Via Mizner’s return to Chapter 11 headlines — this time involving the Mandarin Oriental hotel and residences — highlights a recurring lesson in complex real estate projects. While the multifamily component exited bankruptcy earlier this year, unresolved structural vulnerabilities remained elsewhere in the platform. This case underscores how distress that is not properly isolated can resurface, even after a project appears “resolved.”

Hasen Construction LLC, led by Brandon Chasen, rose quickly in Baltimore’s adaptive-reuse market by converting aging offices into housing, including the $11 million One Calvert Plaza project. But rapid expansion built on high leverage and short-term debt unraveled as rates rose and liquidity dried up, leading to defaults and bankruptcy. Weak governance and minimal reserves exposed deeper structural flaws, showing that in real estate, vision without structure is risky.

When Moshe Silber’s $1.3B real estate empire collapsed, it wasn’t just a story of overleverage and market timing. It was a failure of governance. From hidden debt stacks to strategic bankruptcies and phantom guarantees, the fallout exposed deep structural flaws. This post breaks down what went wrong and how true bankruptcy remoteness requires more than just boilerplate documents. It requires real fiduciary architecture.