Financially-strapped real estate developer Mohamed Hadid — the celebrity dad of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid — claimed he’s the “victim” of a predatory lender after filing for bankruptcy over a prized California property, The Post has learned.
Hadid, who made cameo appearances on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” when it featured his ex-wife Yolanda Hadid, has been locked in a nasty legal battle with real estate mogul Zach Vella — a fellow reality TV alum of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing.”
Their knock-down, drag-out dispute stems from a $31 million loan Vella’s company Skylark Capital gave Hadid’s Tree Lane LLC in 2018 to develop a four-acre lot in an exclusive Beverly Hills enclave that counts Hollywood stars Ashton Kutcher and his wife, Mila Kunis, as residents.
Last month, the 74-year-old Hadid — a Palestinian born in the Israeli city of Nazareth and an outspoken critic of the Jewish state — pushed the property into bankruptcy. It’s the fifth such filing in less than five years in Los Angeles to prevent a land grab by Vella, he told The Post in an exclusive interview.
“I believe I was a victim and now I have to fight my fight,” Hadid said.
“They gave us enough money to hang ourselves and then they stopped funding.”
Vella, Skylark and its attorney Matthew Lewis did not return repeated calls and emails for comment.
Vella, who has developed properties in New York City, Miami and Los Angeles, is far from media shy. His 2015 wedding to jewelry designer Michelle Campbell took place at Ashford Castle in Ireland was featured in Wedding Style magazine.
In 2022, he sued Hadid over the pricey plot in Bella Vista Estates at 2451 Summitridge Drive, located next to gated homes that “boast expansive living space, gourmet kitchens, and lavish amenities such as custom movie theatres, game rooms, wine cellars,” according to real estate firm RubyHome.
A rendering for the 30,000-square-foot property supplied by Hadid to The Post shows he planned to build a four-level mansion with floor-to-ceiling windows, featuring infinity pools that overlook a private tennis court. The plans also include a spa, home theater and an eight-car garage with a car lift.
However, it remains undeveloped six years after Skylark signed the loan agreement as Hadid suffered several financial setbacks — including a $100 million debacle over a Bel-Air mansion, nicknamed Starship Enterprise, that a judge ordered him to tear down in 2019 before it was completed.
Vella’s lawsuit has accused Hadid of “outright theft” and of being a “fraud.”
“It was and is very important to Hadid that he present himself as a wealthy and successful real estate developer and to appear in the public eye as such,” Skylark alleged in the lawsuit.
Hadid regularly patronizes well known Beverly Hills restaurants, “sitting in a place easily publicly observable and photographable, and surrounds himself with young women whose ages approximate those of his daughters,” the complaint said.
Hadid sought bankruptcy protection on April 26 – the same day a court hearing was scheduled to appoint an independent receiver for the Summitridge property.
In a legal filing ahead of a May 29 court hearing, Hadid asked the judge to approve an emergency loan for $7.7 million from a new lender — 364 Capital LLC — who will finance emergency repairs to the property as he vets other lenders to help him finish the project.
Once the property is fully developed it will be worth up to $85 million and the sale will make everyone whole, Hadid claimed in the filing.
The judge has yet to rule on Hadid’s request.
Hadid and Vella’s complicated history began with a meeting initiated by Vella in 2018, Hadid told The Post, at a time when he was desperate for funding to start work on an even more expensive Beverly Hills development at nearby 9650 Cedarbrook Drive.
The two discussed a deal while walking around the 37-acre site, which was later listed at $250 million but was knocked down to just $68 million last September.
According to renderings, the Cedarbrook compound would include a 78,000 square-foot main house with 19 bedrooms, a 36-person home theater, a Turkish bath, a wine cellar with a tasting room, a hot yoga room, staff quarters and a car collector’s garage, along with a guest house.
“We met across from the Beverly Hills hotel and [Vella] said, ‘let’s go to the property’” Hadid told The Post.
“Vella said ‘I have a lot of money that I want to invest’ and I said ‘that’s music to my ears.’”
Shortly after the fateful tour, Vella formed Skylark and drew up two loan commitments, according to court records. Skylark agreed to $92.7 million loan for Cedarbrook for Hadid-owned Treetop Development and $31 million for Summitridge to Tree Lane, according to Hadid and court records.
But their relationship soon soured. Hadid alleges that Vella approached Kutcher and Kunis with a secret deal to develop the Summitridge parcel shortly after the loan closed.
Vella bought land below and adjacent to Hadid’s property to build a separate home and then transferred one acre of Summitridge’s land to his own property, Hadid claimed in court filings.
Hadid said Vella led him to believe that the one-acre parcel would be part of a subdivision that the two would develop together, increasing the value of the entire project, according to court documents.
Instead, Vella reached out to two neighbors who had “certain easement rights” and offered to “partner with the neighbors to take over and develop” the property, Hadid alleged in the complaint a couple of years ago.
Those neighbors were Kutcher and Kunis, more recent court filings reveal.
The Post reached out to the couple for comment, but a representative did not return a call and email.
A distressed asset expert said Vella’s alleged move could raise eyebrows in court.
“A judge might see that as strange,” Adam Stein-Sapir told The Post
“It’s not typical lender behavior and it could sound like a lender with ulterior motives.”
Hadid said he has only received $21.4 million of the $31 million loan, according to court filings. Of that amount, more than $13 million went toward fees and paying off Hadid’s debts, court records show.
He claimed in court filings that Skylark’s goal all along was to force him into foreclosure in a “loan-to-own scheme” by not disbursing funds to Tree Lane in a timely manner.
“It was and is very important to Hadid that Hadid “presents himself as a wealthy and successful real estate developer and to appear in the public eye as such.” Angela Pham/BFA/Shutterstock
“I was too anxious to get these projects going [and] didn’t really ask where he was getting money from,” Hadid told The Post.
“He was trying to take advantage of my demise,” Hadid said of Vella.
The Cedarbrook property has also languished with excavations made for the foundations. Vella sued Hadid for defaulting on the loan on Cedarbrook in 2021, leading Hadid to file for bankruptcy protection on that property in 2022.
The two settled that legal dispute on April 4 to expedite a sale of Cedarbrook, but the bankruptcy case is still pending.
Hadid pushed another property into bankruptcy in 2019 after the Bel-Air disaster.
The monstrous mansion at 901 Strada Vecchia Road was deemed a “clear and present danger” to the homes below it because Hadid violated building codes.
He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to three years probation.
His other bankruptcy filings were in 2021 over projects near Santa Monica, Calif.
The five bankruptcies in such a short span of time is hard to reconcile, no matter the circumstances, experts said.
“One of the jobs of a developer is picking lenders and contractors,” Stein-Sapir said. “In this situation, Vella didn’t turn out to be a good lender for him and whether Vella screwed him or not, Hadid did sign on the dotted line.”
Hadid made headlines in April for a homophobic rant aimed at Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) over his support of Israel.
“You worse than the rats of New York sewage system. They have bigger brains than you. You might get a job as bouncer at gay bar,” Hadid wrote.
He later apologized.
