Report Claims JLo, Foreclosed Miami Condo Part Ways

Normally, I wouldn't care about a celeb's housing issues. This story, though, has an intriguing angle.

Pool at Icon Brickell
(photo from Travel & Leisure)

According to Jose Lambiet's Gossip Extra, Jennifer Lopez leased a fabu downtown Miami apartment that was in foreclosure. That circumstance is hardly news. The number of foreclosed residences being rented is something upscale communities, such as the Philippe Starck-designed Icon Brickell condo tower where JLo shacked up, desperately try to hush up.

What's interesting is that, according to Lambert's story, the condo "was one of 1276 condos seized by (HSBC Bank) in 2010 from developer Jorge Perez and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross's Related Group."

Oops. Who would have thought an NFL franchise majority owner couldn't swing the payments on some South Florida condos? (Where was the NFL's due diligence on Ross, anyway?)

Ah, but the story gets better. Lopez and Marc Anthony started leasing the condo in 2009, allegedly part of a marketing scheme developer Perez cooked up. The article notes that the JLo/Anthony "publicity machine made sure the gossip press believed the duo bought as many as 10 condos at the Icon, but public records never showed they purchased in the building. The claim they were owners in a building Anthony deemed to be 'the sexiest place in town' surfaced about the time Anthony bought a minority stake in the Dolphins."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell next to #16
Stephen Ross next to #24

Was Mr. Anthony interested in "helping" Mr. Ross through a difficult time? Did the majority owner of the Dolphins need some assistance, given his real estate firm's foreclosure issues? What were Marc Anthony's motives in becoming a minority owner of the football team? Were there other, silent investors who were more than willing to offer a "financial injection" into the Dolphins franchise in exchange for "considerations"?

Anthony was not the only celeb Ross roped into buying a stake in the Dolphins. Serena and Venus Williams were also identified as purchasing a piece of the NFL team. However, they didn't house sit a foreclosed condo for the Big Fish.