Falwells ready to sell the South Beach hostel that launched the ‘pool boy’ saga

Jerry Falwell Jr. looks ready to sever ties with the South Beach hostel that launched the “pool boy” sex saga, though the pending deal is tied up in a court fight.

In 2013, a company set up by the former evangelical leader’s son, Trey, paid $4.7 million for the two-story building at 810 Alton Road that housed a liquor store, restaurant and a cut-rate hostel in the heart of South Beach.

The odd part was the Falwell business partner in the property: Giancarlo Granda, who befriended Jerry and his wife, Becki, the year before while he was a 20-year-old pool attendant at the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach.

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When the arrangement became public in 2018, the “pool boy” saga began.

It morphed into a scandal after Granda and Becki Falwell confirmed in dueling 2020 interviews that they had been having sex before the relationship soured. Granda claimed Jerry filmed some of their encounters; the Falwells said he was unaware of his wife’s affair.

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The saga helped lead to Falwell’s 2020 exit as president of Liberty University, the evangelical college his father founded in the 1970s.

Despite the messy split, the South Beach hostel remained a link between Granda and the Falwells. Though his name was removed from annual corporate filings last year, Granda said Wednesday night that he still has a stake in the business.

“I’m still an owner,” said Granda, now 32 and living in Miami. “Just not an active manager.”

Granda said he wasn’t aware of a 2023 sales contract for the property that became public in early January when a would-be buyer sued Alton Hostel LLC to close a $4.8 million deal.

Court filings by plaintiff LeaseFlorida show it had a $5.5 million sales contract for the hostel building in February 2023. That agreement, signed by Jerry Falwell III, the Falwell son known as Trey, was amended a month later to the lower price of $4.85 million, according to the filings.

That’s only about $150,000 above the original purchase price from 2013. Granda, who was studying real estate at Georgetown University as the “pool boy” scandal went public, said he expected much more from a sale.

“It’s strange to me there’s even an attempt to sell it for $4.8 million,” he said.

Trey Falwell did not respond to a request for comment.

Jerry Falwell Jr. is not listed on any of the ownership papers for the property. Emails the Miami Herald obtained in 2020 from the city of Miami Beach showed the elder Falwell, a real estate lawyer, trying to lift code violations from the building.

“My family purchased the property at 810 Alton Road in February of 2013,” Jerry Falwell Jr. wrote the city’s building department in February 2014, requesting a fine waiver over some code violations. “We believe that the circumstances that created these violations merit consideration for mitigation.”

In a text exchange with the Miami Herald this week, Jerry Falwell Jr. declined to comment on the potential sale.

“I suggest you contact the owner of the property,” he said.

In the suit, LeaseFlorida, a Miami real estate investor, said Alton Hostel is demanding an unspecified amount of money above the $4.8 million purchase price listed in the contract. “Purchaser is ready, willing and able to close,” the suit says.

Cary Lubetsky, a lawyer for LeaseFlorida, said he’s not aware of how much more the hostel owners want in order to part ways with the property, but he considers the amount irrelevant.

“The price is what the parties agreed to,” he said.