A New York-based apartment investment firm with deep ties to the Tampa Bay rental market is now the battleground for a bitter fraud fight between its two co-owners, with a 141-unit Palm Harbor complex called Harbourtowne Apartments at the center of the latest allegations. Thomas DelPonti, co-owner of ESG Kullen, has filed a new complaint accusing fellow co-owner Eric Granowsky of secretly transferring ownership stakes in company subsidiaries to people he knew, without DelPonti's knowledge or the required approval of his entity, Kullen King Properties.
A Long-Running Partnership Turns Toxic
The new filing, lodged by Kullen King Properties and DelPonti in New York County Supreme Court against Granowsky, his entity Old Mill I LLC, and several alleged lenders and investors, accuses Granowsky of fraud, forgery, concealed financing deals and unauthorized equity transfers, according to the complaint as reported by The Real Deal. DelPonti is seeking to void the alleged ownership transfers, expel Old Mill as a managing member of ESG Kullen, remove Granowsky from management, and recover damages. ESG Kullen describes itself as a New York-based multifamily investment platform that has sold, operated or owned more than 8,500 apartment units across multiple states, per the complaint.
The dispute did not emerge in a vacuum. Granowsky and DelPonti co-founded ESG Kullen in 2009 to target distressed multifamily properties in Florida and Texas, eventually deploying over $1 billion in capital and acquiring more than 7,000 apartment units between 2010 and 2019, according to The Real Deal's earlier reporting on the firm's growth. The company built its reputation on bulk condo buys, fractured condo repositioning, and large-scale deconversions, including what was reported as the largest condo deconversion acquisition in Chicago history when it purchased the 391-unit 1400 N. Lake Shore Drive tower for $107 million in November 2019.
Secret Stakes in Harbourtowne, Grand Reserve
At the heart of the new complaint are specific allegations about how ownership stakes in ESG Kullen subsidiaries were allegedly parceled out without proper authorization. Granowsky signed an agreement giving Bogdan Maziarz a 3 percent interest in the Harbourtowne entity for $1, according to the complaint, and Maziarz reportedly loaned ESG Kullen $30,000 just two days before receiving that stake. Separately, the complaint alleges Granowsky sold Drita Rexhepi a 9 percent concealed membership interest in the Harbourtowne entity for $150,000, and that Rexhepi later received a larger, 30 percent membership interest in the same entity for $500,000.
Taken together, the complaint alleges that unauthorized ownership transfers carved out 42 percent of the entity holding Harbourtowne, even though ESG Kullen has continued to represent that it retained 58 percent of the entity despite public records showing 100 percent ownership. A similar pattern is alleged at Grand Reserve at Kirkman Parke, a 266-unit Orlando property, where Granowsky is accused of signing an agreement giving LBW Equities LLC a 4.9 percent interest in the Grand Reserve entity for $50,000 in 2022. The complaint alleges that nominee agreements underlying these deals falsely stated that Kullen King had given prior written approval, when in fact Kullen King provided no such approval and DelPonti says he had no knowledge of the arrangements when they were executed.
Usurious Loans and a Tampa Bay Hotel Deal
DelPonti's complaint also raises the specter of criminal usury tied to loans the firm allegedly took on in 2023. Rexhepi is accused of lending ESG Kullen $150,000 that year at an effective annual interest rate above 40 percent, and separately lending the company another $500,000 at an annual rate of 48 percent. Under New York Penal Law § 190.40, charging or receiving annual interest above 25 percent constitutes criminal usury, a statute that frames just how far outside normal lending terms those alleged rates would fall.```
The complaint further alleges that Granowsky arranged a $1.2 million promissory note from Michael Strauss so ESG Kullen could buy the Baymont Inn in Tampa in 2022 — though the complaint specifies ESG Kullen did not ultimately buy that property. DelPonti's filing also accuses Granowsky of commingling company funds with personal funds and alleges that Granowsky's personal associates received transfers, loans and benefits under the broader scheme described in the lawsuit.
Roots in a 2012 Ownership Split
Much of the current fight traces back to a lopsided governance structure baked into the company's founding documents. Under ESG Kullen's operating agreement executed on December 1, 2012, Granowsky's entity, Old Mill I LLC, was designated as sole managing member with operational and distribution authority, while DelPonti's entity, Kullen King Properties, held a 50 percent non-managing interest, according to court filings reviewed via the New York State Unified Court System. That structure meant Old Mill controlled operational decision-making even though Kullen King held an equal ownership stake — an asymmetry DelPonti's new lawsuit is now trying to unwind by seeking Old Mill's expulsion as managing member.
This is not the first round of litigation between the two men. ESG Kullen sued Kullen King Properties and DelPonti in July 2025 over alleged theft, fraud and forgery, with that earlier lawsuit accusing DelPonti of taking $3.4 million in excess distributions between 2018 and 2024, charging $32,000 in personal expenses to a company credit card, and forging a $400,000 promissory note. Andrew Kazin, an attorney with Bronster, LLP representing DelPonti and his entities, said DelPonti denies the accusations in that prior lawsuit and has filed a defamation claim concerning them, according to a statement given to The Real Deal.
Court Already Trimmed One Round of Claims
The legal back-and-forth escalated further in September 2025, when DelPonti and Kullen King filed a third-party complaint counter-alleging that Granowsky engaged in an intimate relationship with an employee who recommended an unqualified individual without U.S. work authorization to manage ESG Kullen's financial affairs — an arrangement they say enabled alleged credit card abuse and tax fraud. That third-party complaint did not survive intact. In an April 2026 decision, New York Supreme Court Judge Andrew Borrok severed the third-party complaint and granted in part a motion to dismiss the third-party fraud claims without prejudice, ruling that DelPonti and Kullen King had failed to meet the specific pleading standards required under CPLR § 3016(b), which governs how precisely fraud must be alleged in New York civil filings.
Granowsky did not respond to requests for comment on the new lawsuit, per the same account from The Real Deal. Both the original 2025 lawsuit and DelPonti's new complaint remain pending, and none of the allegations on either side have been proven in court. The Palm Harbor properties and Orlando holdings named in the filings sit within a broader Florida portfolio the firm built over more than a decade, including a $27.69 million Berkadia loan used in September 2022 to acquire 161 units within a 248-unit fractured condo community in Palm Harbor, and the October 2018 sale of the 250-unit Madison Oaks complex, also in Palm Harbor, for $40.5 million.
