development is planned for 27 homes priced between $5 million and $10 million, according to its website.
The mortgage allows Farrell to borrow up to $98 million, of which he took half.
Farrell bought the property for $12.6 million in 2023 from club owner Glenn Straub. The development, known as Farrell Estates, would rise on the site of the East Course golf course, which has been closed since 2000.
The project hasn’t been without its troubles.
Investors on the development filed a lawsuit in March accusing Farrell of misusing funds for the project and diverting funds to his other projects. The lawsuit also alleges Farrell exaggerated or invented an environmental problem to sabotage the development.
The investors accused him of rejecting a $50 million construction loan and instead demanding another $25 million from investors.
Farrell told The Real Deal at the time that he hadn’t misused any money and that the accusations in the complaint were untrue.
“I take other people’s money very seriously, and not a penny was misallocated or used for any other job,” he said in May.
The same investors on Tuesday filed a separate suit against Farrell individually, as opposed to naming his company, Farrell Family Wellington Owner LLC.
Outside Wellington, Farrell developed and sold several other Palm Beach County sites, including a Manalapan mansion that sold for $55.5 million last year and a Lantana waterfront home that went for $17.5 million in April.
Wellington has garnered attention from developers including billionaire Steve Ross, whose Related Ross is behind massive redevelopment just east in West Palm Beach. Ross paid $46 million for Wellington farmland this year, where he plans on putting a master planned community that includes 210,000 square feet of retail, 105,000 square feet of restaurant space, a 180-room hotel, 75,000 square feet of office, 215 residential units and a private school.
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