Miami bakery owners file lawsuit, claim they were forced out, business destroyed
LITTLE RIVER - If you drive past the building that was once the home of Grupo Sur bakery in the Little River neighborhood of Miami, you'll see it's the shell of what it once was.
"The building is standing, our equipment is inside that building and if you get into that building now, you can even find the clothing of some of our employees," said Jose Molina, Vice President of Grupo Sur.
Jose Molina and Raul Ortiz de la Renta started Grupo Sur bakery back in 2005.
They operated out of this building starting in 2008, making Cuban pastries with a team of more than 30 employees.
But a day in August 2022 brought this decades-long dream to a screeching halt.
"It's disheartening, we put a lot of time into this. It's not only the 18-19 years we operated, it's the family expectations or the dreams that come with it," said Raul Ortiz de la Renta, President of Grupo Sur.
Molina and Ortiz de la Renta say a landlord representative and city officials abruptly came to their business nearly two years ago and told them the building was deemed unsafe.
But Robert Stok, who is representing Ortiz de la Renta, says the engineering report done on behalf of the landlord, LRMF Owner LLC, was falsified to get them out and higher paying tenants in to redevelop the area.
"They found an engineering firm that would be willing to cooperate with them to prepare a grossly exaggerated report," said Stok.
Stok says that the initial report cited problems with the roof as one of the issues but says when he hired another engineering firm to check out the building, their findings were very different.
"They found no deflection with the roof, they found no issues with the roof," said Stok.
The lawsuit filed against LRMF Owner LLC and several others also allege that the company:
"Engaged in a conspiracy to unlawfully evict the plaintiff through the weaponization of Miami Dade County's 40-year recertification process,"
Something Stok says the landlord failed to do.
It's been almost two years, and Grupo Sur is still out of business.
But they aren't giving up on their American dream.
"I'm very hopeful. I believe that we can — that Justice can prevail, and we can go back to doing what we were doing," said Ortiz de la Renta.
We reached out to the attorneys representing the landlord, and we were told they are not commenting at this time.