But it’s not over: the $5 million foreclosure
Eight days before the scheduled auction was even cancelled, a second legal front opened. On May 14, 2026, lender NBL SPV IV LLC filed a commercial foreclosure action — Case No. 50-2026-CA-005474-XXXA-MB, Palm Beach County Circuit Court — against Von Esselborn Inc., John P. Webb, and other defendants [27][28].
Per news reports on the complaint: the loan was originally issued in October 2022 (reported as a $4.9 million construction loan tied to the rooftop redevelopment), was modified several times, and matured in March 2026; the lender claims more than $5.1 million in principal, interest, and fees is outstanding, with default alleged from a missed November 5, 2025 payment [28][29][26]. (The loan figures come from news accounts of the complaint; the verified complaint itself is on the docket but its dollar terms weren’t extracted directly.)
The docket itself — pulled from eCaseView — fills in the rest [35]. The verified commercial foreclosure complaint (case type “COMM FORECLOSURE => $250K”) was filed May 14, 2026; the case is assigned to Judge Maxine Cheesman on the streamline non-jury track, and a lis pendens was recorded May 18, 2026 (OR Book 36536) [35]. The party list reads like a map of everyone with a claim on the two buildings — 20 parties in all. Webb’s whole entity stack is named: Von Esselborn Inc., RP Palm Beach LLC, Wallisville Corporation, and Small Time Restaurant Group LLC (described in the filing as a Delaware LLC) [36]. So are the construction trades from the rooftop project (Cemex Construction Materials, Prestige Gunite & Shotcrete, Tru-Steel Corp, Skyworks LLC, Hellbent Custom Garage LLC, Southern Land & Buildings LLC, and Thomas Wilkinson), the City of West Palm Beach, the U.S. SBA — and, notably, Rafael and Ashley Perez-Valdivia themselves, joined as junior lienholders on the strength of their judgment [36]. One docket curiosity: the foreclosure filing describes RP Palm Beach LLC as “an Arkansas limited liability co,” while Sunbiz records its state of organization as “AK” — Alaska [36][14]. Summonses to all defendants issued June 3–9, 2026, meaning service was just beginning as of this writing; no judgment has been entered [35].
Update, July 17, 2026: the docket now has its first contested filings — answers from the Perez-Valdivias and the City of West Palm Beach (which claims its utility liens outrank the mortgage), plus the lender’s first rounds of clerk’s-default motions against the non-responding lienholders. Filing-by-filing detail in the July 17 update.
Update, July 21, 2026: the clerk has refused both of NBL’s July 13 default motions — the City of West Palm Beach answered in time, and Cemex still has no proof of service on file. Detail in the July 21 update.
Update, July 24, 2026: the case escalated sharply. Lender NBL replaced its filing counsel with Holland & Knight and moved under §702.10 for an order to show cause why final judgment of foreclosure should not be entered (DIN 67); the five Webb entities appeared through counsel (DIN 63); and a notice of related cases (DIN 69) surfaced a $12,654,000 conventional first-mortgage loan alongside the $4,866,000 SBA 504 construction loan now being foreclosed — and Webb’s own December 2025 fraud suit against Newtek. Detail in the July 24 update.
Case Summary — NBL SPV IV, LLC v. Von Esselborn, Inc., et al.
Beyond the headline numbers, the complaint itself fills in the detail the early news reports couldn’t. Here is what the filing actually says.
Court / case: 15th Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County, FL — Case No. 502026CA005474XXXAMB (Div. AJ). Verified Commercial Foreclosure Complaint, e-filed May 14, 2026 by Cohn & Dussi, LLC. The file is 153 pages: ~21 pages of complaint plus Exhibits A–O (the loan documents).
The deal. In October 2022, Von Esselborn, Inc. borrowed $4,866,000 from Newtek Business Lending for the remodel/construction of Roxy’s Pub, 309 & 313 Clematis St., West Palm Beach (Lots 17 & 18, Block 13). The loan was secured by a mortgage (recorded 11/18/2022, OR Book 33962), a UCC security interest in business assets, and unconditional guaranties from John P. Webb, RP Palm Beach, Small Time Restaurant Group, and Wallisville Corp. Maturity was extended twice (eventually to March 5, 2026), and the loan was assigned through several Newtek affiliates before reaching the plaintiff.
The default. Borrower missed the November 5, 2025 payment and the note fully matured March 5, 2026. Balance owed as of March 5, 2026: $5,102,807.45 — principal $4,820,136.89, interest $244,764.84, late fees $37,835.72, misc. $70 — accruing at $1,271.98/day.
What the plaintiff seeks (7 counts): (1) breach of note, (2) foreclosure of the commercial mortgage, (3–6) breach of guaranty against each guarantor, and (7) foreclosure of the UCC security interest in personal property.
Priority ladder findings
- The plaintiff’s mortgage (Book 33962, recorded 11/18/2022) carries a lower book number — earlier recording — than every other lien named, which is the backbone of its “first and paramount” claim.
- Junior and foreclosed-out if the plaintiff prevails (all recorded later): Southern Land & Buildings (mortgage), Prestige Gunite, Skyworks, Cemex, Hellbent, Tru-Steel (multiple liens), Perez-Valdivia (judgment liens), and the City of West Palm Beach (municipal liens).
- Personal-property/UCC claimants (junior, tied to Count VII, not the real estate): US/SBA, Thomas Wilkinson, and CT Corporation System.
Open issues that could move the ladder
- Construction-lien relation-back (Fla. Stat. §713.07). Tru-Steel, Prestige, Hellbent, Skyworks, and Cemex are construction/materials lienors. Their priority can relate back to when work began or a Notice of Commencement was recorded — not the claim’s recording date. Since this was a construction loan, any pre-11/18/2022 work could let those liens prime the mortgage. This is the most likely contested point.
- The “second mortgage” reference. Para. 25 calls Newtek’s mortgage a second mortgage and the loan agreement mentions “first or second mortgage loans,” yet the recorded mortgage secures the full $4.866M and no separate senior mortgagee is named — worth confirming.
- Municipal liens. Some City of West Palm Beach liens may carry statutory priority independent of recording order.
Disclaimer: This summary reflects only what appears in the single PDF reviewed (the complaint and its attached exhibits) as filed, read in part via OCR of scanned pages — figures, names, and book/page citations should be verified against the originals, and OCR can misread digits. It describes the allegations and positions asserted by the plaintiff, which are unproven and contested by definition at this stage; the defendants have not answered. Nothing here is legal advice or an opinion on the merits, priority, or likely outcome. For any decision or filing, consult a licensed Florida attorney and the certified court record.
And there’s a third money fight in the file: in September 2025, Webb’s entities (RP Palm Beach/Von Esselborn/Wallisville, d/b/a Roxy’s Pub) took a merchant cash advance from Emerald Group Holdings d/b/a Vitalcap — selling $136,320 of future receivables for $96,000, personally guaranteed by Webb. Webb sued in New York to void the deal and block arbitration; on April 22, 2026, the New York Supreme Court (Index No. 659827/2025, Justice Judy H. Kim) denied his motions and dismissed his action, sending the dispute to arbitration [19]. Selling future receivables at that discount, weeks after a $1.17M judgment, paints a picture of a business under real cash strain.